Andrew Sullivan makes the argument that even if Arafat is elected by the Palestinians,
Bush’s call for elections means that the US is standing for democracy, which will help us later on.
I don’t know. Part of me wants to agree that pushing for more democracy is a positive thing, but I have a feeling that January’s planned Palestinian elections, if they happen, will be nothing more than a sham. I have a feeling that there will be massive vote fraud, and we’ll end up in another situation like Mugabe’s election in Zimbabwe or Alexsander Lukashenko’s election in Belarus. Supporting democracy is good, but there are times when I think having a benevolent authoritarian regime in the initial democratizing stages provides a better framework for making democracy last.
