MB Civic

To the Editor:

Re “The Kidnapping of Democracy” (column, July 14):

Thomas L. Friedman bewails the fallout from, as he admits, “basically free and fair elections” in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Iraq. There’s a lesson here: those who try to export democracy as an institution are left with little cover, and sound petulant, when the results of democratic elections turn out to be other than what they wanted.

Jeff Lee
Norwalk, Conn., July 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman is right when he says that something new and ominous is unfolding in the latest bout of Middle East violence.

Islamists across the region have become connected and emboldened in ways never seen before. The war in Iraq has done much to fuel this new confidence. There is a new perception of a weakened United States bogged down in the conflict coupled with the fact of a spectacularly effective insurgency.

Mr. Friedman has always supported the Iraq war as a vehicle to spread democracy, but he finally seems to be shedding his inexplicably optimistic world view when he admits, “It may be the skeptics are right: maybe democracy, while it is the most powerful form of legitimate government, simply can’t be implemented everywhere.”

Janice Gewirtz
Mountain Lakes, N.J., July 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

For years, there was a consensus in the United States that it was preferable to deal with monarchies or dictatorships whose foreign relations were guided by “moderate” leaders — those who were happy to live in relative and ostensible peace with their neighbors, no matter how unpleasant their clandestine or domestic policies — than to deal with the “Arab street.” But the neocons scorned our fear of the Arab street and, with no appreciation of its rage or strength, destabilized the entire region, trusting that “democracy” would bloom and scatter flowers everywhere.

Thomas L. Friedman’s “hijacking” is merely the expression of the Arab street, freed by this administration from the shackles of more prudent leaders. Predictable.

Bruce A. McAllister
Palm Beach, Fla., July 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman decries the Middle Eastern governments with shallow roots in democracy for their weak and intimidated moderate majorities, for a refusal to be accountable to international law, for allowing one party to drag the nation into war and for delegitimizing critics by vituperative labeling. The parallels with trends in our own country are worrisome.

Russell Ludeke
St. Paul, July 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman’s analysis of Mideast politics is right on, but this kind of political assault on democracy is not unique to Arab-Muslim countries, as his column might suggest.

The prime example of a democracy overthrown at the ballot box outside the Middle East is the Germany of 1933. Here, too, the result was the “legitimate” destruction of democratic government by a party with a private army that took over the state.

Martin Bergmann
Chesterfield, Mo., July 14, 2006