Cedar and Orange Revolutions Were the Beginning, Not the End of Democratic Reforms
By CCD Staff, July 31, 2006

In his July 31, 2006, Washington Post op-ed, Jackson Diehl says the current crises in Lebanon and especially Ukraine challenge the pro-Western democracies that were part of President Bush’s democracy policy. It is up to Bush, Diehl said, to choose whether or not to support the democratic systems that are now being “skillfully exploited by the revolution's erstwhile losers.”

Diehl focuses mostly on Ukraine and the political power struggle occurring between Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovich, Yushchenko’s rival for the presidency and future prime minter of Ukraine. Yanukovich, who will have equal or greater power than Yushchenko as prime minister, is seen as a threat to Western interests and a pawn of Russia. Yet he won his March 2006 parliamentary election fairly, and has tried to form a coalition government with Yushchenko.

“For Bush, the question is: Should the United States accept a democratic Ukrainian government that turns its back on the West, or encourage its allies to twist the political system to prevent that outcome?,” Diehl wrote. “Was the Orange Revolution about installing democracy or shifting Ukraine from Moscow's orbit to that of Washington and Brussels? … The Bush administration has been working for months to keep Yanukovich out of power.” A few weeks ago it urged Yushchenko not to seal a pact he was about to make with his pro-Russian rival. But by the end of last week, officials were saying that Bush had decided to accept any democratic outcome in Ukraine -- including a government that rejects the West -- as long as that government preserves free elections and free markets.

Between the power struggle in Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the democratic achievements could be lost, said Diehl. These crises are stark evidence that the color revolutions in 2004 and 2005 were the beginning, not the end, of democratic reform, and the successful continuation of this reform will depend on the choices the Bush administration makes.