CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 92

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
oping the following concept. 3 Participation of Arab intellectuals in the
concept was also conditioned by the fact that the focus of the concept,
fi rst of all, was the issue of the “reconstruction” of the Arab world.
In his speech at the National Endowment for Democracy, Bush stated
that within ten years, he was going to create a free trade zone between
the United States and the Middle East which would enable to expand the
economic opportunities of the countries in the region. Bush also noted
that the process should be in pace with the democratization process of the
Middle East countries. In his opinion, the United States had a worldwide
mission of promoting freedom and democracy, the pillars of which were
Woodrow Wilson’s “14 points”, which had found their summary in the
1941 speech of US President Franklin Roosevelt on “Four Freedoms”. 4
The process of “modernization and transformation” of the Middle
East, according to the American concept, should begin with the collapse
of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Washington was also convinced that
fall of Saddam’s rule would lead to a peaceful settlement of the Palestin-
ian issue.
Generally speaking, a new American concept had provided a spe-
cial place for Iraqi occupation. 5 In his speech of November 6, 2003, at
the National Endowment for Democracy, Bush also pointed out that Iraqi
democracy and the creation of free Iraq in the center of the Middle East
would become the breakthrough episode of the global democratic revo-
lution and that it would be the fi rst phase of the implementation of “The
Middle East Reconstruction” concept. 6
Through the realization of the second phase of “The Middle East Re-
construction Framework”, it was supposed to impose pressure on Iran and
Syria that were supporting various religious-political movements. One
of the confi dential points of the mentioned American concept envisaged
3
4
5
6
According to certain information, Edward Said, a well-known politologist and Professor at
Columbia University, founder of the academic fi eld of postcolonial studies, too has had his
participation in the development of this concept.
George Bush, Commencement Address at the University of South Carolina in Columbia,
South Carolina, The American Presidency Project, May, 2003, https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
pkg/WCPD-2003-05-12/pdf/WCPD-2003-05-12-Pg568.pdf, (accessed December 20, 2005).
After Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) left the Jordanian-Israeli confl ict, Syria and Iraq re-
mained Arab countries that opposed Israel. The Syrian issue was more complicated for the
United States, so Washington began its cleansing of the “Arab fi eld” for itself and Israel,
baselessly accusing Saddam Hussein’s power of supporting terrorism, creating weapons of
mass destruction and lack of democracy. K. Gajendra Singh, “U.S. Guided reconstruction
and Democracy in Iraq: But where are the weapons of mass destruction!,” South Asia Analy-
sis Group, May 1, 2003, http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/paper676 (accessed November 12,
2010).
Tamar Cofman Wittes, “The New U.S. Proposal for a Greater Middle East Initiative: An
Evaluation,” Brookings, May 10, 2004, https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-new-u-s-
proposal-for-a-greater-middle-east-initiative-an-evaluation/, (accessed November 20, 2010).
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