"Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower" by Zbigniew Brzezinski in March 2007 sound very ominous
today:
"In contrast, when democracy is rapidly imposed in traditional societies not exposed to the aggressive expansion of civil rights and the gradual emergence of the rule of law, it is likely to precipitate intensified conflict, with mutually intolerable extremes colliding in violence. That is exactly what shortsighted American efforts to promote democracy have yielded, not only in Iraq but also in Palestine, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. The result is not enhanced prospects for stability and intensified social tensions. The best such efforts are likely to produce is a fervent but intolerant populism, ostensibly democratic but in fact a tyranny of the majority.
"One cannot entirely dismiss this vision that the most fervent advocates of "democracy" for the Middle East know this, but see in the promotion of democracy an expedient tool for the eventual imposition of force. Democracy becomes a subversive tool for destabilizing the status quo, leading to an armed intervention and that just [xxxx] retroactively by the argument that the democratic experiment has failed and that the extremism it produced legitimate the one-sided employment of raw power. . . . Page 155.
Page 191: "Only those in a state of self-serving denial can argue that the persistent Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been instrumental in igniting widespread Arab hostility towards America. The destabilizing effect of that hostility, intensified by the war in Iraq, poses the long-range risk of America's eventual expulsion of the region. Neither the region's ruling elites nor the Chinese are ignoring this prospect. . . .
Page 210." In this increasingly complicated global context, much will depend on whether America succeeds in restoring some degree of comity in its relation with the world of Islam."
"In contrast, when democracy is rapidly imposed in traditional societies not exposed to the aggressive expansion of civil rights and the gradual emergence of the rule of law, it is likely to precipitate intensified conflict, with mutually intolerable extremes colliding in violence. That is exactly what shortsighted American efforts to promote democracy have yielded, not only in Iraq but also in Palestine, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. The result is not enhanced prospects for stability and intensified social tensions. The best such efforts are likely to produce is a fervent but intolerant populism, ostensibly democratic but in fact a tyranny of the majority.
"One cannot entirely dismiss this vision that the most fervent advocates of "democracy" for the Middle East know this, but see in the promotion of democracy an expedient tool for the eventual imposition of force. Democracy becomes a subversive tool for destabilizing the status quo, leading to an armed intervention and that just [xxxx] retroactively by the argument that the democratic experiment has failed and that the extremism it produced legitimate the one-sided employment of raw power. . . . Page 155.
Page 191: "Only those in a state of self-serving denial can argue that the persistent Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been instrumental in igniting widespread Arab hostility towards America. The destabilizing effect of that hostility, intensified by the war in Iraq, poses the long-range risk of America's eventual expulsion of the region. Neither the region's ruling elites nor the Chinese are ignoring this prospect. . . .
Page 210." In this increasingly complicated global context, much will depend on whether America succeeds in restoring some degree of comity in its relation with the world of Islam."
