The Struggle for Middle Eastern Democracy

The debate on US involvement in middle eastern countries has always been a hot topic. More recently, due to rising action in the region, American policy has been brought into question. Regimes occurring in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen have caused the countries inhabitants to conjure  opinions about western involvement. It is hard to deny that your government has any true power over these countries when by the year 2009, the level of annual U.S. democracy aid in the Middle East was more than the total amount spent between 1991 to 2001. If this statistic is true, why is it tensions have increased and conflicts have been more common than ever? Where is our money going? While the money was technically considered 'democratic aid', it was not exactly meant to promote democracy. Democracy suggest 'alteration of power', but the non-government organizations that received our aid avoided anything that is close to the idea of supporting a change in the current regime. This then raises the question of either, what are we doing wrong? or should we be trying to help in the first place?

When using Egypt's regime as an example, it comes into question how effective billions of dollars in Western aid has been to the regime. It is obvious the the transition of power was not smooth. Some say that it was inevitable and an uprising was imminent. Others even suggest that, in general, that replacing a dictator is some time more unstable for the country than simply leaving the current government alone. The United States foreign policy has been very misguided over recent years. Our constant need to shove western democracy down the throats of the middle east has left a bad taste in the mouth of its inhabitants. We need to KEEP standing up against crime to humanity but we also need to realize that they are a different peoples who have become accustomed to their current way of living. If we do get
involved, we need to conduct a new strategy. One that does not start with democracy, but rather with the best outcome for the people.

http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/pages/articledetails.aspx?aid=20