Credit where credit is due...

I found this piece over on the Weekly Standard blog:

Is it possible that the Iraqi election experience had something to do with Iranian expectations of an election? If critics of the war can for just a moment move beyond their own deeply held opinions about the invasion of Iraq -- that this was a war of choice fought on false premises to lower gas prices or whatever -- and examine the effect of that war on the region as a whole, they might see a connection to the current turmoil in Iran. After all, one of the intellectual arguments in favor of overthrowing Saddam Hussein was, in the words of Dick Cheney, to place "a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”

I think a case can be made that Barack Obama's election as president has also raised expectations of the democratic process in countries around the world. It is certainly possible that we are seeing an Obama effect in Iran as young people there look to replicate the excitement and enthusiasm of young people here during last year's election. But any honest assessment of events in Iran would also have to consider the effect of having a functioning democracy right next door -- a democracy that millions of Iranians have seen for themselves as they make religious pilgrimages and conduct business in Iraq. Iran has had a tremendous influence on Iraq these last few years, usually to the detriment of peace and security there. Perhaps the current protests in Iran are evidence that influence doesn't just cross the border in one direction.


Regardless of how it got there, the Middle East has its first legitimate liberal democracy that's not an "evil Zionist entity illegitimately place there by imperialists." It has shown that liberal democracy is not incompatible with Islam or other ethnic or religious identities in that area - contrary to what many academics in the U.S. and government leaders in the Middle East have claimed.

This could be the start of the fourth wave of democratization. Hopefully it is not a continuation of the third "reverse" wave (as has been seen in Russia and Venezuela.)

Trying to stay optimistic,
Brad