Democracy vs. Victory: Why The “Forward Strategy of Freedom” Had to Fail
After September 11 the Bush administration declared that we must go on a mission to bring freedom to the Middle East nations that threaten us; thus, the Forward Strategy of Freedom. According to this strategy, establishing democracies in key Muslim countries, starting with Afghanistan and Iraq, would spur a revolution in the rest of the Muslim world — a revolution that would bring free, pro-Western, anti-terrorist governments to power.
But the strategy has failed. With the rise of the religious Shiites in Iraq, of Hamas and of Hezbollah, and with the electoral victories of Islamic radicals elsewhere in the Middle East, the Muslim world has grown more militant.
Why has the Forward Strategy of Freedom failed, and why was failure inevitable? What are the flaws inherent in the strategy? How does it necessarily undermine victory? What motivates it and what strategy should replace it? These are the questions Dr. Brook addresses in this talk. (Recorded September 12, 2006.)
