Article Obama Doctrine

Richard Cohen op ed in Wash Post on the Obama Doctrine - which msut be a realistic, not a moral, policy toward the ME

I don't think you have to abandon morality with realism though.

I take issue with the last line of this paragraph:
"For the most part, this is good. Even George Bush was starting to realize that he had overreached, overdreamed, underthought and underanalyzed. The war in Iraq is coming up on its seventh year, and the one in Afghanistan has lasted even longer. The Taliban have gone and come, and the democracy movement in the Middle East has withered from an utter lack of enthusiasm, not to mention a lack of democratic leaders."

BS. There are democratic leaders in the Middle East, we just don't support them. Read Anthony Shadid's Legacy of the Prophet: Depots, Democrats and New Politics of Islam for starters. There are groups in Morocco, Iran, Egypt especially, Jordan, Iraq, Syria (to an extent - all in jail and on trial) and Lebanon.

We should not give up on democracy promotion in the region - just the way that Bush did it!