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As President Barack Obama attempts to re-energize American engagement in the Arab and Muslim world, he is rightly repudiating some of the policies of his predecessor. However, we in Iraq notice that democracy is rarely mentioned now in the rhetoric of U.S. officials.

Democracy is identified with the American system. The U.S. helped many countries that are now giants in the world order such as Germany and Japan to install and enshrine democracy in their political life during the past half century. The U.S. supported the waves of democratization that started in East Asia in the 1980s and spread through Latin America to Eastern Europe and even to Africa. It was only in the Arab and Muslim world that various administrations were reluctant to extend their support for democracy. This...