This article critically examines the proposition that defeating Iraq would defeat the Arab Islamic Bogeyman worldwide, or "domino democracy" as I think of it. Interestingly, it points out that this notion is actually a co-opting of neowilsonian ideas by neoconservatives!
The Wilsonian rationale, which takes its name from former president Woodrow Wilson - ironically a champion of international law whose aim in World War I was to "make the world safe for democracy" - has been championed almost since last year's September 11 terrorist attacks by a small group of neo-conservatives with close ties to the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.
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If Saddam can be overthrown in an overwhelming show of force, the argument goes, then all of the autocracies that have dominated the Arab world, resisting democratic reform and peace with Israel, will themselves totter and collapse to popular pressures, creating a domino effect from Iran in the east, clear across North Africa as far as Libya.
(This article has also been posted to the UNMEDIA list.)
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