How foolish it seems, in retrospect, to have expected “Arab Democracy” to have sprung from this nest of vipers.
“How foolish it seems, in retrospect, to have expected “Arab Democracy” to have sprung from this nest of vipers.”
No, I don’t think so. I think it was entirely predictable. If you listen to Mark Levin (or are familiar with some of his “classics” [for want of a better word]) then you know Democracy relies upon a common, widespread morality and other elements that comprise the underpinning of a “civil society”.
I’ll not pretend to lecture you or anyone else to what those elements are. Suffice it to say, the notion of going into Iraq 2003 with the hope that Democracy would spring from the innate desires and aspirations of the people was very much a long shot. Very. And I believe any competent Arab scholar could have predicted to the GWBush admin why such an effort was doomed to failure. The fact of the matter is, there’s nothing harder than getting people to change their religion. And their religion says Mohammed is the supreme being/power. So now, you want to go in there and have them respect a set of laws, a Constitution of whatever form, if you will, is now the highest power. Was never going to happen. Would never happen even if the subject country was a petri dish, isolated from its neighbors. In this case, the idea that any given city, once captured or freed of rebels, would just sit there and gladly accept US influence without outside interference of many types....was naive.
“How foolish it seems, in retrospect, to have expected “Arab Democracy” to have sprung from this nest of vipers.”
There was no nonsense too foolish for the geniuses guiding the Dubya administration.
They live in a fantasy world where religion and culture are insignificant. Where Islam is “a religion of peace” and is just as likely to foster a democracy as the Christian West.
Over the years there have been countless books discussing how America’s culture and its Christian roots allowed for the creation of a democratic republic. You could hardly find a book by Russell Kirk that didn’t touch on this theme.
Of course the only thing needed to hide that wisdom from the Bushies was to put it into a book.