Martin Kramer has been named Middle East advisor to Rudy Giuliani. Kramer's got some MAs and a PhD in ME Studies and is affiliated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which is populated with both George HW Bush guys and some neocon sorts like Richard Perle (and a bunch of liberals, too). Here's what Kramer had to say on his weblog in Oct 2002 about the prospect for democracy in the Middle East:
Frankly, my eyes glaze over when I hear Condoleezza Rice, James Woolsey, and Tom Friedman wax eloquent on the coming "march of democracy" in the Arab world. (Woolsey to James Fallows in the current issue of The Atlantic: "This could be a golden opportunity to begin to change the face of the Arab world. Just as what we did in Germany changed the face of Central and Eastern Europe, here we have got a golden chance.") As a survivor of the Middle East peace process, which, we were told, would transform Israel, "Palestine," and Jordan into a Benelux, I smell snake oil. Of all the rationales for war, this one is the least substantial and the most ideological, and those who make it cast doubt on whether they fully understand the regional context in which an Iraq war might be fought.Music to my ears. Maybe there is hope for Rudy's FoPo yet.
[Kramer Blog]
PS: I have an amusingly frustrating second-hand story about Richard Perle from the Reagan years, which I may decide to relate to you people at a future date... but since I don't know how accurate it is, or whether anyone will care, I might just keep it to myself.
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