The good fight

Two weeks ago the United Nations General Assembly brought many of the world’s leaders to New York, but the only one anyone really talked about was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The president of Iran’s visit to Columbia University sparked intense debate, but I suspect Ahmadinejad’s visit was largely irrelevant.\nSome probably thought the entire General Assembly was irrelevant – just a bunch of debunked world leaders going off on their usual diatribes. At the meeting, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for a “united front that supports democracy and confronts terror.”\nSeems like pretty typical fare, right?\nMaybe it isn’t. Maybe that was one of the most interesting things said by a world leader in a long time.\nTomorrow, while many of us will be watching IU (possibly) beat Minnesota, searching for parties or otherwise trying to wind down from the long week, Pakistan will likely see General Pervez Musharraf reinstated for another five-year-term as president. Musharraf came to power in 1999 through a military coup, appointed himself president in 2001 and has attempted to legitimize his rule through “irregular” referendums and parliamentary deals.\nDespite his efforts to make it appear otherwise, Pakistan has not enjoyed free or fair elections. But regardless of Musharraf’s autocratic tendencies, one of his most important allies is ... the United States.\nI know, I don’t believe it either – surely there must be some kind of mix-up. Just look at all the democratic regimes the United States supports in the Middle East. \nWe give Egypt a lot of money, and it has elections, kind of. Except that the president Hosni Mubarak can dissolve the national legislature at any time, and his political party is basically the only one legally allowed to run.\nBut whatever, we saved Kuwait from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, didn’t we? Oh right, Kuwait is a monarchy.\nMaintaining the premise that the United States supports democracy would probably be a lot easier if the United States had not acquiesced to a military coup in Algeria that caused a civil war costing as many as 100,000 lives, or if our principal ally in the Middle East were not Saudi Arabia, a Wahabist kingdom with a dismal human rights record. \nIt looks like Maliki’s call for a united front supporting democracy is a little more progressive than we thought. It is also probably worth pointing out that many of those opposing these not-so-democratic regimes are Islamists. I think it would be pretty crazy if we someday found out there was a connection between marginalizing Islamist groups and fostering extremism. \nDespite all of this, I am sure it makes sense to focus exclusively on the transgressions of Iran. They have, after all, called for the destruction of Israel, which may be one of the only true democracies in the Middle East we can claim to support. Oh darn, I forgot that Israel marginalizes its Arab vote. The Iranian constitution gives the Jewish population equal rights and a guaranteed seat in parliament.\nAin’t irony great?