It is not democracy that's on the march in the Middle East
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1434183,00.html
Managed elections are the latest device to prop up pro-western regimes
Seumas Milne
Thursday March 10, 2005
The Guardian
For weeks a western chorus has been celebrating a new dawn of Middle
Eastern freedom, allegedly triggered by the Iraq war. Tony Blair hailed
a "ripple of change", encouraged by the US and Britain, that was
bringing democracy to benighted Muslim lands.
First the Palestinians, then the Iraqis have finally had a chance to
choose their leaders, it is said, courtesy of western intervention,
while dictatorships such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are democratising
under American pressure. And then in Lebanon, as if on cue, last
month's assassination of the former prime minister triggered a wave of
street protests against Syria's military presence that brought down the
pro-Damascus government in short order.
Seumas Milne
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