“There are other critics, believe it or not, that argue that democracy could not succeed in Japan because the national religion — Shinto — was too fanatical and rooted in the Emperor. Senator Richard Russell denounced the Japanese faith, and said that if we did not put the Emperor on trial, “any steps we may take to create democracy are doomed to failure.” The State Department’s man in Tokyo put it bluntly: “The Emperor system must disappear if Japan is ever really to be democratic.”
Those who said Shinto was incompatible with democracy were mistaken, and fortunately, Americans and Japanese leaders recognized it at the time, because instead of suppressing the Shinto faith, American authorities worked with the Japanese to institute religious freedom for all faiths. Instead of abolishing the imperial throne, Americans and Japanese worked together to find a place for the Emperor in the democratic political system.”
Memo to the nuke Mecca crowd.
Read and heed.
We’ll know for certain in 25 years whether this Iraq experiment was a good idea or not. In the meantime, everything else is just political posturing and short term opportunism.