----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 10:41 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] The end of warfare?
joanna bujes wrote:
>Iraq: to establish a permanent military presence in the Middle East
>and to destroy the possiblity of secular democracy in the region.
Secular democracy? Saddam was doing a good job of preventing that from taking root! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What do you mean? Iraq was certainly secular when it was governed by the ba'athist party (note the astute avoidance of "loaded" terms).
And as far as "Democracy"... What does that mean to you?
This is what it means to Encarta encyclopedia: Democracy (Greek demos,"the people"; kratein, "to rule"), political system in which the people of a country rule through any form of government they choose to establish.
Pretty straightforward.
If I remember correctly, Saddam Hussein was an elected leader, so why wasn't it "democratic"?
The other Encarta encyclopedia entry is: "American Democracy"... And when I clicked on the link it took me to an the entry for "US Government" (which is what we are trying to export under the guise of "democracy").
Democracy develops in place, and in response to the type of despotism or repression it is intending to supplant. It is dynamic, and can no more be exported than revolution can be exported.
There may have been a more progressive brand of democracy incipently brewing in Iraq while Saddam was leading...
But we fixed that.
IMHO that *was* the plan.
Overposted & Out... Leigh Meyers leigh_m at sbcglobal.net