Posted on 07/05/2004 9:28:08 AM PDT by RockinRight
Just more of an opinion or observation. It seems that during the US occupation, and even after the handover in Iraq, that many of their policies are more like modern liberalism than our Constitution. Example--before the handover, the death penalty was abolished (now re-instated) and now the interim Iraqi officials have declared militias illegal. Do you think that we are using today's liberalism to model Iraq, or is it more a matter of ultimately letting the modern, elected new government and its citizens decide what to do?
Also, why does it seem that their new government is modeled more after the UK than the US (i.e., a Prime Minister, etc)?
Let Iraq and Iraqis decide what they want.
I could care less who the Iraqi's model themselves after....just as long as it is a Democratic society. :-}
"now the interim Iraqi officials have declared militias illegal"
Hopefully, this is an indication that the Iraqis will go after Sadr with force, since his declaration this morning, that he will no longer cooperate and will 'press on'.
This will be the first true test of their resolve and ultimate strength, since his turnabout is an indication that he senses weakness, now that the initial handover is accomplished.
It's the standard modern government wolf done up in Grandma's democratic dress.
All they have to do is remember that they can either support terrorism or fight it, and that will determine which side of the war on terror they want to be on.
Wouldn't America be better off if - for instance -- the 1992 Congressional elections might have led to Clinton's forced eviction from the White House?
Bump!
Allawi and Sadr make a good team. Allawi says there was justification for attacking US troops and gives the attackers amnesty. Sadr takes this as a signal to keep up the attacks. The United States responds by ????
Allawi is trying to peel off some of the insurgents and put some symbolic distance between himself and the US, in order to solidify his standing.
The United States responds by ????
Working with Allawi. Iraq belongs to Iraq now.
>>I could care less who the Iraqi's model themselves after....just as long as it is a Democratic society.
Some quotes from our Founding Fathers on Democracy:
James Madison (in Federalist Paper #10): ". . . democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
John Witherspoon: "Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state – it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage."
Fisher Ames: "...there will not be morals without justice; and though justice might possibly support a democracy... a democracy cannot possibly support justice."
Zephaniah Swift: "It may generally be remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy the more they abound with disorder and confusion."
Benjamin Rush: ". . . a simple democracy - is one of the greatest of evils."
Gouverneur Morris: "We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate - as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism . . . Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to the level of folly and guilt."
Edmund Randolph: "[The purpose of the Convention was] to provide a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and trials of democracy . . ."
Fisher Ames: "Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism."
John Quincy Adams: "The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived."
I agree Iraq should choose. I also agree that any sort of "democracy" or Republic (which would be better) is better than Saddam. .
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