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

To: neolib who wrote (182080)	2/19/2006 8:00:46 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

A better look at Asia would be to consider how both Taiwan and S. Korea finally became democracies. We could have forced it on them back in the 1960's, with poor results I think. I thought that was what we did when the Japanese surrendered and Korea was liberated? Granted, they weren't the most inclusive democracies, at first, but I believe we set up the constitutional and governmental structure almost immediately. Same goes for how democracy has slowly come to Central America. You might recall that we actively assisted insurgents in that region which did not IMO help at all. Nor did the USSR's support for insurgents "help" the situation. It certainly gave the "caudillos" sufficient excuse to politicize the military in the name of anti-communism. However, the end result has been that in the 40 some odd years that Castro communist government has been in power, most of the Latin dictatorships have progressed to democratic elections (albeit with some regressive results such as Chavez and Morales). But they will never really take ownership if it is our democracy, not theirs. I absolutely concur... Which is why I believe it's necessary for us to stand by the Iraqis while they sort out this power struggle and come to a workable compromise. Withdrawing our support as an arbitrator and honest broker would not assist in creating a tolerable power-sharing agreement. And I agree that not all democracies are the same. They don't need to be, IMO. But they require the basic democratic values of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, not merely for the powerful. Achieve that and they will be well on their way to progress in other areas. Hawk