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

To: boris_a who wrote (133896)	5/22/2004 3:00:12 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Maybe we should not forget that the Sovjets spread in Afghanistan a lot of what we all would call "modern values" (womens equal right, land reform, health care, education, modern justice system, saecularisation etc.) and everyone would support. To an extent, I would agree. Very simiar to what Saddam's regime implemented within Iraq. But such phases in social development, while possibly having a role and function to play, cannot, and should not, be permitted to usurp the right of the people to legitimately and legally call upon that government to account for its performance at the ballot box. People vote their pocket books.. It matters not what democracy we have around the world, it all comes down to people voting for what they perceive to be what they believe to be in their self-interest (often at the expense of others). But the system must remain in place where governments are held accountable to the people and forced to promote tolerance and good government. In Iraq, there's under the umbrella of guns a full blown privatization program running, very much according to neocon American values, just to give an example. And I see nothing wrong with that. Because if it weren't US guns promoting decentralized privatization and land ownership for the people, it would be group of powerful elite promoting THEIR OWN rights, as they see them, to control ALL PROPERTY and natural resources. I'm still an advocate of giving each and every Iraqi an equal stake in the Iraqi oil industry, establishing a well-managed and egalitarian "permanent fund" similiar to what exists in Alaska. Let the people own the property and inform them of the proper way in which it should be managed, and I think we'd see tremendous unification of people as Iraqis rather than Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis. But I await any sign that this will eventually take place. Hawk