US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Syria for the âarbitrary detention of human rights activists.â âWe would like to see an end to the arbitrary detentions of democratic and human rights activists,â she said adding that the US continues to support the Syrian peopleâs aspirations for liberty, democracy and justice under the rule of law. She was earlier quoted telling reporters traveling with her that the Syrians should stop trying to negotiate and cooperate with the UN commission investigating the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara, who held meetings with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on the sidelines of the forum, shot back, saying her country was unable to understand the relationship between Syria and Lebanon. âWe are for dialogue,â he said.
At a news conference at the conclusion of the forum, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that it would be a grave mistake for countries in the Middle East to resist reforms because of the assumption that these were American ideas. âAmerica is a great country, but democracy began in Greece just across the Mediterranean,â Straw pointed out.
| Sigh! Democracy was invented in Greece 2500 years ago. It flourished briefly, then was replaced by a succession of authoritarian systems. The Byzantine Empire had much more in common with its neighboring oriental potentates than with the Athenian demos. Historically, democracy's been a fairly fragile flower, susceptible to blight from oligarchies. The concept of individual freedom, on the other hand, has been evolving over the course of centuries, with the Magna Carta being merely the codification of the rights the English barons had carved out for themselves. The story of the extension of those rights is long and intricate, exclusively Western, and almost exclusively British and American. We're trying to export democracy and hoping the that result will be the same kind of sloppy hodge-podge of democracy and (small r) republicanism we've evolved into. Chances are that's not going to happen, or if it does, that it'll be a brief experience. Social democracy and its attendant statism is always waiting to impose themselves. They seem to make ever so much more sense that having a bunch of people arguing with each other and cutting deals and generally chasing after their own interestes, and there's lots of money to be made in managing an economy. |