“People in Arab nations believe the Iraq war has brought less peace, more terrorism and contrary to Washington’s claims, will result in less democracy, a new poll indicates.
“When asked which country was the biggest threat to them, most respondents chose Israel or the United States, while France was nominated as the country most respondents would like to be a superpower.
“The University of Maryland/Zogby International poll published on Friday was conducted in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in October.”
Western-backed Arab dictatorships should be worried about such results. After all, countries lacking a free press or freedom of speech are likely to turn against their governments for supporting an unpopular US administration. Furthermore, US-backed regimes in the Arab world may not have supported the Iraq war publicly, but rest assured they’re still keen for US largesse.
The West doesn’t want real democracy in the Middle East because governments unfriendly to the West would likely win open and fair elections.