Don't drop the D!

Recently Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH - mentioned in the below post) had a forum of responses to Obama's speech in Turkey - I found Michelle Dunne's (of Arab Bulletin at Carnegie, former State dept.) response most interesting on Obama not mentioning the 'D' word (Democracy) in the part of his speech concerning Arab states - he only talked about it relating to Turkey. Maybe he did this bc US and Democracy's reputation are tainted there and anything we suggest will also be tainted. But the US definitely should not give up on encouraging growth of democratic insitutions in the region just bc Bush did it the wrong way.

"What was peculiar about Obama’s speech, however, was his strong emphasis on democracy (mentioned at least eight times) as the tie that binds the United States and Turkey in friendship, and yet his unwillingness to apply the same principle in the latter part of the speech to U.S. relations with the Muslim world. There, the “D” word was banned. Aside from the usual platitudes about “mutual interest and mutual respect,” Obama promised to promote the welfare of people in the Muslim world only in socioeconomic terms: education, health care, trade and investment. No objections to that, Mr. President, but what’s the plan for working with countries where the state stands squarely in the way of citizens getting those things? And that would apply to quite a few states in the Muslim world."