Exporting the Ukraine miracle

One of the most inspiring events of 2004 happened on the year's last weekend: the election of pro-Western democrat Viktor Yushchenko, who had to overcome everything from poisoning to voter fraud to claim Ukraine's presidency.

The triumph of the Orange Revolution should dispel the quaint notion still prevalent in many Western universities and foreign ministries that democracy is a luxury good suitable only for rich countries with a tradition of liberalism stretching back centuries. Ukraine fits no one's criteria of a promising democracy: Its per capita income of $5,400 a year is lower than Algeria's or Turkmenistan's; it has a history of despotism and corruption and a short history of independence. The only less likely democracy is Afghanistan. Yet Ukraine, like Afghanistan, held free elections this year. Apparently no one bothered to tell the people of these countries they weren't ready for freedom.

These revolutions reveal the hollowness of the cliche that "democracy can't be imposed by outsiders." True, but outsiders can help committed democrats overcome internal obstacles. Sometimes, when dealing with an entrenched dictatorship, this requires military intervention of the kind that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan. More brittle regimes can be brought down by their own people, but even they often need a little external shove.

In Ukraine, the U.S. government spent $58 million on promoting democracy in the last two years. European states and various nongovernmental organizations, such as George Soros' International Renaissance Foundation, contributed millions more. These donations raised the ire of antidemocrats like Vladimir Putin and Pat Buchanan, who conveniently overlooked the far more generous support given by Moscow and Kiev to Mr. Yushchenko's opponent, Viktor Yanukovich.

For instance, the American Bar Association spent $400,000 to train Ukrainian judges in election law. Among those who attended its seminars were five judges of the Ukrainian Supreme Court who voted to overturn the fraudulent results of the Nov. 21 balloting and to hold the revote that led to Mr. Yushchenko's triumph. NATO has also spent a good deal of money to train Ukrainian officers over the last decade as part of its Partnership for Peace initiative. This Western education, which includes instruction in human rights, was one reason the Ukrainian military refused to move against pro-democracy demonstrators.

great article on how freedom was won in ukraine

great article on how freedom was won in ukraine
Yes, it is. Worth reading it all, too. Here's the LINK to the source.
Pinging my General Interest list here, too.
Exporting the Ukraine miracle
Excerpt:
    Notwithstanding the Dec. 26 election, the Orange Revolution is hardly complete. The West should offer expedited NATO and European Union membership to consolidate Ukraine democracy.
    In the meantime, we need to apply elsewhere the lessons of Ukraine, which are also the lessons of Georgia, Serbia, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, South Africa, Poland, Lithuania and other lands where despotic regimes have toppled since the original 1986 "people power" revolution swept the Philippines.
    An obvious candidate for a similar transformation is Iran. Even as Iranian students have repeatedly taken to the streets to protest their oppressors, and Iranian exiles in Los Angeles have beamed TV and radio programming into their homeland, the U.S. government has largely stood on the sidelines. In 2003, the National Endowment for Democracy supported 23 programs in Ukraine worth $1.9 million. In Iran, there were only two pitiful programs worth $55,000.
    This disparity, which also exists for other pro-democracy groups, is perverse because the Iranian regime poses a far bigger threat to the West than Ukraine ever did. (The Ukrainians actually sent troops to join the coalition in Iraq, while the Iranians are trying to sabotage our efforts there.) It's hard to think of a higher priority than overthrow of the mullahs, who are determined to add nuclear weapons to their terror arsenal.
    If we're serious about liberating Iran — and that's a big "if" because regime change is not official Bush policy — we'll need to rethink the current sanctions, which haven't in any way dislodged the mullahocracy. The Committee on the Present Danger, a hawkish advocacy group, suggests keeping some sanctions while re-establishing diplomatic ties and lowering barriers for cultural exchanges. The resulting access could be used to help the forces of freedom in Iran.
    Democracy in Iran? Sounds improbable, doesn't it? But so, until just a few weeks ago, did democracy in Ukraine.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Yushchenko vs. Yanukovych/Ukraine election ping list!. . .don't be shy.

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