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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (330958)	3/30/2007 2:48:18 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572681

re: Given those scenarios, I don't understand why the gov'ts in question allow this kind of stuff......and why they don't prevent the West from seeing it? And why aren't the people protesting afraid? Any thoughts? No 'great' thoughts. Iran has always been pretty open as long as it wasn't overt action to overthrow the government, or an anti-religious thing. They've had lots of student demonstrations over the years. I think China is ever so slowly liberalizing. BWDIK? John

To: tejek who wrote (330958)	3/30/2007 3:19:06 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572681

My thought on Iran is that it is not really a Democracy. Anyone can get elected, but they have no real power unless the mullahs in charge let them run with an issue. The nuke issue is a case in point. The mullahs have allowed it to run. In the mean time, they don't care if an Iranian taxi cab driver protests because he has no power to change anything. But when it comes to people with real power, like that Iranian journalist lady who got a nobel peace prize and then was beaten to death by the Iranian gov't, well, the Iranian gov't makes it clear what the penalty is for real action against the gov't. So calling Iran a Democracy is just a really old and stale joke. China isn't a real Democracy either, but their economic policies are getting so liberal as to almost resemble Western economic policies. This gives the people de facto freedoms that countries like Iran simply do not enjoy, because Iran really isn't a free market economy...it's an oil financed, gov't dictated and subsidized economy. The beautiful thing about liberal economies is that they lead almost directly to liberal and free Democracies. I will predict for all the world to see on this thread that China will become a true Democracy before Iran ever will, unless there is direct foreign intervention in Iran or if there is a new Iranian revolution that replaces the mullahs with a secular Democracy. I'm betting on China, though. And once China or Iran becomes a Democracy, that doesn't automatically mean they become our ally, but at least they will have so much more in common with the West. I'm a big believer in World Peace accomplished through capitalism and liberal economies, rather than through ideological or revolutionary shakeups. Economics builds the institutions necessary for Democracy to function. Without it, Democracies can never stabilize and then thrive. Democracies without economic liberties usually are just shams. Look at what you have in Venezuela for proof of that. Oil subsidized economies and cartels are a fast track to dictatorships.