Some words to think about.
Many people said in the 1970s that Latin Americans were unsuited for democracy, in the early 1980s that East Asians were unsuited for democracy, in the late 1980s that Eastern Europeans and Russians were unsuited for democracy. Many people worried in 1945 that the Germans and Japanese were unsuited for democracy. There were reasons for their doubts and fears. But the United States took chances on democracy, transforming Germany and Japan into decent independent nations we can live with and helping to move Latin America, East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia in the same direction. We have no choice now but to do the same, first in Iraq and then in other parts of the Middle East.
(via InstaPundit)
73 view(s)
A wee-bit of a problem — in the thousands of years of history in the Middle East, there’s never been democracy.
Simply put, the people aren’t wired for it.
This is something that isn’t going to work, especially if we try to force it on them. The Saudis, for instance, will do everything they can to squash it — hence the shifting of US policy regarding post-war Iraq.
Does it mean we shouldn’t try? No. But it’s going to take an enormous committment, which this administration fails to follow through on. After all, we did such a bang-up job in Afghanistan.
Ah. The people of the Middle East aren’t “wired” for democracy. Well, there you go. Did you actually read the cited paragraph from the story?
And, sorry, I wasn’t aware that Afghanistan had returned to the Taliban-run theocracy or the warlord-dominated no-mans-land it was before the US-led military intervention there so long ago in 2002. I also wasn’t aware that the US had withdrawn from Afghanistan; in fact, I thought they gave $530MM in relief efforts there last year. Thanks for updating me.
Sure, I wouldn’t mind seeing us do more there — but writing off the US (and international) effort in Afghanistan at this point seems terribly premature, no matter how often it’s repeated.