‘Somewhere over the Atlantic,’ wrote Robert, ‘there is a giant glass curtain through which Americans view the Middle East, which utterly distorts their vision.’ Embedded in that view is an arrogant colonial attitude that only the West and Europeans truly appreciate democracy. The West offered the Middle East democracy in the form of military operations – overt or covert, either directly or with the help of its regional allies – but no one should expect the people in these countries to fully understand or value democracy because they were not Europeans.
Fisk, Robert. Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East (p. 537).