There is no question that life is hard for the average Middle Easterner. State oppression is a problem. There are not any democracies in the region. Lebanon is a weak exception. Despite this, should we take the line that this administration has taken on Iraq and use a country’s lack of democracy as a justification for invasion?

The Middle East is a dizzyingly complex mixture of regional, national and local political allegiances. Policy solutions to the region cannot be neatly loaded onto a B-52 and dropped over Mosul. We should also take away some major lessons from our experience in Iraq, the most important of which is that we should never think that we can impose democracy on anyone.

I am a loyal liberal democrat. I believe that representative government, natural rights, reason and secularism are the guiding principles of good government.

The United States has a long history that honors these traditions despite the recent attacks by our own brand of fundamentalists. I have lived in autocratic countries and can say firsthand that what we have is pretty nice. But it did not emerge overnight. There was a struggle over what the character of our government would be. Through that struggle we forged the institutions that provide stability to our state and vigor to our republic.

This is why I have always been concerned with this administration’s call to “spread democracy” around the so the rest of the world can catch it, like some Inter-Continental Ballistic STD. Such neoconservative pronouncements are criminally stupid. There is no way that our conception of republicanism can be superimposed on any little country that we “liberate.”

And the idea that everyone in the world is clamoring for a government just like ours is hyper-arrogant, false and exactly why we are bogged down in Iraq.

Indigenous populations must work their problems out for themselves and build respected and impartial institutions before any semblance of democracy can emerge. This is particularly true in the Middle East. It is imperative for our policy makers to understand the nature of the governments in the region and how they relate to their people.

I am fortunate to have had some firsthand experience in this matter. I lived in various parts of the Middle East throughout my life. I can say that I have lived in one theocracy, one autocracy and one monarchy. They are all kleptocracies and nepotistic monocracies (Note: Greek prefixes provide hours of fun).

I lived in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco for about 15 years in all. Each country has its own depressing aspects. In Saudi Arabia, the segregation of the sexes was so extreme that in six years of living there, I did not see the face of a single Saudi woman. And you thought puberty was tough here!

The government of Egypt is a massive rotting hulk of a state that is propped up by the subjugation of its poorest people and U.S. aid money. Morocco also has big problems with corruption and poverty and drug trafficking.

I have visited the slums of Casablanca and cannot imagine a more hopeless place. There are no prospects for the future. They are just condemned to eternal poverty and struggle. Like many Arab states, Egypt and Morocco had a vibrant liberal and democratic political movement but was shredded by the state, leaving the Islamist groups alone in opposition.

The key is that most people in the region prefer the security and stability provided by the heavy hand of the state rather than the possibility of civil discord or fitna (there is your Arabic word of the day).

Clearly this is not a roaring endorsement for Arab governments, but no one wants to live through what Algeria or Iraq has gone through. Arabs’ dissatisfaction with their governments should not be mistaken for a toddlers in a pen clamoring for America to give them democracy and a pacifier. With proper support, they can work toward political progress that is on their terms.

The best we can do to promote good governance in the Middle East is to help with institution building, and not fund states that suck life out of their people.

We have strategic interests around the world that must be protected. But let us never confuse fostering good governance with our legitimate interests. We will repeat the mistake of Iraq again.

Othman is a senior in political science and has also lived in hypocrisies at various times.