"I asked for some sort of documentation to support yours."
Opinion is utterly meaningless if you can't back it up with some facts.
I gave you the history of Elections before the military regimists.
I gave you the view of MEs in the 1990s (It was the prevailing view not just the Iraqi American view btw. It was from Lybians, Egyptians, Palestinians etc. none of whom wanted the US to empower them in their home lands. It was largely an anti-American/CIA sentiment).
I gave you a long list of political parties operating in Iraq. That should be evidence that there was an interest before Saddam's fall.
I gave you the facts of the circumstances that allowed over thirty nations to move from authoritarian rule to self rule, circumstances denied the Iraqi people.
I gave you the Kurdish Democratic Party founded in 1946.
I gave you millions of people in Iraq who voted for a representative government absent a clear threat from Saddam indicates an interest that was probably long present.
Them's the facts to back up my opinion. Hardly zip, zero, nada.
"Now you have decided to make an end run from the pre-Saddam days to some sort of metric based on voting sentiment in occupied Iraq, versus sentiment under Saddam. And WHAT does that have to do with the likelihood of democracy in pre-Saddam Iraq? Because I don't see the connection.
End run from pre-Saddam? ... Iktomi I provided an extremely long treatment of modern circumstance on the Eastern Hemisphere, as I see it, which is challenging the West. You questioned one imbedded comment I made in speculation about pre-Saddam Iraq, perhaps looking to recover a fumble?
I really don't think our discussion of the pre-Saddam dem-nondem history is significant, in the context of the rest of that post. In fact, it seems kind of beside the point to me. I'd be happy to leave the fumble where it lies but you have provoked some thoughts and I am happy for that, as always.
Best regards,
gem |
