August 5th, 2008 by Matt

A couple unrelated posts to pass along from the folks over at The Washington Note:

Last Thursday, one day after Turkey’s Constitutional Court narrowly decided against throwing out the moderate Islamic ruling AKP party, Ben Katcher criticized the State Department’s neutral policy position on the issue, saying it “undercut the administration’s policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East”.  Katcher also posed an important question yet to be directly addressed by either candidate–whether the U.S. should seek to isolate, marginalize, or engage moderate Islamist parties like AKP as part of our efforts to promote democracy in the region.

Today, Steve Clemons criticizes both McCain and Obama for proposing “short-term, knee-jerk responses” to the current energy policy dilemma.  Clemons implores both candidates to “work harder at thinking through what the characteristics of a new equilibrium in the Middle East and globally might look like”, so they are as prepared as possible to create a more stable, durable situation upon taking office.

Posted in Election 08, Islam and Democracy, Oil, Political Islam, Secularism, Turkey, US foreign policy, US politics |