Christian Science Monitor

10/20/05

The Bush administration has pushed ahead with its idea that bringing democracy to the Middle East will lead to a state of affairs where, as the President put it recently, 'extremists will be marginalized and the flow of violent radicalism to the rest of the world will slow and eventually end.' Increasingly, however, foreign policy experts, commentators, and even US military commanders on the ground in Iraq are starting to doubt that this is true. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that some senior US officials no longer believe that establishing democracy in Iraq 'can erode and ultimately eradicate the insurgency gripping the country.' Even as millions of Iraqis voted in the recent constitutional referendum, these officials are concerned that the quest for democracy in Iraq, at least in its current form, could actually strengthen the insurgency. Experts on the Middle East agree.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1020/dailyUpdate.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp