« Zarqawi surrounded in a village home? | Main | Is Syria Still Killing in Beirut? »
June 01, 2005
Our Corrupt Allies
Jordan has long been identified as a model or moderate Arab land and, in many ways, it is. Civil socitety, an array of institutions from unions to mosques to clubs that is free of state control, still exists. But corruption, that third-world cancer, is no stranger and it is metasizing. If Bush is serious about democratic reform in the Middle East, it will mean turning our "friends" out of power as well as our enemies. No worries. We have plenty of friends in the streets when corrupt regimes fall. If we wait, and try to save those regimes, the people in the streets become our enemies—because we have acted like theirs. Here is an interesting article from a former Wall Street Journal correspondent. I know that this appears in the Nation; it is worth reading anyway...
Posted by Richard Miniter at June 1, 2005 01:53 PM