WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The Bush administration's claim democracy in the Middle East is the best way to stop terrorism is flawed, says the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine.
"Democracy is not a cure-all for terrorism. Like it or not, the most successful efforts to control radical Islamist political groups have been anti-democratic, repressive campaigns, such as those waged in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria in the 1990s," say experts Marina Ottaway and Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment's project on Democracy.
"The emergence of radical Islamist groups determined to wreak violence on the United States is not only the consequence of Arab autocracy. It is a complex phenomenon with diverse roots, which include U.S. sponsorship of the mujahedin in Afghanistan in the 1980s (which only empowered Islamist militants), the Saudi government's promotion of radical Islamic educational programs worldwide, and anger at various U.S. policies," they add.
