[John Farson]

Those countries all had pre-existing traditions that were favorable to democracy.

Spreading democracy is the vision of Woodrow Wilson -- not any real conservative. Empire is a losing proposition.

We'll go bankrupt before we see lasting success in Iraq.

[mylife]

We sure are a prosperous bankrupt nation.

[mathluv]

You were obviously educated in some poor public school, if you believe Japan and Germany had 'pre-existing traditions that were favorable to democracy.'

I would also point out how long it took us to get it right - and we did have those traditions.

[mnehring]

Have you ever taken a history class beyond high school?
Before WWII, Japan was probably the most thoroughly totalitarian state in the world. All dissent was effectively suppressed by 1890 with the promulgation of the Meiji constitution. Ienaga Saburo has written of the Meiji Restoration (1868): “A small elite seized power, crushed the nascent popular reformists and created an absolute state around an emperor system.”

There were very few people in Japan alive during WWII who remembered life before the Meiji constitution. The roots go back all the way to 1868 with the overthrow of the last Shogunate. Between 1868 and 1890, the country was run by, what we would describe as martial law, where even assembling for non-political purposes would subject you to death. Only to the West were there reports of how ‘free’ Japan was during this time.. The fact is that the ‘freedom’ came from a politburo type of program started by Nagazane, who issued a ‘vote’ to one person per town, who happened to be installed by Nagazane, or one of the other insiders who later created the Meiji constitution.

Japan never knew freedom of any sort until after WWII.