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

To: neolib who wrote (182250)	2/21/2006 3:35:52 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I think what our amabassador said yesterday was a last ditch attempt to have the iraqis pick the other shiaa guy for PM and dump this guy. He was elected very narrowly and with al sadr support and a threat of impending violence. Now Al sadr has the hammer and we approach the worse case scenario which we feared. mike

To: neolib who wrote (182250)	2/21/2006 5:42:35 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

What's "American Democracy"? And when did the current "flavor" of the above stated form of democracy actually appear? My view is that democracy MUST be progressive. And thus, it's ALWAYS a work in progress. Thus, American democracy, assuming you're referring to the form it current exists in, is the product of 200+ years of political and social evolution. Again, I reject the belief that Democracy can actually be stuffed down "unwilling throats". If anything, dictatorship and tyranny is what is forced upon people via intimidation and violence. Democracy is not merely an exchange of oppressors. Democracy is the ever-evolving result of a process of creating a government that is accountable to, and representative of, the people who elect it. A process that will, over time, erode the sharp, cutting edges of human intolerance, polishing the society which it represents. Democracy represents the rights of individual human beings to have a say in how they are governed, as well as the current and future status of their personal lives. It is the natural instinct of the very people who choose civilization rather than a state of nature. But there are those who obviously have an interest in oppressing others and denying them their rights. So your analogy with regard to gays and the S. Baptists breaks down because in a civilized democracy, the rights of both are to be preserved to the extent that they don't infringe upon one another. When they do, there must be compromise. So while Baptists can't force all gay people to become "born-again", neither can gays force their alternative life-style upon the Baptist convention. Hawk