just MOAB the living crap outta the middle east.
Post from David Warren article earlier today:
Democracy is not just voting. Democracy is a whole bourgeois way of life, and a method for resolving disputes peacefully. It is not essentially compatible with millenarian religious schemes. We ask, “Can Islam and democracy co-exist?” What if Hamas has given us the answer?
The problem is if Hamas loses the next election, will it abide by the result?
A fine read, the author is correct, a level of flexibility has been introduced to the Arab fortress.
The Palestinians have expressed their collective will by democratic means.
Which means, they voted, without too much fraud or coercion of the electorate.
Their collective will, it seems, is that the Jewish people of Israel have no right to be there, and should be driven into the sea.
One would suppose, that there may be some conflict of goals here, and the two sides do not seem likely to come to a compromise.
The Jewish people of Israel have been left with the distinct impression that they have bought and paid for their right to live in the land of their ancient promise.
On all sides they hear the clamor of voices that deny this ancient birthright, and yet they cling to the heart of that promise.
For the Muslims, this is not a matter of money, or honor, or justice. They have what they believe to be a common scourge in their midst, and they want it excised by any means imaginable.
The Muslims have a cancer upon their souls. But it is not Judaism. It is their own implacable hatred. It blinds and paralyzes them, and strikes fear and pain into every fiber of their being.
"Invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them all to (some more rational and forgiving religion)."
There is going back. Hitler didn't give up power. Saddam kept miraculously winning elections by rediculous margins. Hamas was the only group that Arafat's old clique couldn't steal the election from. There may never be anothe
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Yes the essential pieces are there but they are nonfunctional.
The essentials were also there in the Soviet Union and in the 70 years of the USSR’s existence I do not recall any evidence of the system finding an “equilibrium”.
Even the election of Mohammad Khatami was meaningless. Mr. Khatami was an approved candidate. A candidate approved by the power behind the throne, the ruling council of Mullahs.
As long as there is an unelected unimpeachable power in Iran democracy there is a mere facade of freedom.