Mark Helprin Quotes

We’re trying to create the first democracy in the Arab world.

Several experts on the Middle East concur that the Middle East cannot be democratized.

The Internet has brought democracy to so many other things. It's about time the Internet brought democracy to democracy.

I regard the endorsement of both the objective and a method - which can differ from one country to another- of democratization by the parties in the region as a basic requisite of democratization in the Middle East.

Therefore, the question is not whether such democratization is possible, but instead how to meet the yearning of the masses in the Middle East for democracy; in other words, how to achieve democratization in the Middle East.

Iraq is no diversion. It is a place where civilization is taking a decisive stand against chaos and terror, we must not waver.

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

Lebanon is restless, Syria got its walking papers, Egypt is scheduling elections with more than one candidate, and even Saudi Arabia, whose rulers are perhaps more terrified of women than rulers anywhere else in the world, allowed limited municipal elections.

Anybody who believes that we can democratize Iran, Iraq and Syria by military force is living in a fantasy world.

Political systems in the Middle East are totally dysfunctional and we are going to have to open them up.

My goal for the Arab world is to change the status quo, which is horrible politically, religiously, economically, in every way.

Almost all that has been done for the good of the people has been done since the right lost the monopoly of power, since the rights of property were discovered to be not unlimited.

The peaceful path out of totalitarianism has never been tested.

In this situation [perestroika] problems and difficulties are unavoidable. For it involves far-reaching changes in everything—in the way of life, the attitude toward work and civic duty. We have chosen, definitively and irrevocably, the route leading to new forms of life: democratizing our society in all spheres.

Opening China to the world has dramatically affected the movement for democracy. The process of opening up is a process whereby the government loosens its control of the people. On the other hand, simply opening the economy is not enough. Very few people are actually able to enjoy the economic reforms. The privileged classes, or those who have connections with the privileged classes, enjoy more benefits from an open policy.

You don’t go from tyranny to democracy overnight.

It is overly optimistic to think that we can take a country that has emerged from under a totalitarian regime with its institutions of civil society and create a beacon of democracy within five years. If we try to transform Iraq into a democracy, we will need more and more troops over time because we will have to quell nationalistic revolts.

We will never have democratized countries until we have democratized families.

Democratization was not a slogan, but the essence of Perestroika.

It is a hard, tough time now in the Middle East, and it is up to people to change things.—not only by changing regimes and political stuff, but also by believing in women.

The driving motivation of a new American endeavor in Iraq and in neighboring Arab lands should be modernizing the Arab world.

Ending torture and tyranny in Iraq was not a mistake. Supporting democracy in Iraq is not a mistake. Helping the long-suffering Muslims of Iraq who now seek to live democratically is not a mistake. In the long, long history of the Middle East, this breakthrough may one day be ranked as a dramatic turning point in regional history.

It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.

I'm absolutely confident that the actions we took in Iraq are influencing reformers and freedom lovers in the greater Middle East. And I believe that you're going to see the rise of democracy in many countries in the broader Middle East, which will lay the foundation for peace.

Iraq and Afghanistan are now democracies and they are allies in the cause of freedom and peace.