Hawkmoon, you must have a very naive view of politics in general and the politics of democracies in particular. I say that because there's no other explanation for your posting such ridiculous assertions as:
"You cannot impose democracy, you can only unleash it.
Show me a person who doesn't want to have a say in how they are governed and I'll show you a slave.
Furthermore, when a government is elected, the decisions that government makes represent the entire population as a whole, for better or worse. When a government is UNELECTED, it's policies represent only those of the ruling elite, yet the entire population suffers the consequences (ie: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Saddam's Iraq, and Afghanistan's Taliban.. etc, etc).
If the people of Afghanistan elect a government which imposes shari'a law, that fine and dandy with me. If they elect a government that decides to wage global (or even regional) Jihad, that's fine with me also, if only because we can now hold the entire population accountable for it's government's decisions.
I was there, in Iraq, when 12 million Iraqis dipped their fingers in ink and voted. It was an amazing display by that population, which had never had a free election in their lifetimes (if ever)."
Why can't you "impose democracy"? If I go to your country and use overwhelming force to require that your leaders be elected by the votes of whichever of you is willing to vote, isn't that imposing democracy?
And having a say in how you are governed does not necessarily mandate that you desire a democracy. Believe it or not, many people would choose to be governed by a cleric, an emperor, or even a benevolent dictator like the king of Jordan.
Also, why would it be "fine with you" if a country like Afghanistan chose a democratic form of government and then decided to impose Sharia or wage global jihad? What happened to all your Pollyanna cries that you wanted to help the downtrodden masses across the world lead better lives?
Finally, you imply that the elections in Iraq were to choose a democracy. You're wrong, the ink stained fingers of millions of Iraqis didn't "prove" that millions of them wanted democracy. All that "proved" was that given the narrow choice of voting or not voting based on the decisions of Iraqis WE HAD SELECTED AND A CONSTITUTION WE HAD PUSHED ON THEM, they chose to vote because not voting meant that their enemies would own all the power.
So let's get real here; democracies work where there is a culture of justice, a respect for the rule of law and a deep appreciation of the rights of minority races, religions and ethnicities. In nations where there is ethnic, religious and, or, cultural diversity and where the dominant culture does not have strong historical roots in justice, tolerance and non violence, however, the "unleashing" of democracy would be horrific.
Surely even you with your blind, semi-religious worship of "democracy" can fathom that? Ed |
