Arabs from Egypt to Iraq have gone to the polls this year and protested in the streets of Cairo and Beirut. Western media said a region used to authoritarian rule was going through a democratic spring.
Some Arab reformers see progress and the United States has taken credit for what it calls "unprecedented changes". But others hungry for more freedom say their region is really passing through a political winter.
Limited reforms by long-standing Arab rulers have done little to loosen their grip on power, they say.
Already suspicious of US motives, they see hypocrisy in America's refusal to deal with popular Islamist groups opposed to their policies.
Voting has deepened sectarian cracks in Iraq, which they say teeters on the brink of civil war. Lebanese went to the polls for the first time in decades without Syrian troops in their country, but divisions between its religious communities over the role of Damascus threaten more instability there.
"For small achievements, we are paying dearly," said Mohamed al-Sayed Said, a prominent member of Egypt's reform movement. "I'm not sure that we are any closer to any of the good ideas and good aims of the US administration," he said.
The United States hoped an Iraq without Saddam Hussein in charge would be a beacon for democracy in other Arab countries. But daily violence and splits between Kurds, Shi'ites and Sunnis make some wonder whether the country will even stay intact.
"The American handling of occupied Iraq has undermined the prospect of long-term democratisation," wrote London School of Economics and Political Science lecturer Katerina Dalacoura.
But some reformers in the region defend US policy and want it to continue in the same vein. Any retreat would give rulers a free hand to crack down on opposition groups emboldened by US calls for democracy, they say.
"Iraq is a miracle -- having a psychopathic dictator to a situation where at least we have a political process going on was something that could have taken 30 years," said Hisham Kassem, a member of Egypt's opposition Ghad Party.
"People will never appreciate any efforts by the Bush administration now. Maybe historians will do it justice."
The United States says it has brought historic change, not strife, to the region. "It is sheer fantasy to assume that the Middle East was just peachy before America disrupted its alleged stability," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote.
"Who truly believes, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, that the status quo in the Middle East was stable, beneficial and worth defending? How could it have been prudent to preserve the state of affairs in a region that was incubating and exporting terrorism," she said in an article this month.
Leaders in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which were both home to September 11 hijackers, have responded to US calls for change with ground-breaking elections this year. Both countries are US allies.
But Saudi Arabia's first municipal elections presented no threat to the monarchy and tight terms on who could stand in Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential ballot meant President Hosni Mubarak faced no serious competition.
Islamist opponents of Mubarak's government accuse Washington of hypocrisy because of its failure to criticise the arrests of hundreds of their activists during parliamentary elections. The authorities are widely accused of rigging the election.
Despite the restrictions, the Muslim Brotherhood won its biggest ever bloc in parliament. The Islamist movement is opposed to much of US Middle East policy and Washington supports an official ban on the group.
The United States has shown flexibility in its approach to Islamists by working with Shi'ite Islamist groups which have risen to power in Iraq. But it brands as terrorist Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction.
Hamas, which like the Brotherhood has strong grassroots support, is expected to do well in Palestinian elections scheduled for January.
"The problem with the American administration is that it is not consistent, not coherent," said Sayed Ferjani, an Tunisian Islamist exiled because his movement is banned.
"It wants to see democracy, although it likewise wants the democrats who win to not to be Islamists," he said.
"The American administration looks for its interests in our region, only for its interests. It does not care for the interests of the people," said Ali Bayanouni, the exiled leader of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood.
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