May 31, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Ironically, the Democratic party’s presidential candidate does not want to promote democracy ! Levity aside, John Kerry thinks that coddling up autocrats in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is going to fix America’s national security woes. As history has shown, this approach will just cause severe problems for another American president a few years down the road.
Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States’ security.
Kerry said Pakistan is a “critical relationship,” and he said he would not immediately pressure President Pervez Musharraf to loosen the reins of power.
“Is he a strongman to a degree? Did he promise elections that have not occurred and all the rest? Yeah,” Kerry said. “I don’t see that as the first thing that is going to happen in our priority of making America safer. It is a long-term goal. It is a goal that I will keep on the table. But it is not the first thing that has to happen.”
Instead, Kerry said, the first priority is keeping nuclear weapons from radical Islamists in Pakistan, with the secondary objective of crushing al Qaeda through better intelligence sharing with Pakistani security services. [Washington Post]Kerry wimps out conveniently by saying that although establishment of democracy in Pakistan is a long-term goal, it is not the first thing on his plate. It is quite unfortunate that Kerry should think pushing democracy is an act of ‘idealism’. It is not - shoring up unpopular autocrats has not won any support for America in the Islamic world.
Even in the short term, Kerry should realise that he will lose a lot of leverage with Musharraf once the legitimacy of the General’s military dictatorship stops being questioned. Pakistan’s radical Islamic parties never had much popular support, if Musharraf’s regime had not engineered the last elections, these parties could never have won as many seats in parliament. The link between keeping Musharraf, establishing democracy and keeping nuclear weapons out of radical Islamic hands is at best tenous and has never been proven. On the contrary, the link between the military rule and strengthening of Islamic radicals has long been obvious.
Kerry would do well to understand that America’s security can be best assured by staying the course…on democracy.
Update: California Yankee (via The Command Post) has more.
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