Amman, Jordan -- At any other time I might agree to this idea, but these days the moral authority of the U.S. has weakened its ability to preach to others. The rest of the G-8 members are not so much better, as they have placed their narrow interests over and ahead of their own independence and commitment to democracy.
America's moral authority has not only been lost because of the actions of one administration's external policies (with an unnecessary war in Iraq, torture in Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib) but because of the fear that this deterioration is also taking place within the United States (with the constitution and traditional checks and balances seemingly breaking) without a public or civil society able to fix it.
For us in the Middle East, the most recent disappointment with America and the rest of the G-8 has to do with their anti-democratic and unjust policy towards the Palestinians, simply because they believe in the democratic vision of Bush, Blair and Peres who wanted Palestinians to use ballots and not bullets. Hamas' 18-month unilateral suicide -- their effort in political struggle through elections -- has resulted in an unjust and unfair siege on all Palestinians, which even denies Arab and Islamic banks from transferring money to pay Palestinian civil servants.
America and the G-8 can't preach to Putin about putting democracy before his own interests while the U.S. and its allies are doing exactly the opposite in the Middle East.
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