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[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
You've moved the bar. The question was: "What have we done to promote democracy?" _not_ "Have we succeeded yet in transforming any country from an authoritarian state to a functioning, Western-style democracy in the past three years?"

The answer to the second question is negative, of course, but its not a realistic question. Iraq and Afghanistan are clearly positive answers to the first question: Two authoriarian dictatorships -- one modern & secular, and one theocratic & non-modern -- have been overturned. Structures are in place in both countries to ultimately lead to a modified parliamentary system. Afgahnistan is further along.

As to Palestine -- several things come to mind (in terms of promoting democracy). You're right that Arafat's death was pre-condition for progress, but that's because he simply refused to change, and it doesn't mean we didn't try to promote democracy.

One key piece was freezing out Arafat completely -- making it clear that we would _never_ deal with the lying, corrupt, terrorist authoritarian. That helped force change by (1) changing the dynamics -- the Palestinian leadership couldn't spin their wheels and b.s. anymore, or use us against Israel -- and (2) by providing support for the anti-corruption crusaders in the PA. We also strongly supported Queria (SP?) and Abbas -- privately even more than publicly. The CIA served and serves an important role as a liason between the Israelis and the Palestinian security services -- helping them work together when the Palestinians wish to do so. We've encouraged Egypt to take an active role in maintaining peace and security in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal. They've beefed up border security _and_ have agreed to help train new PA security forces in Gaza after the withdrawal (counter-weight to Hamas).

You might ask what the military and intelligence efforts have to do with promoting democracy. In my view they are key to setting the conditions to move towards a meaningful democracy and a functioning Palestinian state.

As to what we do generally to promote democracy -- I'm not being a wiseacre when I say "google it." Even with the unfortunate cutbacks in our U.S.-sponsored foreign radio programming, we have several government agencies dedicated to providing aid and spreading democratic ideals throughout the world. (I don't know if the budgets add up to much more than a couple of billion dollars, but their work is meaningful.)

To say "we've done it for fifty years," or "we're not doing it for altruistic reasons" is rather beside the point.

S_A_M

This is your (meaning you SAM) POTY.