America's gunboat democracy

In the last three decades, there always has been little doubt in my mind that democratic institutions would soon replace or subsume the world’s last remaining monarchies, including those in the Middle East.

Monarchs could rule effectively when the world moved at a snail's pace, but with the accelerated pace of change in the global political economy, the monarchical form of government simply can't keep up. In my 1978 book, The Way the World Works, I wrote:

"The electorate, being wiser than any individual in the society, is society's most precious resource. It is the job of the politician to try to divine what it is the electorate wants.

We will have to patiently wait and watch to see how it all comes out. History seems to be moving faster than ever, but still it happens one day at a time.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2C9865C9-51A9-4C4D-A6C6-737AA2FF3499.htm

"Indeed, Eric Margolis, an astute columnist for the Toronto Sun, this week wrote that bin Laden, not Bush, is "the man most responsible for pushing the Arab world towards political change ..."

"For over a decade, bin Ladin has agitated for the overthrow of the corrupt, despotic Arab regimes supported by the US, and their replacement by a traditional Islamic democratic consensus.

"As bin Ladin's anti-American insurgency gathers strength and resonates among the restive Arab masses, the Bush administration has urged the frightened kings and generals running Washington's client Arab regimes to make a show of democratic reforms to head off popular uprisings."