Les Jones: Saudia Arabian Elections

October 12, 2004

News > Saudia Arabian Elections

"Saudi Arabian Women Not Allowed to Vote, Hold Elected Office" is typical of the headlines I've seen today on cable news shows. What gets lost is the bigger message: Saudia Arabia is having national elections for the first time. Democracy is spreading in the Middle East, and it's almost certainly because of the Bush doctrine in Iraq and Afghanistan, where even-more sweeping elections were held for the first time a few days ago.

Some people will think I'm an insensitive clod for glossing over the part about women being excluded from Saudia Arabian elections. OK, but in most democracies men got the vote first, and women got it later, and I expect that will be true in Saudi Arabia. If you want to be gender-specific about it, here's another headline to imagine:

"United Arab Emirates Women Not Allowed to Vote, Hold Elected Office; Men, Neither, Because Iran is Not a Democracy"

Which do you prefer? And for the politically correct, why stop at gender. Consider religion. Here's another headline to ponder:

"Most Middle Eastern Women Not Allowed to Vote, Hold Elected Office; Jews, Neither"

The major exception to all of this is Israel, where a person can vote or hold office whether they're a man or a woman, a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian. In short, Israel is the outpost of liberal Western democratic values in the Middle East. Now Saudi Arabia - under internal and external pressure - is making baby steps towards democracy.

Next year Iraq will take the giant step of becoming a fully-formed constitutional democracy. The fight now is to stop anti-democracy barbarians in Iraq from using violence to prevent the elections. Their goal is to make Iraq a hornet's nest to influence the U.S. election next month, encourage U.S. withdrawl, and try to prevent Iraqi elections. The Middle East and the Islamic world are moving towards a democratic ideal, and we can't let the barbarians divert us. I'm supporting Bush in this election because I think he's infinitely more commited than Kerry to pushing back the barbarians and encouraging democracy.

This post has been corrected. The original example used was Iran, not United Arab Emirates.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

Israel is the outpost of liberal Western democratic values in the Middle East.

Which is exactly why the US needs to push much more forcefully for a Palestinian state.

The ultimate irony in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is that, because of its interwining with Israel, Palestine is probably the most fertile place in the Middle East for a liberal, capitalistic democracy to take root.

I'm not an apologist for the terrorists. To no small extent, the Palestinians have helped make their own bed, and they share fully in the blame, in my opinion.

And I'm not Pollyanna. Nothing constructive is ever likely to happen with Arafat on the scene, at least not in the current situation. And Palestinian civil culture has been so poisoned by the intifada and by the corruption of the PA that even when Arafat's gone, it's hard to see any good way out of the mess. If the conflict was still mostly a secular, nationalist one, perhaps things might be more hopeful, but now that the religious fanatics have ascended to the forefront, things are far more complicated.

But still, more than any other Arabs, Palestinians know and understand democracy and capitalism, since despite the continual shutting of borders, there is a huge amount of contact between them and Israeli society. They know that Israel works, and more importantly, they have seen firsthand how it works, and it only makes sense that however much bitterness there is, it can eventually be overwhelmed by the desire of the vast majority to live in a country governed in a way that they know works. Mark Steyn can kiss my ass.

A stable, prosperous, democratic, market-based, but still Islamic Iraqi state would certainly be immensely desirable for all the reasons the neocons envisioned, and I sincerely hope that Bush has set that in motion. I will be the first in line to eat crow 10 years from now if it exists.

But a stable, prosperous, democratic, market-based, but still Islamic Palestinian state, with sovereignty over key parts of East Jerusalem, is far more desirable, because it would completely knock the philosophical stool out from under al-Qaeda and their fellow travelers. The notion that the West wants to destroy Islam will be ludicrous when confronted by a muslim-controlled Jerusalem, established by the West, that is the the thriving economic heart of the Arab world.

Posted by: Steve K. at October 13, 2004

"World Ends: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit."

Posted by: Thibodeaux at October 13, 2004

Steve: Mostly agreed, except I don't think Palestine is that big of a deal to Al Qaeda. If Israel disappeared from the face of the Earth tomorrow Al Qaeda would still have lots of irons in the fire all over the world.

Thib: exactly.

Posted by: Les Jones at October 13, 2004

I don't think Palestine is that big of a deal to Al Qaeda

No argument there. That was poor wording on my part. I was just saying that reducing popular support for Islamic radicals in the Middle East is in our vital national interest, and successfully resolving the Palestinian issue is a critical and necessary part of that.

Posted by: Steve K. at October 13, 2004

"Iranian Women Not Allowed to Vote, Hold Elected Office; Iranian Men, Neither, Because Iran is Not a Democracy"

Actually, Iran is a democracy and both men and women are allowed to vote. Has been that way seen the Ayatullah Khomeini died. See the .

I actually did a post lastnight that went throughout the region and pointed out the democracies in it. There are several including Turkey, Lebanon, India, and Pakistan at times.

Posted by: Manish at October 18, 2004

Manish: thanks, I didn't look it up first and should have chosen a better example of a democracy-free state. Iran and a few of the other countries have elections, though like Iran some of them are still prone to oppressing opposition parties.

Posted by: Les Jones at October 18, 2004