| wehateporn |
01-10-2017 11:40 AM |
US misjudged appeal of Western democracy for Middle East during Arab Spring ? CIA?s Brennan
The administration of US President Barack Obama made a mistake when it hoped to impose Western values and Western-style democracy in the Middle East during the Arab Spring, according to outgoing CIA Director John Brennan.
?I think there were very, very unrealistic expectations in Washington, including in some parts of the administration, that the Arab Spring was going to push out these authoritarian regimes and democracy is going to flourish because that's what people want,? Brennan said in an interview with CNN.
Earlier this year Brennan, who spent years stationed in the Middle East, already admitted that the Arab Spring uprisings that began in late 2010 created fertile ground for terrorists. But in his latest comments, he said the focus should not be solely on the ?symptoms of the problems? like terrorism and violence, but rather on the underlying factors such as governance.
Assessing the prospect of Western-style democracies taking root in Middle Eastern and North African states, he concluded that what the people of these areas actually want is freedom ?for themselves, or their group, or their tribe,? while the ?concept of democracy is something that really is not ingrained in a lot of the people and the cultures and the countries out there.?
Continued https://www.rt.com/news/373197-brenn...emocracy-east/ |
