Promoting Democracy
Posted by: Dale Franks
The QandO Blog
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Lawrence Kaplan writes in The New Republic that, while the claims for Bush enthusiasts that he is single-handedly delivering democracy to the world, the simple fact is that without such a policy, there will be no pressure for democratization.
As Kaplan puts it:
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There is a lesson here, and a reminder, for a nation chastened by the war in Iraq: When it comes to democratization, either the decisive push will come from Washington or it may not come at all...
Alas, in the telling of American opinionmakers who take an organic view of democratization—arguing that it must be grown, nurtured, and never transplanted—interference is still interference. From Assistant Secretary of State Adolph A. Berle, who, in 1939, declared that "a nation coerced into democracy is not a democracy," straight through to Senator Chuck Hagel, who warns against the inclination "to go forth and impose democracy," the argument is nothing new. But it has been enjoying a vogue in Washington as the Iraq war grinds into its third year. Abroad, however, the voices in full cry today against "outside interference" belong mostly to the dictators and their allies. As for the democrats, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kyrgyzstan's Tariel Bektemirov neatly summarized their priorities. Echoing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's famous plea from the Soviet Union to "interfere as much as you can. We beg you to come and interfere," Bektemirov said, "I want the U.S. to interfere. I want the world at large to interfere."
And so we should.
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Not only is overthrowing dictators fun, it's jst the right thing to do.
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