When I saw what happened in the Arab World, it seems that President Obama wants to teach these countries democracy, while here in the United States we are not sure if we have the right kind of democracy. What do we want to propagate? The Athenian democracy?  The Indian democracy? Or a democracy which evolved in the Arab countries? Have we been elected to impose our democracy and our way of life on other countries?

What do we call democracy? Even the Bible teaches us about a kind of democracy by having the prophet Samuel gather the heads of the Israelite tribes to debate and to make important decisions, like choosing the king. Today you can find the same tribal structure in every Arab country. Even General Petraeus understood that the structure, democracy took on in the Middle East is different, and he used it wisely. Even Alexander the Great of Macedonia understood that it was in his best interest not to change the local regime of the places he conquered.  By wanting to bring so-called “help” to the Arab countries we are in fact destabilizing the Arab World. Is this the kind of change our people had voted for?

It took time and experience to create and to apply the art of democracy.  The cost of democracy is different in every country. We just have to look at the countries which succeeded in implementing democracy, by counting the time it took them to evolve.  We can notice that every revolution killed innocent people and left many wounded and created years of animosity without counting the economical damage. Can we pretend to be the best democracy in the world? Some say yes and some say no. Sometimes I wonder if President Obama has been elected to lead the world? Meanwhile we are hardly able to balance our budget.

Every state is struggling to balance their own budget and I see that every group is tearing apart the state to get its interest first, without regard for the others. Now we want to teach the Arab states our democracy and we are conducting ourselves as if we were the elected masters of the world by interfering with other people’s systems. We go even further by wanting to dictate to others how to proceed and how to manufacture a revolution and to chase their leaders from their countries, even those who have maintained stability and were considered to be friends of the United States for years, with the pretext of helping them create a democracy - without even having any valid candidate on hand, who would have the knowledge of the ways of democracy and the ability to create the appropriate  institutions.    

We are trying to condemn Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi while ironically, at the same time, the United Nation’s “Human Rights Council is poised to adopt a report chock-full of praise for Libya's human rights record.” 

When reading this line it is hard for a human being not to be confused.  Let other nations develop their own capacity according to their way of life in their own countries. Isn't this the real freedom that we are preaching?

Copyright 2011 Emile Tubiana