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Can Democracy Be Imposed?
The American Chronicle ^ | December 2, 2006 | Dr. Alamgir Hussain

Posted on 12/03/2006 6:43:56 PM PST by Lorianne

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To: Blake#1
For the first time in recorded history people of one nation are willing to die so that the people of another nation can have such freedom.

I think we went in there cause we perceived Saddam as a threat to the USA
21 posted on 12/03/2006 8:19:39 PM PST by uncbob
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To: uncbob
I think we went in there cause we perceived Saddam as a threat to the USA

No, no, no. You have it all wrong. The mission and objective changed once the first phase was complete. Now it is all about purple fingers and doing right by the 24,700,000 that might not want to kill us today. See, we will install a Shiite Hezbullah led government and they will not exterminate every Sunni that they can get their hands on. If they fight amongst themselves, we will simply send in more combat troops with new rules of engagement. Stay the course!

22 posted on 12/03/2006 8:30:20 PM PST by ARealMothersSonForever
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To: Lorianne

Twelve million purple-fingered Iraqis were not forced to vote. They did, in spite of the threats to their life, because they want democracy. It was not forced on them.


23 posted on 12/03/2006 8:48:25 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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To: advance_copy

Voting is not all there is to democracy.


24 posted on 12/03/2006 8:49:29 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Once again, twelve million Iraqis voted, in spite of the threats to their life, because they want democracy. It was not forced on them


25 posted on 12/03/2006 8:54:30 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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To: advance_copy

So? Wanting and having are two different things. Maybe they do not understand that democracy is more than just a vote.


26 posted on 12/03/2006 8:56:10 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: cripplecreek
"If it's really democracy it can't be imposed for long since the people will get rid of it."

Not historically accurate, unless you're willing to argue that Japan is not democratic. Of course, MacArthur literally altered the theological landscape of Japanese religion before imposing democracy. To impose democracy in the muslim world, a theological reconstruction may also be a pre-requisite.

My son is recently back from Iraq, and spent a lot of time with Iraqis. He says what these people need most of all is "a different religion." They are slaves to the thugs and gangsters, who thrive in an Islamic environment, easily bending Allah to speak their will.

27 posted on 12/03/2006 8:56:48 PM PST by cookcounty (Murtha: Is that an Albatross or an Osprey around his neck?)
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To: Lorianne

We should have listened to Ann Coulter when she said what we need to do is go in and convert them all to Christianity.


28 posted on 12/03/2006 8:57:44 PM PST by MovementConservative (Getting back to principled conservatism.)
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To: Lorianne

They understand that Saddam Hussein was a murderous thug, and they are glad to be rid of him. And they understand that it is their duty, in the face of threats, to participate in democracy.


29 posted on 12/03/2006 8:58:24 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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To: advance_copy

They are not standing by their elected government.


30 posted on 12/03/2006 9:00:06 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Good Americans don't always stand by their elected government. And good Americans don't undermine their country when it is at war. No matter where an American stood at the beginning of war, once it is started, every good American stands for victory and nothing less. Any one who stands otherwise is a contemptible scalawag.


31 posted on 12/03/2006 9:02:56 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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To: advance_copy

What do you think of this guy's article?


32 posted on 12/03/2006 9:04:36 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
I understand what the author is saying and have a great deal of sympathy for his point of view. He may yet prove to be right, and perhaps this is only splitting hairs, but I think not. It is simply this - we are not "imposing" a democracy on Iraq. We have created a set of conditions under which they may fight for it - and they are now, and are going to have to continue to do so - with some decent prospect of success.

The Iraqis are not passive recipients of this political largesse, they have paid dearly for it. It is an incredibly difficult challenge given the autocratic antecedents of the country, the tribal grass-roots organization, and the broad and vicious historical oppression of Kurd and Shi'a by Sunni. It's impossible, absurd - I can certainly understand why so many very knowledgable people find it unlikely.

But it hasn't failed yet. And if it doesn't it won't be because the U.S. gave anything to anybody, it will be because the Iraqis earned it. There is no other route to freedom, there is no other route to democracy. IMHO.

33 posted on 12/03/2006 9:05:20 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Lorianne

The article is crap.


34 posted on 12/03/2006 9:08:05 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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To: Billthedrill

Well said. I hope you are right.


35 posted on 12/03/2006 9:08:27 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: advance_copy

Why, exactly?


36 posted on 12/03/2006 9:29:54 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: EvilOverlord
>"Forceful occupation, elimination of the existing culture, and building up a western-style culture over the course of 20-30 years may do it."

Kinda like WWII. Japan and Germany.

37 posted on 12/03/2006 9:34:06 PM PST by rawcatslyentist (When true genius appears, know him by this sign: all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.)
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To: Lorianne
Those who argue that democracy cannot be imposed from foreign interventions are obviously wrong if considered the interventions in Japan, Italy and Germany

Interventions? I do believe those countries either attacked us first (Japan) or declared war on us first (Germany and Italy). Those were not interventions.

Germany and Italy were western countries with some fairly recent experience with representative government. Japan had no such experience at all, and they revered their previous head of state as a God, something even the Muslims do not do, they don't even consider their religious leaders to be Gods.

If it can work in Japan, it can work in a Muslim country.

Of course we might have to pound then all into rubble first, as we had to with Germany and Japan, (The Italians were not really fighters, just lovers, and took the hint as early as they could)

38 posted on 12/03/2006 9:34:42 PM PST by El Gato
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To: SteveMcKing
That's our "democracy". Which is still far preferable to losing one's head, but not exactly what was envisioned after the Revolutionary War.

Our founding fathers knew enough to want to stay as far from "democracy" as they could. They ham stringed the government, and only with the increasing "democratization" of that government, has our freedom been compromised significantly.

39 posted on 12/03/2006 9:38:32 PM PST by El Gato
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To: Lorianne

This article asserts that the war in Iraq cannot be won due to the Islamic rejection of democracy. Screw the Islamic extremists. They are our enemy, and they are the enemy of Iraq, and they are going to lose.

Millions of Iraqis who participated in democracy are muslim. The same occurs in Turkey. This idiotic notion that muslims are incapable of living in democracy is crap.

Turkey has been doing it since Mustafa Kamal. The only people that think Iraq cannot have democracy are those who believe the only Islam is extremist Islam. Islamic radicals are the enemy of the United States, and they are the enemy of Iraq.

Such are the terrorists who plant IEDs and car bombs. The good people who live in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, will eventually reject the terrorists. That is, unless we abandon them, which we must not do.


40 posted on 12/03/2006 9:42:43 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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