The Frontier Post,
Pakistan
Muslims to Be Disappointed After U.S. Midterm Elections
“The doctrine of American expansion under the banner of exporting freedom and democracy, of not appeasing brutal dictators and building America's global hegemony, are all principles that originated with the Democratic Party.”
By Marwan Kabalan*
November 6, 2006
Pakistan - Frontier Post - Home Page (English)
On
Tuesday, millions of Americans will cast their votes in one of the fiercest
midterm elections in recent American history. On the campaign trail, Iraq
dominates the debate and Democratic candidates are hammering their Republican
fellows for the ill-fated Iraqi venture. Several opinion polls have already
suggested that voters are more confident in the ability of Democrats to handle
the Iraq War than they are of Republicans.
Because
of the Bush Administration's unilateral and arrogant approach, many in the
region and the world pray that the opinion polls reflect the general mood of U.S.
voters, and that they will wake up on November 7 with Democrats taking up both
Chambers of the Congress. These hopes are based on the assumption that
Democrats, if elected, will push for an immediate pull-out of U.S. troops from
Iraq; resume Clinton's effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and ease the
pressure for change on Arab leaders.
One must
say, these assumptions belie a great misunderstanding
of American foreign policy and the system within which the U.S. government
operates and makes decisions. When we think of American policy in the Middle
East, which concerns us most, we must always bear in mind that this policy is
not an isolated area of interest or a routine bureaucratic job. Rather, it
involves three levels of decision-making that are constantly shifting: global, regional,
and the actual area in question.
All U.S.
administrations have global aims, such as containing the Soviet Union,
promoting American values, free trade etc. Sometimes, these aims seem to relate
directly to the Middle East, as in President Jimmy Carter's pursuit of oil
supplies. At other times, the Middle East is peripheral to the administration's
main concerns, as it was to Truman's containment policy or
Kennedy's multiple options doctrine. There will also be regional
aims, such as the promotion of pro-American regimes and protecting Israel.
Finally, there may be special interest in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, such
as Clinton's aspiration to occupy a place in history by resolving the world's oldest
conflict. In U.S. foreign policy, the global perspective will always be
paramount, however. Regional objectives or localized goals, no matter how
important they are, cannot be allowed to restrict or contradict global
objectives. So to understand U.S. foreign policy, it is important to identify
its global objectives, define the degree and intensity of consensus among policy
makers, and analyze how the Middle East fits in.
After September
11, the Middle East – its culture, religion, politics and societies - became
the focus of America's global strategy. The "War on terror" replaced
the anti-communist consensus of the Cold War and was transformed into a state
ideology. Republicans and Democrats alike now share this premise and the
determination to win this war, as they once shared the objective of defeating
Communism. In addition, if we examine the positions of Democratic candidates
concerning a range of issues, we find that most of them, if not all, genuinely share
those held by Republicans.
The new "globalist"
orientation unleashed by President George W. Bush, for example, is a notion
that has long been advocated by Democrats. The doctrine of American expansion
under the banner of exporting freedom and democracy, of not appeasing brutal
dictators and building America's global hegemony, are also principles that
originated with the Democratic Party.
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On Iraq,
the views of Republicans and Democrats are almost identical in terms of
strategy, though they differ on the means of execution. After all, it was former
Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry who first raised the issue of Iraqi
regime change in 1998. Madeline Albright, former Democrat secretary of state,
also supported the war on the grounds of "Saddam's decade-long refusal to
comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions."
On the
Arab-Israeli conflict, it is extremely difficult to figure out which of the two
parties support Israel more. Having said that, it is our
understanding that even if Democrats win the mid-term elections, U.S. policy,
particularly toward the Middle East, may not undergo fundamental change.
*Marwan
Kabalan is a professor of political science at Damascus University
[SLIDE SHOW: U.S. Midterm Elections].