Selling liberal democracy in the Middle East is hard work

Meshary Alruwaih, a young Kuwaiti ally in the American-led effort to remake her region in our liberal-democratic image, finds her mission “increasingly tough.” Kuwait is one of the most pro-American states in the region, but her communist and Islamist friends think she’s a lackey:

To be honest with you I’m not winning any arguments…. [The] US has made it very hard for those who admire it to defend anything American.

So, she’s developed a promising new strategy:

If I want to sell the idea of human rights, I have to disassociate them from any connection with the American way of life, if I want to sell the concept of democracy I have to take out the American flavour, and if I want to sell the notion of private property rights I have to declare that it has nothing to do with American capitalism.

But she even admits to being skeptical herself:

I’m just tired of all the mess America is creating in the world and especially in our region. I’m tired of all the blood and dead bodies I see all over the news wherever the US is involved. I’m tired of this ‘special bond’ between the US and Israel, which has allowed the latter to enjoy for years, with impunity, the massacring of Palestinian and Lebanese people. I’m tired of all the stupid policies that have ultimately helped turn Ahmadinejad of Iran, Nasrallah of Hezbollah, and Hamas in Gaza into untouchable heroes.

When even staunch admirers of the United States are saying these sorts of things, it’s clear the U.S. has a problem that goes deeper than “public diplomacy.” Which reminds me: Anyone heard a peep from Karen Hughes lately?