Sorry, I don't buy it

Submitted by sara (United States), Jul 2, 2012 at 18:00

Schills,

I did watch Condi Rice's speech and I am sorry to say that it still does not convince me. I see a general naivete and lack of acknowledgement of the differences between cultures. She (and you) are assuming that if these people had an option, they would choose other more democratic oriented parties. I wish it were true, but there is no evidence or inclination to suggest that it would happen, only that we would make that choice as westerners, if we had it.

The most important thing she said was to quote Mubarak who explained to her "you don't understand, its me or the Muslim Brotherhood". He is exactly right, or more accurately, it is either the military or the MB.

it is wishful thinking to think that democracy will come to the Middle East via Islamist parties that are supposedly democratically elected. They do not share the same thinking as you do and that is our downfall

Using MLK and Rosa Parks, or Ceauşescu as examples, these situations bear no resemblance to the dynamics in the Middle East. Rice mentions Labanon, the only country that has more of a chance at democracy simply by virtue of the fact that they had a Christian majority and did have a democracy. in the recent past. Yes. as she notes, Lebanon is different than it was in 2003 and during the revolutions, but she fails to mention that it was a much better place a few decades before there were Islamists in the political establishment.

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