|
|
|
Jewish World Review May 30, 2005 / 21 Iyar, 5765 Liberty the loser in U.S. trade-off By Jonathan Gurwitz
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy in 2003, President Bush laid out the rationale for a new American foreign policy based on the advance of freedom.
"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe," Bush told the crowd, "because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty."
Stability was the operative word in U.S. foreign policy throughout the Cold War and beyond. It earned for the United States a war to defend Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait, the 9-11 attacks and a global war against terrorist enemies who derive their financial and ideological sustenance from the very countries we sought to keep stable.
In the absence of a destabilizing Soviet menace that threatened the petroleum lifeline between the Middle East and the economies of the developed world, there is no compelling reason to tie American security interests to regimes that desecrate our democratic ideals and prove, ultimately, to be unreliable as allies.
Yet despite the elaborate commitment to freedom that has become the hallmark of American foreign policy the past two years, despite Bush's rhetorical reinforcement of the concept in every major public address, in some parts of the broader Middle East the United States, troublesomely, is acting like the status quo, realist, rationalizer of the past rather than an advocate for democratic idealism.
As one of Afghanistan's northern neighbors, Uzbekistan played a critical role for U.S. operations against the Taliban and al-Qaida. A year ago, the Los Angeles Times reported, 1,750 American military personnel were stationed at the Karshi-Khanabad base, known as K2. U.S. Central Command says it has scaled back operations at K2 but, for security reasons, refuses to disclose the current deployment.
Uzbekistan is also one of the world's most deplorable violators of human rights. It's dictator, Islam Karimov, is a Stalinist holdover from the country's days as a Soviet republic. Karimov faces a real and growing challenge from Uzbek Islamic extremists. But his response — to repress all opponents, even democratic reformers — will only make matters worse.
The Western media is only now uncovering the extent of a massacre that took place earlier this month when government troops opened fire on protesters in the Western city of Andijan. Uzbekistan's chief prosecutor stated 169 "terrorists" died in the operation. Eyewitness accounts place the death toll much higher, perhaps greater than 500, including large numbers of women and children.
In Sudan, as in Uzbekistan, the perceived dividend for the United States is paid in the war on terror. The Islamic regime of Omar el-Bashir routinely ranks among the most brutally repressive in existence. Yet el-Bashir has been able to parlay the connections of the Sudanese intelligence service with al-Qaida and other jihadist groups into a functional relationship with the United States.
This is of a cloth with the supposedly helpful role Syrian intelligence has played in the war on terror and the practice of rendering terror suspects to Middle East nations for interrogation methods — including allegations of torture — that are impermissible under American jurisdiction.
We've pursued such temporizing policies before in the Middle East, and they did nothing to make us safe. Military bases and intelligence, like stability, cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.
Making alliance with Karimov may have been an unpalatable necessity in the fall of 2001. Sharing intelligence with el-Bashir may have been useful when Osama bin Laden was his welcome guest a decade ago. Today such policies place the United States on the wrong side of history and in direct conflict with the Bush administration's stated goal of advancing democratic political reform and freedom.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, Jonathan Gurwitz |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
