Posted on 09/10/2002 4:18:52 PM PDT by Pokey78
(1)That you can impose Democracy on people.
(2) That it makes any idealistic or practical sense, to seek to impose Democracy on any people, where there are not certain ingredients, which make it likely to work.
(3)That imposing Democracy on people, who have demonstrated that they hate one another, is likely to engender either peace or good feeling in a region.
There are a lot of myths. And it seems to me that this writer, for all of his good points, has embraced some of the most fallacious. Put another way, did the "Democratic" election, in which Hitler's Nazi version of Socialism captured over 40% of the vote, pathing the way for his monolithic State, contribute to a peaceful solution to Europe's problems? Was he easier or harder to deal with than the Monarchy that had preceded the experiment in Democracy? Is there anything to suggest that the Iraqi, Syrians, Iranians, or for that matter, even the Israelis, have better political aptitudes than the Germans?
There are certain factors, which were in place in America at the beginning, which made popular Government work for a long time here, as well as it did. Do any of these writers who speculate on instilling Democracy in new places, even bother to study those factors, and seek to understand them? Do they seek to understand how Democracy worked in Switzerland--the one modern country that actually had a working Democracy, as opposed to our Republic?
Failure to even try to understand why certain systems work, and where they work, and why they fail and where they fail; reduces the whole approach to the equivalent of three year olds learning about fire by playing with matches.
To such approach, I must respectfully dissent.
William Flax Rerurn Of The Gods Web Site
"Lurking behind the awkward phrase 'regime change' is a vision of a war to destroy the Middle Eastern tyrannies and replace them with freer societies, as was done in Japan and Germany after the Second World War."Yes. The replacement of Islamic theocracies with constitutional governments with guarantees of freedom of speech, religion, and the pursuit of happiness and protection of minority rights.
Nothing horrifies Muslims more that seperation of religion and state and the freedom of people to proselytize and convert to other religions--and there is nothing that they need more.
Nothing horrifies those who hide from truth more than truth!
"America's enemies sought to destroy it on September 11, only to find their own survival at mortal risk."Yes. And if it were not for American forbearance they would not have survived at all; they would have found themselves vaporized into hell.
"There are many people who are more inclined to do evil than to do good, and the only way to deal with them is to dominate them."
First, please add me to the Ledeen ping list.
Second, it is amazing how much we have learned about Islam in the last year. They have an idiot cult, started by a caravan robber and pedeophile. There was nothing wrong with that, I guess, as long as they kept it to themselves, but no, here they came at us. And the BS about "moderate" Islam is just that, BS. This is what we have learned. They could have left the U.S. alone, but like wild donkeys they had to foolishly attack. And one year ago today, the vast majority of us didn't care squat about Islam. Now we do, and the stupid fanatics don't even realize what they took on. And all we're hearing from American Muslims is whining, not working to find Muslim terrorists in America.
Thanks!
Tony
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