Charley Reese: Imposed government will create its own opposition

[Martin Eden]

Some people, including our president, seem to think that once free elections are held in Iraq, democracy will exist and everything will be just fine and dandy from there on out.

This rather widespread belief stems from a misunderstanding or ignorance of our own country and its history. It isn't the elections that have given us the country we all cherish. It is the Constitution and the general consensus that everyone must obey it. That is the key difference between the United States and many other countries in the world.

<<snip>>

Like everyone else's, our culture and heritage are unique to us and the other offspring of Great Britain — Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They cannot be transferred to other people with different cultures and heritages of their own — least of all at the point of a gun. In our country, elections are just part of the mechanics of government. We are simply choosing people on a temporary basis to operate the machinery of government that they cannot change.

<<snip>>

Iraq is an Arab country, and whatever government emerges must be consistent with the Arab heritage and traditions, or it will not last. As with the human body, transplants generate their own opposition.

read more:
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/reese5.html

[HawkerHurricane]

1. I hate to be diffucult

Especially since I agree in princeple to Mr. Reese.

But democracy had been imposed by gunpoint to Japan just 48 years ago.

Of course, the situations are not identical; I'm just pointing out that it has been done.

[cosmicdot]

2. I expect the PNAC/BFEE gang are wondering if the key was Hiroshima

:scared:

[HawkerHurricane]

3. The Key...

was defeating them so soundly, on every front, pushing them to the brink of starvation, that they (Japan) had no choice but take what we gave them.

I don't recommend trying it in Iraq; I'm just saying.

Imposing democracy in Iraq MIGHT work IF we pulled out the day after the new government took power; and if we made it clear beforehand that we intended to do just that.

[Martin Eden]

4. The difference...

There are many differences, chief of which, IMO, is that the occupation of Japan was not fiercely resisted in that part of the world within a context of religious fervor and competing world views.

Not only is the occupation of Iraq being violently resisted by the Iraqis, it is seen as an assault on the entire region by most of its inhabitants. And most of the world views the invasion and occupation as a violation of international law. Contrast current opinion of the U.S. with that of the 1945 power that saved the world from facism.

I don't agree with everything Reese wrote in this article, and you have a point that there are exceptions to every rule. Japan would be the exception about imposing democracy at gunpoint. Iraq will not be.

The main principle of the article stands... a government cannot last unless the charter of that government is widely supported by the people.

Cheney/Rumsfeld may or may not have been able to transplant democracy to Iraq IF they had relied upon counsel from the true experts on the region and had devised a well-thought plan to implement immediately after Saddam was deposed.

But the neocon ideology does not allow for any facts or advice that challenges their preconceived beliefs and agenda. By their own arrogance and hubris they have destroyed any chance to implement their current justifation for the war -- democracy.

I think we all know that true democracy in Iraq and the Middle East would not be kind to American (and especially neocon) interests. We have a history of propping up repressive governments in that region. The notion that the current crop of imperialist hawks and corporate hegemons are crusaders for democracy is a notion they have been very successful in getting the American people to believe, but the "beneficiaries" of their crusade are not buying it.

This same cabal is doing real damage to American democracy.

For more on the occupation of Japan:
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/daniel_sneider/6322046.htm

(edited for spelling)