He was a skeptic

In Allah's old/new site
( He was my first blogger so I like to check up on him from time to time )
He posted a link to a transcript of a critique by Martin Kramer of Natan Sharansky's new book "The Case for Democracy ".

Mr (Dr?) Kramer is far less sanguine about the chances of democracy in the middle east than Sharansky or the neo-con cabal are.

He defines two kinds of freedoms people aspire to

One he calls " freedom of " , which is the traditional western concept of individual political rights like freedom of speech , freedom of assembly , religious freedom and so on .
The other kind of freedom he calls "freedom from " and that is the freedom of the ethnic , religious or kinship group from government oppression.
people who want freedom from government oppression for their own group might not be all that interested in democracy where their ability to oppress other groups ( like women of infidels or ethnic minorities) is curtailed.

To prove his claim that the majority of middle easterners are more of the "freedom from" kind of people he quotes Elie Kedourie's description of the Syrians

"they have never been much accustomed to being asked their opinion about
their rulers. For them the happy man has always been he who has a beautiful
wife, a comfortable house, a lucrative occupation, who does not know
government, and whom government does not know; in short, the private man."

Call me crazy but this is the description of a hobbit or what the americans would call a small government social conservative.
(The very group the neo-cons came from!)

Wanting to be free from government oppression AND being more interested in whatever your own group is is a universal and not unique to the arabs or muslims
the difference between them and the west is that the west figured out 800 to 50 years ago that the only way to guaranty freedom from government oppression is to have stuff like freedom of speech and assembly.

Can the west/USA force that understanding unto arab and muslim societies?
That's what's worth a try