Political Quotes

“For nearly 3 years, the Arab Middle East, an enormous arc stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, has been in turmoil. Restive millions, frustrated by a lack of economic opportunity, repressive politics, and a social structure often at odds with modernity, have taken to the streets demanding change. Their revolution hangs in the balance with the entrenched interests of the former regimes on one side and the stultifying religious rule on the other. Faced with these daunting realities, the Obama administration may be in the midst of a strategic reevaluation of our role in the region--one that is far more modest in ambition, more tempered in expectation, and certainly more reliant on the use of its diplomatic, not military, resources. This new approach stands in stark contrast to the effort by the George W. Bush administration to deliver a ``freedom agenda''-- sometimes through the barrel of a gun--that would bring democracy to a region that has known mostly misrule. That doctrine, or its application, proved entirely unworkable, as the societies freed of their authoritarian shackles had nothing upon which to build. This is a lesson we may be bitterly learning in Libya as well. These setbacks and the realization that democracy building is a generational undertaking must not lead us to disengage from the region.…”