[Mb-civic] What Mideast Reform Will Require - David Broder - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

What Mideast Reform Will Require

By David S. Broder
Thursday, August 11, 2005; Page A23

As Monday's deadline approaches for drafting the constitution for the 
new government of Iraq, more than the future of that war-torn country is 
at stake. In a real sense, this is the first crucial test for the 
ambitious project of bringing democracy to the Middle East and Persian 
Gulf that President Bush has made a centerpiece of his second-term 
foreign policy.

Certainly the new monarch in Saudi Arabia and the leaders of Egypt and 
the nations of the Arab world across North Africa and into the Gulf are 
all watching closely how this experiment works. And so are the people 
and organizations within those countries who hope the United States is 
serious about pressing the cause of political reform in that part of the 
world.

One lesson from Iraq is already clear. It takes more than a free 
election to create a functioning democracy. Iraq had a remarkably 
successful popular vote to create an interim government in January, and 
yet it has been a struggle to develop the framework for a structure in 
which a permanent government -- yet to be chosen -- can function.

We should not be surprised. Our own history was marked by protracted and 
faltering efforts before the Constitution was adopted in Philadelphia. 
The system of federalism -- of shared sovereignty between national and 
state governments -- that was the key to our Constitutional Convention 
is one of the major stumbling blocks in Iraq.

The United States, through its embassy, military presence and aid 
programs, has more influence on the struggle for democracy in Iraq than 
in any other country in the region.

<>But even there, our cards must be played with subtlety and discretion. 
And, as a timely report from the Council on Foreign Relations, "In 
Support of Arab Democracy: Why and How," reminds us, the United States 
must be "mindful that democracy cannot be imposed from the outside."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001800.html?nav=hcmodule 

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