Peter Beinart's 'Fail' On Middle East Policy

Peter Beinart, who writes for the Daily Beast, is clueless. I say this because I don’t quite understand how he sees the Middle East. He takes various conservative pundits to task for selectively pushing Democracy. He brings examples of where it seems, at first blush, the US even went so far as to attempt to thwart burgeoning democracies by agitating for coups. He does this while praising Barack Obama for helping push Mubarak out, urging fundamental political reform, etc. etc.

Now, I don’t know which Obama he’s been watching, but I only recall an Obama who’s been flailing about helplessly when it came to Egypt and unwilling to support pro-Democracy groups in Iran.

My main issue comes with the meat of Beinart’s claims about conservative foreign policy as respect to democratic idealism. He takes the Bush administration to task for supporting coup attempts against all regimes Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Hamas in Gaza. Of course, he claims that both were democratically elected; which is true. Of course they’ve both turned into serial human rights abusing regimes where any pretense of democracy has been swept under the carpet, but hey, it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

While it’s true, America hasn’t taken every dictatorial regime to task, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia are valid points, but that shows a fantastically naïve outlook. America can’t affect every country. It doesn’t live in a vacuum. Attempting to push out the non-democratic regimes in those countries just isn’t feasible at this moment in time. With that America does have an obligation to help groups that do strive for democracy across the world, but still keep its eyes open to those, like Chavez and Hamas who would co-opt the push for democracy to build another totalitarian order.

That brings us to Egypt. Beinart singles out Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich for not preaching the democratic idealism that they may have back in the Iraq days. Dire warnings of Egypt turning into an Iran style theocracy come from them, stating Obama is another Carter, opening his arms to the Ayatollah.

Yes, Mr. Beinart, the right is pessimistic about the ability of Islam and Democracy to coexist peacefully. That’s not hypocrisy, that’s called paying attention. Recently Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi returned to Egypt to address, as the head of the Muslim Brotherhood the masses at Tahrir Square to the adulation of the thronged masses. This is the same Yusuf al-Qaradawi who is banned from entering the U.S. and the U.K. Who is on the record as supporting female genital mutilation, death penalty for homosexuality, the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, and stating that suicide attacks on Israeli civilians are necessary part of Jihad.

As it stands Islamic countries without a strong American military presence have a poor track record on human rights, not to mention relationships with the West.

So I ask Mr. Beinart, whom do you think the U.S. should support? A dictatorship that is at least in some way beholden to the U.S. where it can exert some influence on that nation and perhaps prevent it from attacking other allies in the region or a dictatorship where there is no way to prevent it from abetting violent anti-Western groups at best and actively engaging in belligerence against the U.S. and her friends.