[Mb-civic] Democracy or Duplicity? - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Democracy or Duplicity?

By Jackson Diehl

Monday, July 4, 2005; Page A17

Less than six months after President Bush's inaugural address, the 
tension between his commitment to democracy and longstanding U.S. 
security and economic commitments grows steadily more acute, especially 
in the Muslim world. There is the problem of whether to endorse Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak's half-baked presidential election; there is the 
dilemma of Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, who massacred hundreds of 
protesters in one town but continues to host a U.S. military base in 
another.

Next up: Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the Caspian 
Sea that hosts big U.S. oil companies, a new strategic pipeline for 
their products, a refueling stop for U.S. military planes -- and a 
government teetering between consolidating a corrupt autocracy and 
embracing democratic reforms.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/03/AR2005070301022.html
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