Steering democracy in the Middle East

Re “986 days left to defend democracy,” Opinion, May 10

Max Boot suggests cutting off U.S. aid to the Egyptian government and transferring it to democracy promotion programs in the Middle East instead. Has he been reading the papers lately? Democracy in the Arab and Muslim worlds recently has meant the rise to power of terrorists (the Palestinian Hamas) and a millenarianist Holocaust-denier (Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). Besides, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is a bulwark against Islamist power in Egypt and a valuable U.S. ally. Before contemplating democracy and elections, why not pressure Middle East countries to create secular constitutions enumerating and protecting the rights of the citizenry? That would be a real step toward a government for all, rather than promoting the election of tyrannical fundamentalists opposed to U.S. interests. Boot should recall that democracy in theory and practice can be very different creatures.

DANI SCHWARTZ

New York

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As an alternative to Boot’s starry-eyed catalog of the Bush administration’s pro-democratic foreign adventures, may I propose another, grimmer list? Illegal wiretaps. The unconstitutional detention of American citizens. Punitive, arbitrary leaks of classified information. Election fraud. President Bush’s legacy will not depend on the democratic principles and institutions he promoted abroad but on those he abrogated at home.

SEAN K. SMITH

Los Angeles

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Boot is once again beating the drum for democracy promotion, this time by using foreign assistance, but clearly Boot is more than willing to support additional military adventures if necessary. When will Boot and his neoconservative brethren realize that, having been at war more or less continuously since 1941, Americans are tired of it and want nothing more than a restoration of normalcy within which they can pursue their lives? Am I the only one who shudders when hearing about the Pentagon’s plans for a new “long war”? If the Egyptians, Syrians or Iranians are going to have democracy, they’ll just have to go about it themselves.

CHLOE PAJEREK

Rochester, NY