Very good but likely to be overlooked op-ed by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairman of the U.S. House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, on the need to support real reform in the Middle East. The timing of this piece is bad, this being the day after the first presidential debate.
The objective is for the United States to proactively engage and support reformers in these countries and assist in developing the Middle East into a bastion of stable free-market democratic societies...Arab countries must begin to rebuild their societies by taking steps to provide for full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms as the cornerstones of good governance; the integration and complete empowerment of women; education as a means of achieving social advancement, rather than a means of perpetuating poverty; and a discriminatory class system...Thus, economic reforms and trade liberalization are directly intertwined with political reforms, with success on the commercial front contingent upon progress on the political front.
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Since the 1950s, U.S. policy toward the Middle East has focused on trying to meet the economic and social needs of the people in the region. The desire to help raise the quality of life of our fellow human beings in the Arab world has been and must be a fundamental premise of our actions. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the need to help free the people of the region from deprivation, in all its manifestations, has become a matter of national and global security.
The presidential debate last night focused on security. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of sabre-rattling. But regime change alone cannot bring lasting change to the Middle East. It's a two-front battle, and too often the work of the battle of ideas is shunted aside.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:57 PM
