Michael Barone: Muslim nations are turning from terror toward democracy

How do we measure progress in Iraq?

It's a big and vital question.  The number of suicide bombs in Iraq is the depressing measurement seemingly favoured by the 'if it bleeds, it leads' media.  Supporters of the Iraq war would prefer people to look at such things as economic progress and increased press freedom.

Writing for Townhall.com Michael Barone encourages us to examine recent polling of six Muslim nations.  That polling suggests that the populations of Jordan, Turkey,  Indonesia, Pakistan, Morocco and Lebanon are all becoming less supportive of terrorist acts and more accepting that democracy is not a western concept.  The acceptance of terrorism is still far too high but there is improvement.

For Mr Barone there are tangible improvements, too:

"Muslims around the world cannot help but notice that Iraq is moving, however imperfectly, toward representative government. They can't have missed the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon and the expulsion of Syrian forces from Beirut. They may have noticed the small concessions to democracy in Saudi Arabia.  They may also have noticed that Egypt will have its first contested election for president next year.

There were no arguments over the United States, Israel, Palestine, Iraq or any of the other 'hot spots' that used to dominate every meal and spill over into tea, coffee and dessert," writes Mona Eltahawy in The Washington Post of her trip to Egypt this summer. "This time, all conversations were about a small but active opposition movement in Egypt that since December has focused on ending the dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak. I have never heard so many relatives and friends take such an interest in Egyptian politics or -- more important -- feel that they had a stake in them." Minds are indeed changing."

Comments

[Selsdon Man]

The Washington Post article also says "Yet solid majorities in five of the six Muslim countries surveyed -- Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey -- also now have unfavorable views of the United States."

They want freedom and democracy but not US imperialism.

[Gary Monro]

Regardless of who in the middle-east favours and who doesn't favour imposed democracy, there are sound conservative reasons for not having invaded in the first place - which I blogged about today.

I hope things work out in Iraq and that some sort of peace is reached. But we had to be in the right before we did the deed. It's no use looking for after-the-event validation from polls taken in near-by countries to salve our consciences if the project goes belly-up.

GM