The problem, as I see it, has been the tendency to mendaciously and often falsely assign evil to the other guy to excuse our own wantonness then to wage war to get what we want.
Agreed.. Which is why I've vociferously argued that democracy is not a form of government that can be imposed like some kind of politico-economic ideology such as Communism, Capitalism, Fascism, or even "Islamo-Fascism". Democracy is the POLITICAL MECHANISM by which individuals are FREE TO CHOOSE what ideology they desire to represent their individual aspirations.
Democracy is the mechanism by which individual freedoms are UNLEASHED, not imposed.
If a people wish to have an Islamic republic, then they should be able to vote for it. And if that system fails to meet their needs, then they can vote for another ideological belief. An adherence by all advocates/practitioners of a particular ideology MUST require the consent of a majority of the people. And that consent can only be truly recognized via free and fair elections.
Of course, the "fly in the ointment" is that when people elect leaders who practice totalitarian ideologies into power, those leaders immediately act to dismantle the very democratic mechanisms (free press and political opposition) that ushered them into power (eg: the Nazis, and Hamas).
Hawk |
