US [Bush] dials back the volume on 'democracy' [in MidEast] [View All]

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060308/ts_csm/arethink;_ylt=AghlKknnvKiy6Ltep9m0l.qNe8UF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

> March 08, 2006 edition
>
> US dials back the volume on 'democracy'
> Bush's public pronouncements on Islamic democratization take on a softer tone, as his recent trip to Pakistan showed.
> By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor


> WASHINGTON – President Bush has begun to soften his tone on the urgency of democratizing Muslim countries, lately choosing more cautious words that some experts say are a better match with his administration's modest political goals for countries ranging from Morocco to Pakistan.
>
> The change so far is subtle. But the rise to power of Hamas, the radical Islamist group, through US-backed elections in the Palestinian territories and the difficulty of implanting democratic governance in Iraq are prompting Mr. Bush to soft-pedal his pronouncements.
>
> The cautious approach is likely to continue at least until the administration sorts out how to respond to the new realities, experts say - leaving the Middle East peace process and other pressing regional matters hanging in the balance.
>
> "A debate is raging within the administration. They are taking a second look at the entire process of exerting pressure on authoritarian rulers in the Middle East," says Fawaz Gerges, a foreign policy expert at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. "There is no certainty over what to do, but we are hearing a rhetoric that is less intensive and more nuanced than just a few weeks ago."......