Candid words from Rice

June 20, 2005 American University in Cairo:
"For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East -- and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people."

Analysis from Asian Times:
Again, Arabs remember too clearly that it was the Americans who initially supported Saddam Hussein's rise to power in 1979, simply because he challenged Iran. It was the Americans who orchestrated the first coup d'etat in Syria in 1949, toppling the democratically elected president Shukri al-Quwatli and replacing him with General Husni al-Za'im, a stooge of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), because the latter promised to respond to US needs in the Middle East. These were mainly a crackdown on communism, a ceasefire with Israel, and privileges to Tapline, a US oil company. The fact that Quwatli had been democratically elected by his people meant nothing to the CIA, the White House or the Pentagon in 1949.