Out of the post-war rubble emerged a West Germany that was democratic and an East Germany that was not. A unified, democratic Germany was not created until 1990.

(West) Germany and Japan only became democratic after they were occupied. For decades. With tens of thousands of US troops in both countries, one could argue they still are.

Colonial America did have democratic traditions and institutions in colonial legislatures. Where is that history in any Arab M.E. country?

Please don’t name Burma, the Black Panthers or the unions. He had nothing to do with the few liberties in Burma.

On June 30, supposed reformist Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as president of a new democratic Egypt amid grand talk of the Arab Spring. But in November, Morsi, as a good Islamist, hounded out of office his secular rivals in the judiciary and suspended the rule of law. And days ago, by popular vote, Morsi oversaw the implementation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s version of sharia law as the basis of the new Egyptian constitution. Given the chaos of Libya and Syria, and the murder of Americans in Benghazi, the cruel winter of 2012 has now ended the dreamy Arab Spring of 2011.

Germany, for its part, was forcibly created by Bismarck out of numerous smaller states in the decades leading up to 1871 and democracy did not emerge until after World War I—only to be snuffed out starting in 1933 by Adolf Hitler. Out of the post-war rubble emerged a West Germany that was democratic and an East Germany that was not. A unified, democratic Germany was not created until 1990.

Dude, thats what we have to go through first?

rob verdi on December 28, 2012 at 11:23 AM

Yeah, and the post war developments would not have occurred without the heavy external influence of the United States. Boot seems to think it was difficult be inevitable, but he’s wrong.

Let’s face it, none of the things he talks about would have occurred without the influence of the United States, and with a weak United States and the strong reactionary impulses in Islam, the Arab Spring will inevitably lead to absolute horror and nothing more.

yo, boot! we’re talking muslims here. are your examples of success use christians.

renalin on December 28, 2012 at 11:34 AM

And they aren’t that successful. Europe is completely socialist and a complete failure on many levels.

The muslim spring will be a bloodbath more like the reign of terror than the long argument in Philadelphia.

She is right. Anyone who reads her article, “The Promise of the Arab Spring,” should

She is wrong. Comparing European Christians and Mohammedans is beyond an apple and orange comparison. Christians are not bound by the black straight jacket of Islam.

You have to be aware of human freedoms to go after them.