Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (183729)	3/18/2006 6:23:13 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

Why? How would that work in Iraq where the "elected majority" are "answerable to" a population who are dangerously intolerant and brutal and where there are ancient hatreds that are, even today, resulting in brutal executions of the men, women and children of other sects? So I see that you believe that Democratic government has nope promise of creating compromise and power-sharing, right? What kind of compromise is ever derived from a totalitarian or authortarian regime? Isn't such an unaccountable government only answerable to its own agenda and goals? Doesn't this lead to even more conflict? Forgetting that it's not "God's green earth" but rather "Allah's sand colored earth," that's a very good thing if the "people" who constitute the majority are well intentioned, respectful of the rights of others and just. But what if the "people" who constitute the majority are narrow minded, ignorant, radicalized by culture, history and religion and unjust? That's a pretty broad, and racist, brush you're painting the entire Muslim world with, don't ya think? Obviously, not everyone is so intolerant that they are willing to kill everyone that doesn't agree with their own views. If they could, there wouldn't be a Sunni left alive in Iraq. Are you so ignorant of human nature and so unaware of the history of Iraq that you're willing to wish a Shiite dominated police force, judiciary and military on the minority sects in Iraq? I don't see that as our goal there in Iraq. It certainly wasn't what we wish to see, and we're taking great strides to engage the Sunnis into the political and security process. But the Sunnis have some responsibility for the early choices they made, which was NOT to participate. So, by default, the Shi'a have been able to dominate the current government. But we're seeing the Kurds, Sunnis, and even some Shi'a opposed to Al Jaffari, taking steps to create a more even-balanced power sharing structure. If you'd stop thinking in platitudes and slogans about how a democratic form of government is the best form of government for every nation IN EVERY INSTANCE then maybe you'd be able to understand why fostering a truly democratic form of government in a country like Iraq is controversial. And you show your ignorance of human nature by believing that people actually enjoy having others dominate their lives and tell them what to do. If you want an Iraqi democracy that is benevolent and just then you'd better favor waiting to give their culture generations of time to accept some of the precepts that allow tolerance or, alternatively, you'd better favor allowing the nation of Iraq to segregate itself into separate nations that will tolerate the different beliefs and sects that would reside within the new borders. And how would you go about that? Return Saddam to power? Set up some other form of puppet dictatorship that may, or may not, undertake these necessary cultural changes? It's fine to complain Cnyndwllr, but you're not sticking your neck out and telling how it should be done. Hawk

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (183729)	3/19/2006 11:54:45 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Don't forget, literacy in the US, at the time of our revolution, was amazingly high- because of the protestant belief that individuals needed to read the Bible themselves. Many historians believe that education is absolutely necessary for an effective transition to democracy- it's one thing that helps to explain the horrible period the French experienced following their revolution (since the literacy rates in Europe and the UK were much lower than the US rate). Iraq now has a very low literacy rate. Professionals have fled the country, and in the countryside I believe literacy now is below 50%. When you consider the (relatively) high literacy rate in the US, and the way the US voters are manipulated, I'm sure you can imagine that it is almost impossible (or perhaps absolutely impossible) for an ignorant electorate to hang on to their democracy, much less establish a new government based on democracy.