Global democracy needs continual push
By Matt Rosenberg
Special to The Seattle Times
Wednesday, December 31, 2003

As 2003 draws to a close, the push for global democracy is growing stronger. Events of recent weeks, including the capture of Saddam Hussein, suggest the days of dictators are numbered.

Syndicated columnist and U.S. Army Reserve Col. Austin Bay observes, "Every Middle Eastern autocrat saw the haggard Saddam pulled from the hole... . To avoid Saddam's fate means political liberalization. The Iranian mullahs are on notice."

So are U.S. leaders. Worried about neighboring Iranian extremists in the 1980s, we once supported Saddam. Such thinking even permeated now-squeamish liberal media. As The New York Times notably editorialized on Oct. 20, 1987, "Containing Iran is in the interest of the U.S.... If Iraq suddenly crumples, it will be even harder to defend the oil-rich region against a victorious Iran."

Now, some have learned that "the enemy of my enemy" cannot be my friend if he is also the enemy of his own people.

It is no coincidence that a week after Saddam's capture, U.S. and British negotiators — who'd been quietly working with Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi for months — suddenly had in hand his formal commitment to allow inspections aimed at dismantling Libya's weapons of mass destruction programs.

The welcome international scrutiny will nudge the door open wider for improving human rights in Libya — where some 1,000 political opponents of Gadhafi have been jailed, and independent media, political parties and civic groups banned.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the newly created loya jirga, or constitutional convention, recently held its historic first meetings, the way cleared by U.S.-led forces after Sept. 11, 2001. Female representatives are included in the council, infuriating formerly dominant Islamic extremists whose "traditional" views deny women education, representation and, essentially, personhood.

Yes, indeed, we provided weapons to Sunni and Shiite Muslims battling a brutal Soviet campaign of terror in Afghanistan in the '80s. Now, the U.S. is helping Afghans finally get it right, rebuilding the war-torn country as moderate Muslims lay groundwork for the future, including presidential elections next year.

In Haiti last week, the renowned rock group Boukman Eksperyans headlined a rally of more than 1,000 musicians, painters and writers calling for removal of dictator Jean-Bertrand Aristide — overseer of rampant poverty, disease, corruption, political killings, and widespread thuggery. Days later, 10,000 Haitians rallied against Aristide, who was unconscionably restored to power in 1994 by the U.S. under President Clinton.

Over time, grass-roots ferment will increasingly hasten liberty where it's most needed. Freedom is the big idea of the age.

In his new book, "Breaking The Real Axis of Evil," Mark Palmer says the world's democracies must help end the 40-plus remaining dictatorships by 2025. Palmer is a 26-year U.S. Foreign Service officer, former ambassador to Hungary and co-founder of the Community of Democracies (an international advocacy group which drew 110 nations to its 2002 Seoul, South Korea, conference).

Palmer's 2025 "deadline for dictators" agenda includes highly publicized annual reports, criminal indictments, and democracy-development plans for each remaining dictatorship. He asserts that the Community of Democracies and NATO must become the pre-eminent global democratic alliance; and nongovernmental democrats inside dictatorships must be organized and elevated to leading roles.

To help, Palmer says foundations, businesses and global activists must promote social justice in emerging democracies by better utilizing media and the Internet, and teaching nonviolent change. When necessary, the use of force must be considered, Palmer says.

Whether one agrees with each of Palmer's prescriptions isn't the point. It's clear a new, true prodemocracy alliance must supplant the timid United Nations, which has seen its real influence pass irretrievably.

Along with building a new coalition of the willing, the U.S. must help to broker a settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Also important in symbolic and practical terms is encouraging democratic reforms in China and Saudi Arabia.

As well, human-rights activists say the international community has done far too little in Sudan, where hard-line Islamic rulers from the north have killed 2 million Christians and animists in the south during a 20-year civil war.

Tactful restraint can carry its own price tag of lives taken. Like isolationist paleo-conservatives, America's laissez-faire leftists have lost their way — oblivious to any state-sponsored oppression they can't try to pin on the U.S. or Israel.

Palmer says the age of dictators must end. "It is time these dangerous political relics went extinct... . We must join together the world's democracies and democrats to oust the last dictators and build universal democracy."

These days, such democrats are rarely U.S. Democrats.

President Bush has shown uncommon mettle, but can do even more to help advance global democracy. Whoever succeeds him in January 2009 must also heed Palmer's urgent message.

Matt Rosenberg is a Seattle writer and regular contributor to The Times' editorial pages. E-mail him at oudist@nwlink.com