Democracy, Saudi Style

In Saudi Arabia today, there is a fledgling reform movement that is urging the government to adopt a series of reforms aimed at democratizing the political process. Based on what Bush has said recently about the importance of democracy in the Middle East, you would think the US would be supporting this movement. And you'd be wrong.

As it turns out, US backing for democracy only goes so far. In the end, a regime's support for the US is more important to us than our support for that liberty which is "God's gift to humanity", as Bush put it in his State of the Union address. And the current Saudi regime is kinda-sorta aligned with the west (sponsorning international terrorism aside), while a democratically elected government could be expected to be a lot less friendly.

And so now we come to the punchline of this sad little joke:

Although the Bush administration has called for democratic reforms throughout the Middle East, there has been a gap between rhetoric and practice. Last week, at the same time that Bush was outlining his vision of a liberated Iraq inspiring forces of democracy throughout the region, U.S. diplomats here were assuring Saudi intellectuals that they do not see a postwar Iraq as a model for Saudi Arabia.

If the United States really wants to adopt a foreign policy which is based on respect for basic human rights, there will be times when we will be forced to make tough choices that might hurt our short-term tactical position. The moral authority that we would gain from such an approach, however, would make us a much more influential player in the world and do much to repair the alliances that Bush has put on life-support. However, if we do what the Bush administration is doing now — talk the talk of human rights and freedom, but walk the walk of supporting despotic regimes when it suits our purposes — we lose a lot of our moral standing and global influence. And if we use liberty to justify pre-emptive wars against regimes we don't like, then we might just lose it all.

Pointer

A new find (via Dave Winer): Eric Muller, a law professer at UNC who has been writing a lot about Rep. Howard Coble's reprehensible comments about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. He actually got a phone call from the Rep. himself.