What Great Democratic Buddies We Have!

The neocon ninnies stage managed our invasion of Iraq in order to promote and foster democracy throughout the Mideast. That's a given. At least the majority of rightwingers agree that our adventure in regime change was a well intended move to oust an obnoxious dictator and install liberal, pluralistic democracy in his place.

There is no denying that the Mideast is a place long on violence and violent rhetoric but very short on either democracy or human rights.

The same can be said of many Muslim inhabited countries regardless of the region. A recent study tempts the reader to conclude that Islam and democracy or human rights are incompatible, even mutually exclusive.

The same study shows that most of our "key" Islamic "allies" in the Global War on Terrorism are not only undemocratic, but less democratic than our current bete noir, Iran.

Take a good, long look at http://www.meforum.org/article/1921. The authors, like the publisher, have no evident political agenda. They give every methodological and analytical appearance of seeking a reasonable approximation of an accurate description.

The study examines forty-eight members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) for which adequate, uniform data were available covering the years 2006-2007. Comparisons of per capita GDP/GNP with military expenditures and the several factors comprising the Status of Democracy Index (SDI) were made. This exercise allowed the grouping of countries into one of several categories such as "high GDP-high military expenditure," "high GDP-low military expenditure."

In addition the study ranked the forty-eight countries in terms of their ratings according to the SDI. Now to cut to the chase--get a grip on it.

Coming in at number forty-eight, dead last, was our good ally and drinking (coffee only, remember they're Muslims) buddy--Saudi Arabia.

That's right, the feudal autocracy of the sands quite unshockingly brought up the rear. Equally unsurprising was its inclusion in the group of "high GDP-high military expenditures" states.

Saudi Arabia achieved a percentile score on the SDI of 13.8. Coming in next to The Kingdom of the Two Mosques in a tie for forty-sixth were Chad and (drum roll, please) Pakistan, both with an index rating of 19.4 percent.

Chad is a desolate expanse of desert undergoing significant civil strife. Pakistan is our most critical "ally" in the efforts against both al-Qaeda and Taliban. Although Pakistan's rating would be improved by the recent parliamentary elections, it still would rank near the bottom among the OIC Forty-eight.

In comparison consider Iran. The Tehran mullahocracy is rated in the study to occupy slot number forty-two with an Index percentage of twenty-five. That stinks on an absolute scale, but looks good next to Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.

(Kind of makes one wonder.)

Overall in the Mideast and North Africa only four countries rank above fifty percent on the SDI and one of those, Lebanon, meets more the appearance than the reality of democracy given the rapidity and effectiveness by which an armed band, Hezbollah, could control the processes of government.

Like Lebanon, both Algeria and Egypt rank above the half way point. And, again like Lebanon, the appearance is more than the substance.

Among other key US "allies" in the region the portrait of democracy is not much more encouraging than that given by Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates ranks at thirty-seven. Bahrain comes in at number thirty-three. Oman and Qatar are tied at the thirty slot. Only Kuwait comes in near the midpoint. That country, which owes its existence as an independent state to the US, is ranked at number twenty-five with a SDI of 44.4%.

All of these oligarchies spend a good chunk of their not insubstantial GDP's on their military forces. This leads to another unshocking conclusion: non-democratic states regardless of GDP spend money preferentially on weapons and those who use them.

The same may be said for countries which are not members of the OIC, but the fact remains that few nations within the OIC ambit exhibit any meaningful, real aspect of democracy with its inherent respect for human rights such as speech, religion, and the vote.

From this, it is tempting to speculate that the ideology contained within Islam is incompatible with democracy, an open society or the panoply of human rights.

The Geek, given to keeping in mind the history of Islamic societies and polities, has a damn tough time not giving in to that temptation.