Claude Shalhani has a piece in NRO that
vigorously rebukes David Pryce-Jones idea of a Hashemite restoration. He argues that such blatant interference would increase terrorism and lead to long-standing hatreds.
He also makes this statement, which is quite true:
Why do some policymakers in Washington believe that democracy can be imported, like supermarket convenience goods, and installed overnight in Baghdad when the entire Middle East — with possibly the exception of the southern half of Cyprus — suffers from lack of true democracy?
Well, Israel and Turkey are democracies as well, but the point still stands. Democracy is a process, not a product. If we want to have a more democratic Middle East we cannot simply install some mirror image of our own government and be done with it. We are going to have to start from the foundations up, creating a government that can unite the people and eliminate the undemocratic opposition while fostering democratic alternatives. It’s a hard road to travel.
Still, given the alternatives of more and more despotism, and living with regimes with WMD capabilities, right now, it’s the only road we have.
