Hicham Safieddine: Creating Democracy is a 'Difficult Thing'

Hicham Safieddine, from the Toronto Star (6-4-05)

When George W. Bush donned a flight suit and declared the end of combat operations in Iraq in May 2003, Rashid Khalidi was not impressed. He had more than a hunch that trouble in the freshly occupied country and the region was only beginning.

The Edward Said professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University had just penned the last chapter of his book Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East.

Two years later, American casualties have topped 1,660 and U.S. opinion polls suggest more and more Americans disapprove of how the war's being run. But Khalidi says the lasting impact of the superpower's Mideast policies won't soon go away, especially in the fight to bring democracy to the region.

The rising tide of American intervention in the Middle East, he argues, is not only prolonging the state of violent chaos in Iraq, but is undermining the spread of democracy the Bush administration claims to be largely waging war for. And history, Khalidi adds, backs up his claims.

"You don't bequeath democracy to other people," Khalidi tells the Star. "Democracy does not come out of a barrel of a gun, power does. Democracy is something that has to develop out of people's traditions and the natural progress of society ... it is a difficult thing."

The Middle East historian lectured at the University of Western Ontario last week following the release of the paperback edition of his book in Canada.

The book presents an overview of British and French military intervention in the Middle East, and argues Americans are bound to repeat the catastrophic mistakes of the French and British if they ignore history.

"Everyone who came to the Middle East said they are going to liberate its people, from Napoleon when he invaded Egypt to the British when they took over Iraq in the early 20th century," he says. "So when (U.S. Defence Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld tells the Iraqis we are here to liberate you, they have every reason to be skeptical."...

...With Islamic groups rising as the official face of resistance to the Americans and Israelis, the ability of indigenous democratic movements to hold sway among the population is reduced, fears Khalidi, who says the Bush administration and Sharon government are putting the horse behind the cart when they demand democratic reform before granting sovereignty to populations they rule over.

Still, he admits Bush's talk of democracy might have encouraged people in Egypt "and a little bit it Lebanon."...