D
dzheremi
Guest
There is a perception, fed by Western/American idealism, that everyone recognizes (or eventually will recognize) democracy as the best form of government and that the implementation of democracy in a given society will ultimately lead to a more fair and just society. I do not think this is supportable in light of much evidence to the contrary. Exhibit A: The democratic election of Hamas in Palestine. There are of course counter examples to this even in the region (e.g., Hezbollah’s richly deserved defeat in the Lebanese elections back in June), but notice how such exceptions often provoke political crises when the losing side is unwilling to accept a new order in which they do not have the power and influence they once enjoyed. Why things would be any different, let alone any better, in Iraq, i don’t know. The sad fact is that democracy is not fated to triumph, and even if it were it certainly isn’t going to before the Iraqi Christians are all liquidated.
To put it bluntly, I find the idea of an Iraqi “democracy” (which in reality will be anything but) built on the blood of innocent religious minorities to be the sickest thing imaginable. Regardless of how you feel about the correctness or incorrectness of invading Iraq in the first place, I hope you’ll agree that essentially ordering the peaceful minorities of Iraq to die or leave the country in order to pave the way for a political system of unknown effectiveness in the context of the country in which it was forcibly installed is inherently evil. Did the Assyrians agree to die for this democracy? Did the Yazidis? The Kurds? The Arabs of all religious and political persuasions? I hope I am not stereotyping people to an unfair degree (after all, I know plenty of people from the Middle East who love democracy, and would like to see it flourish in their home countries), but it seems to me that all this flowery talk about how democracy will take hold and everyone will be free, etc. is a lot of after-the-fact justification for a failed political project.
No democracy or other political movement has ever been successful without domestic, grassroots support of the ideals behind it (and plenty have failed even with these). For instance, despite the popular idea, communism did not fall in Eastern Europe because Ronald Reagan willed it in his speech at the Berlin wall, but because the people of Berlin willed it. In the case of Iraq, the people who could be the greatest supporters of a democratic Iraq are being bullied and worse by a bunch of maniacs with guns who don’t want “their OWN brand of democracy” to rule in Iraq, only their own brand of Islam. There is no reason why they won’t get it, and plenty of reasons why they may.
To put it bluntly, I find the idea of an Iraqi “democracy” (which in reality will be anything but) built on the blood of innocent religious minorities to be the sickest thing imaginable. Regardless of how you feel about the correctness or incorrectness of invading Iraq in the first place, I hope you’ll agree that essentially ordering the peaceful minorities of Iraq to die or leave the country in order to pave the way for a political system of unknown effectiveness in the context of the country in which it was forcibly installed is inherently evil. Did the Assyrians agree to die for this democracy? Did the Yazidis? The Kurds? The Arabs of all religious and political persuasions? I hope I am not stereotyping people to an unfair degree (after all, I know plenty of people from the Middle East who love democracy, and would like to see it flourish in their home countries), but it seems to me that all this flowery talk about how democracy will take hold and everyone will be free, etc. is a lot of after-the-fact justification for a failed political project.
No democracy or other political movement has ever been successful without domestic, grassroots support of the ideals behind it (and plenty have failed even with these). For instance, despite the popular idea, communism did not fall in Eastern Europe because Ronald Reagan willed it in his speech at the Berlin wall, but because the people of Berlin willed it. In the case of Iraq, the people who could be the greatest supporters of a democratic Iraq are being bullied and worse by a bunch of maniacs with guns who don’t want “their OWN brand of democracy” to rule in Iraq, only their own brand of Islam. There is no reason why they won’t get it, and plenty of reasons why they may.
