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Although there certainly have been lucky breaks, like the death of Arafat, it seems churlish not to give the Bush Administration some credit for the spread of democracy. Regime change in Iraq has changed the climate in the Middle East by enabling the Iraqi people to defy the insurgency and prove the plausibility of democracy. Even more importantly, Bush shifted away from the U.S.’s previous policy of “pragmatic tolerance” of brutal autocratic regimes, which calcified established political regimes and stillborn reformist efforts. As a foreign policy, cynicism masquerading under the self...
Furthermore, once given a good push by the Bush administration, the spread of democracy has signs of being a virtuous cycle—it’s contagious, and the virus is spreading. No one claims a direct causal link between war in Iraq and Syrian pullout from Lebanon; however, the example of self-determination and democracy in Iraq has made people question autocratic rule at home. They have begun to believe that change is possible in their home country and know that the U.S. will support reformists’ efforts. The Iraqi elections have undoubtedly heartened the Lebanese demonstrators...
However, the spread of democracy is no panacea; by itself, democracy will not solve all of the problems in the third world. Poverty will not magically disappear, corruption will prove difficult to eradicate, ethnic tensions could increase, and democracy itself can backslide toward authoritarian personal rule (e.g., Russia). Nevertheless, democratic rule is almost always a step forward. The problems faced by a new democratic leadership—like secessionist regions in Georgia or control of Kirkuk in Iraq—will have to be faced eventually. Autocratic rule did not solve these problems, and continued repression will only make them...
Last week, as the news of Rock Hudson's illness spread, AIDS researchers and patients alike were hopeful that his plight, and his decision to reveal it, might finally dramatize the threat of the growing epidemic and bring calls for a more effective medical counterattack. Says Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien, who has treated hundreds of AIDS patients at New York University Medical Center: "It takes something like this to make the public aware that not enough is being done." --By Claudia Wallis. Reported by Melissa Ludtke/Los Angeles, with other bureaus
...mite unusual: "I tried to feel peculiar about being married to one and sleeping with the other, but it didn't work." Then his soon to be ex-wife shows up at the motel. So does Dominica's former husband Mel, who may be the one who has spread glass on her beachfront and menaced her in other ominous and anonymous ways. On the other hand, Mel may be innocent. His brother Minnie arrives, bearing a big statue of a horse. Martin, Alex, Dominica, Mel and Minnie, along with some others who also lack surnames, go off to the local...