The so called exporting of Democracy

[wjh2657]

I watched the excellent HBO series "John Adams" on dvd this week. It started me into some serious thoughts about what we are doing today. First off, let me state that I am not anti-war. (I spent 30 years active duty in the USMC and have considerable combat time.) I personally believe that a strong U.S. Military presence in the Middle East is an important step for our own security. mainly to keep any super powers from arising in that region ( shades of UAR!) However I think that the reasons given my our administrations (note I used the plural) for their actions are off base. I speak mainly of the goal of setting up Demoicracies in the Middle East. Democracies have to develop from within. The French Revolution is an example of country trying to copy another. People forget today, but the French Revolution failed miserably, it led to an empire ruled by a tyrant. The democracy France has today is derived from later developments, all internal. Many South American attempts by the US to set up democracies have also failed. Why? And more important what does it mean in IRAQ today?

The colonies had already lived under democratic, representative rule for a century or more. Each state had its own parliment of some sort. Until George III really started losing it, England had pretty much left the colonies to themselves. The tyranical taxation period was relatively a short period, brought on by England's need to cover the cost of her many little wars with her neighbors.

Thus, the original American leaders had all lived as free men. In looking at the character, education, and strength of character of our leaders we were very lucky that so many strong men were in place at the right time and the right place.

The very men who are in charge in IRAQ have not themselves been steeped in a free and democratic life. And I see no John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson among them. For sure, and this is critical, I don't see a George Washington at all. After viewing the DVD I have come to feel that democracies can only be formed and sucessful when strong men, free and wishing their fellow men to be free, are in charge. We didn't succeed because of our principles. We succeeded because of the men who clung to those principles and backed them up with action. I don't believe you recruit that kind of leadership in a country that has never known freedom and for sure you can't import them from somewhere else. If the people of IRAQ had thrown out Hussein and established their own government under their own chosen native leaders, we could have helped with advice. But it didn't happen that way!

I think it is important to just be honest with the American people and say that we are in Iraq for military reasons that support our own agenda in the Middle East. If that agenda works in our favor, which it can, then that is enough. If the democracy experiment fails in IRAQ then the agenda still remains the same, shift troops or whatever you need but you have a valid justificaion for action.

I would like to hear some thought on this.

[DMark]

Well having been one of those who took part in the run-up for OIF I had an interesting view of many decisions made by our country's most senior leaders.

Alot can be said about the why of going into Iraq. I'll save those WMD insights for a "tell-all" book I should write someday.

BUT - - - This I can say.

We had NO IDEA how broken a country Iraq was. The citizens only went about their daily lifes out of fear that Saddam or one of his evil sons would kill them if they didn't go to work. When we removed the Husseins....., there were no John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or George Washington among them. They had left or been killed.

The "Iraqi Exiles" we hung our hats on to lead turned out to be fakes.

But hey, this war stuff is hard.

Edited September 1, 2008 by DMark

[DaveTN]

I don’t believe that we attacked Iraq to help them become a democracy, nor do I believe it had anything to do with oil. We attacked them because we either had to deal with them now or later. It was a matter of national security; nothing more nothing less.

Do I think Iraq will remain a democracy? No. It doesn’t appear to me we are making much progress now. If we stay until the new leaders, military, and police departments have control; we may never leave.

When we removed the Husseins....., there were no John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or George Washington among them. They had left or been killed.

Exactly.