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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (119925)	11/18/2003 7:42:49 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

<I define a legitimate government as any one which is clearly supported by, and is accountable to, the people living under its control> OK, I'll accept that definition. But there is no way to know whether the people "clearly support" a government, without a free and fair election. Without that, you are just guessing and hoping, giving thugs the benefit of the doubt. And your guess is likely to be influenced by your biases. I have an objective, concrete, and verifiable standard by which to measure the "consent of the governed": a free and fair election. Your standard is subjective, vague, and partisan. You say the S. Vietnamese government was legitimate, and had the "clear support" of the S. Vietnamese people. But, from 1954-1975, there was never an election to verify that. Never. Oh, yes, there were elections. But if you call any of them "legitimate", or "free and fair", I can post a mountain of evidence, proving otherwise. All the elections in South and North Vietnam were equally illegitimate, determined in advance by the soldiers. And, I'll add that any election held in Iraq, while a foreign army occupies the nation, is also illegitimate. Such an election might (just might) be free and fair, if the U.S. armed forces have entirely withdrawn from populated areas, and promised (in advance) to respect the results of the elections and leave if those who win the elections tell us to. Which, I guarantee you, they will. As any patriot in any nation would.