Bush, Putin butt heads over democracy

Washington Times ^ | 17 July 2006 | Joseph Curl

[Stultis]

Putin is right on this one.

No he's not. The principle requirements for democracy (if you don't like the word, just say governance accountable to the people) are a free press, independent judiciary, the rule of law, and transparency in business and capital markets. Despite the violence, Iraq is already at the very least even with Russia on all these criteria. In some, such as a free press, it is far ahead.

BTW, did I say "Puck Futin" yet in this thread? (Never hurts to type it twice. Puck Futin.)

[Stultis]

By the way, I noted when Putin made this assinine, smirking remark, the supposedly balanced and unbiased media pukes in attendance broke into uproarious laughter and applause.

I suppose that makes sense if, like the leftist media, you're permanently stuck in 1971.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Yeah, Putin wants the same kind of democracy as his close allies and clients have in Belarus, Red China, Burma, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran.

[mjolnir]

The United States does not suffer from a surfeit of democracy--- on the contrary, the Supreme Court and federal and bureaucracies have moved further and further away from the bounds of democratic controls.

As Aristotle noted, each of the main forms of government have a corrupt form and a better one and President Bush is clearly talking about the latter, as his context makes clear: in virtually any speech where he has talked about expanding democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere, he has not talked about increasing it nearly as much as he has talked about increasing freedom.

As for the Hamas election, it served a great purpose, that of clarity. After it, the liberal left in Israel and America could hold the people of the Palestinian Authority accountable; the delusion that the majority did not support Hamas i.e. support terrorism was shattered.