Monday, January 17, 2011

Crawl, Walk, Run

Ending the dictatorship in Tunisia was only the first movement toward democracy. Indeed, we don't even know for sure if the people of Tunisia have truly ended the dictatorship or just forced a shuffling of the deck at the top. There is no guarantee that the new interim government is enough for the protesters to stand down and wait and see.

The EU and America have both voiced support for creating democracy in Tunisia:

The European Union said Monday it stands ready to help Tunisia become a democracy and offer economic aid. ...

During a visit to neighboring Algeria on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism official John Brennan said the United States stands ready to help Tunisian government in holding "free and fair elections in the near future that reflect the true will and aspirations" of Tunisians.

A free election is the next question to answer about the future of Tunisia:

Moncef Marzouki, a professor of medicine who leads the once-banned CPR party from exile in France where he has lived for the last 20 years, told France-Info radio he would be a candidate in the presidential election.

"The question is whether there will be or won't be free and fair elections," said Marzouki, whose movement is of the secular left.

But, of course, that is only the first question. Many more need to be asked and answered.

But hey, maybe Iraq can offer advice on navigating the path to democracy. They are farther along that path to rule of law and real democracy. As I noted early on, Victor Hanson writes that Iraq is the one Arab state that won't be buffeted by the winds of change coming out of Tunisia.

Hopefully, Tunisia won't have as difficult a time as Iraq did--because of many enemies who did their best to plunge Iraq into chaos--in progressing toward democracy. Keeping the elites and their security forces from waging a war on this process would be the best thing we could do in the short run.