Democratization has been part of American political rhetoric since the Westminster speech by President Ronald Regan in 1982, which subsequently created the National Endowment for Democracy and its four core institutions: the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Democratic National Institute (NDI), the Center for International Private Entrepreneurship (CIPE), and American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS). All of which had the aims of providing support to local organizations with hopes of democratization and originally focused on Latin America and Eastern Europe, now however the largest (funds wise) regional program in each of these institutions is the Middle East, in a large part due to our spending in Iraq.

Originally the administration provided the explanation the there were ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda that reasoning provide wrong it moved on to justifying the war by explaining that it was due to the Iraqi regimes’ position of weapons of mass destruction, which to proved to be erroneous, the Bush administration than used democratization to explain its actions in Iraq.

The United States’ use of democratization of the Middle East to justify the war in Iraq is in many ways harming other efforts and causes to aid the Middle East and other regions of the world, true, genuine democracy. The term democratization and freedom are loosing their meanings.

The Bush administration has been eager to show the American public (and to some extend the international public) that the Middle East is democratically reforming, and that the administration is succeeding in creating a more democratic and therefore less dangerous region. I wonder if this hasty patting on the back is negatively affecting genuine democratic progress in the region.

It seems as if regimes in the middle east are not making great nor genuine strides toward democracy and instead are only having cosmetic changes, this of course is only in some countries and it is by no mean something among the people.

While researching something completely unrelated, I stumbled on this site. The site is of an organization named Terrorism has no Religion, which advocates against terrorism. The organization is campaigning in Iraq in print media and on air against terrorism. I decided to look at their TV spots and ads, one of which you can see below.

I thought they were very well done, with clearly a large budget. I decided to go on YouTube and see how others are commenting on it, a lot of comments were against Islam. My favorite was on person who explained that he was smart enough to know that “not all Muslims are terrorists”. It just bothers him “that all the terrorist acts have been carried out by Muslims”.

Just a quick side not and not to diverge from my point but there has been numerous terrorist act and groups that are not Muslim some aren’t even religious, such as the LTTE. How about the Jewish terrorist organizations: Irgun and Stern Gang, which have committed multiple murders and bombings (if you which google “1946-The King David Hotel”).

A few weeks ago I was taking a tour of the Library of Congress, and in the main reading room, the ceiling has one of the most beautiful paintings I have seen. The mural which is titled “Evolution of Civilization” and was created by Edwin Blashfield, portrays the different civilizations and their contributions starting with Egypt for its contribution to written records and finish with the United States. Half way through you find Islam for its contributions to Physics. All I can think about is saying look we did something else, look, look…It was a strange feeling of pride and contentment.

I know there is always that criticism of the media and how it alters the view of the masses, but it’s really true. I mean think to yourself, when was the last time you heard positive things on Islam, the Middle East or the Arab world.

As a final note at the end of the ad by Terrorism has No Religion the statement which is a quote from the Quran says: “Whosoever kills a human being without (any reason like) manslaughter, or corruption on earth, it is as though he had killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life it is as though he had saved the lives of all mankind.”

The Arab League has an annual summit usually attended by the heads of state. This year the summit will take place in Damascus, on the 29^th and 30^th of March.

Earlier this week Saudi Arabia announced that King Abdullah will not be attending the Arab summit instead it will be attended by its Arab league ambassador. Egypt then announced that it will only be sending a low level diplomat. Lebanon than followed announcing that it will be absent from the summit.

Syria has accused the U.S. of having its hands in the fact that Lebanon is not participating, and also influencing its other allies, (Egypt and Saudi Arabia) which are in some level boycotting/protesting the Damascus summit.

On the other hand Egypt and Saudi Arabia have said that Syria is behind political crisis in Lebanon. Beirut has been unable to agree on a president since late November. Two days ago Beirut delayed its presidential elections from March 25 to April 22, the 17 delay in this process. This has been happening in the shadow of a string of assassinations of anti-Syria politicians.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia also point to Damascus’ link to Iran and Hezbollah.

This morning before my daily tea, and bowl of cereal I saw this article, which discusses the rise of prices worldwide. Most interesting to me was the doubling or tippling of prices of some soft commodities in Egypt. Egypt is a country where I have personally spent some time both for leisure and for schooling, which makes images such as the one below even more vivid and real.

Egypt is the most densely populated Arab state. It is also the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, a lot of which it uses to purchase American wheat. Increase in commodity prices, oil prices (which has decreased the buying power of some of the oil producing countries), and driven by a boom in consumption in China and India are causing serious pain in many regions of the Arab world. Saudi Arabia, a state which in recent history has had near zero inflation has now hit 7 percent inflation. There have been riots against the increase in prices on soft commodities such as butter, milk, wheat and sugar in Jordan, Morocco and Egypt (claiming 7 lives).

Walking the streets of Egypt it is easy to see the poverty (20% of Egyptian population lives under the poverty line), beggars are in every street corner, individuals plagued with polio, and high illiteracy. In tough times every one feels the pain, especially the poor, and Egypt is an example of that.

Well this is my first blog ever. I have read blogs in the past and wondered who writes them and why? A few months ago I started a new job and that made me want to write and express how I feel and how I see things that are going on in the world around me.

This site will be dedicated to mainly news from the middle East that’s my expertise and that’s my background. I have always been told that I have a very different view than the average American, so I thought why not create a form where I can express those views and have other comment and disucs them, fostering some form of dialogue.

You can reply to any of my future postings as you which, what ever your view might be.