Democracy Backfiring?

Since 2001, the Bush Administration's foreign policy has been driven by one principle, that Democracies are never terrorist states, and that if we can "spread" Democracy to the nations in the Middle East, we will stabalize that region. After all the other purported reasons turned out to be bogus (WMDs, the Al Qaeda connection, imminent threat), the one alibi that the Administration has held to firmly is the notion that if we can create a Democracy in Iraq it will make the region more stable, protect Israel and make America safer. During the last two days, I spent over a dozen hours at an International Symposium at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, listening to a parade of Bush Administration apologists explaining how Democracy in the Middle East is going to win the "War on Terror" for us.

Today, we learn that a Democratic Election took place in the Middle East, in a country called Palestine. This election was heralded by election observers throughout the world, and even by representatives of the Bush Administration, as a free and legitimate election. More than 75% of the voting age population turned out to vote, and there have been no charges of fraud or even questions about the voting procedure. By all measures, Palestine is a true Democracy and this election was pure example of Democracy in action.

Hamas won a majority of the seats on the Palestinian legislature. Hamas, an organization the Bush Administration calls "terrorist" and refuses to negotiate with, has not only scored a stunning and surprising (to us) victory in the election, but will be the party forming the Palestinian government. Hamas is an Islamist party. The definition of "Islamist" is a political organization that uses the language and images of their religion to seek or create political power (sound like anybody we know?). Hamas has encouraged the destruction of the state of Israel. And they have now won control of Palestine in a free and open election.

It is becoming clear that the new government of Iraq will be an Islamist government. Sharia (Islamic religious law) will become the law of the land in Iraq. We all saw the photos of all the Iraqi people with purple fingers and were told that this free election was a great victory for the Bush Administration and proof that the War in Iraq was the right thing to do. We have fought a war to allow the Iraqis to elect a government that will be at odds with the well-being of the United States, and seeks the destruction of Israel. Good job, huh?

As the American people start to slowly wake to the growing constitutional crisis in our own country, we are watching democratic elections in other countries choosing governments that may well end up seeking our destruction, or the destruction of countries under our protectorate. We are about to learn that the utopian image we were given of democracy spreading throughout the world may not be such a great thing after all.

How will the Administration spin the recent elections in Palestine, where Hamas has won power, Egypt, where the Islamic Brotherhood has gained a quarter of the legislative seats despite a pro-American dictator doing his best to stifle dissent, and in Iraq, where elections that were won with the blood of Americans has created a theocratic government that will deny rights to women and will put religious leaders in control of the country.

Well, I guess if it's good enough for us, it's good enough for them.


Peace.

Yet another great post Vuoto!

I dont have any insight to offer. Your title says it all. Democracy is only good for the US if those voting agree with us. Otherwise we are left with less than desirable leaders, and a poplulace that obviously supports em.

Doesnt do much for us liberals who hate civi casualties. The palestinians wont get much simpathy from the American public if they attack Israel. They have only echoed our worst fears....WE are the bad guys...or at least our gov't is.

Democracy? Backfiring? Against whom?

Democracy has never been something for the citizen, it is a tool for "rthem" and you know whothey are.
The united states of America (capitalization proper) was created to be a constitutional republic, not a democracy. That country was stolen and perverted and used to help pervert other nations.

I wouldn't say that their agenda is derailed because of Hamas winning a democratic election. Remember, "They" profit from war, instability and chaos.

Let me rephrase...

Democracy -in the Mideast- is only desirable if the populace wants to be our ally. Otherwise, we arent fighting ideologies, we ARE fighting nations. There are some positive aspects of this, but I would have rather seen the people elect a group that isnt considered by most of the west as a terrorist organization.

On the positive side, if the poop hits the fan, we now have our "clear and defined enemy."

it's growing trend world wide, just because people are free to choose whoever they want doesn’t mean that they are going to automatically choose the US or who ever they are particularly backing at the time, democracy and is not synonymous with US/American and our interest. Look at what’s happening in South America with the growing leftist/socialist being VOTED into power. In my parents country (Dominican republic) they had elected a leftist president back in 60s over the American backed candidate, the US immediately labeled him a communist/Cuban plant and encourage a Cival war/coup but when not enough people where backing the american backed faction they went in and briefly occupied and put in power a party that ruled our country for the next 30 years (mostly through one elected dictatorship) which were corrupt and had hit teams and all. They did the same throughout latin American knocking over everyone (even those who were legitimately elected) down who wasn’t to their liking and putting crooks and murderers into power, and that’s good percentage of the people remember about the us during the cold war. We may give people the choice to choose, but don’t assume that they are going to choose your way necessarily. I see the same thing to some degree going on in Iraq, I know for sure they didn’t want saddam or his cronies running things, but that doesn’t me they want us or someone who is seen as our lapdog in charge either. The only way to make sure someone chooses us is not to really give them a choice (look at the recent Egyptian elections). I mean if we would have done what we did now in iraq back in 91, we would have had 85+ percent of the population behind us, the 10+ years of sanctions only hurt the general population of iraq, not saddam or his cronies, look at their presidential palaces and their back room deals (oil for food scandal). Our broken promises to help the Iraqi people take over their country with our help lead to failed coups (lack of concrete US help and support) just lead to needless death and the wrath of saddam and his baathis on them.

Now that I got that off my chest……

Onto the the Palestinian debacle, I can’t believe nobody saw this coming. I’ve never really bought the whole minute percentage of the population support terrorism and all that crap. The only good thing about this is that we have a clear picture of what the people support and where the buck stops when the BLANK hits the fan. Arafat was a backboneless shyster, he stole millions, put his friends and family in power, and had the opportunity to set up and independent Palestinian state in 90 with 95% of all of this demand but turned it down because of the way he would have came out looking for making a deal with the jews. Abbas was trying to do something, he was stuck with the corrupt infrastructure built by Arafat and had no real support or ability to reign in the terrorist, agitators and criminals both in and out of his government. The IRA always had Sein Finn to at least hear out a non-violent solution to their struggle, hamas is built on the ideology of killing every man woman and child in Israel and no less. The most moderate move I’ve ever seen on behalf of hamas was sticking to the truce not too long ago for a few months, (very benevolent considering they had lost a good portion of their leadership and the ones replacing them due to Targeted strikes). I mean I understand that people see them as been out and about helping the people through their social programs and fighting for them, while their elected government squabble over just how much they can steal from government funds, but just what kind of future do they see with these guys, besides bloodshed and more violence, unless they shock everybody and tried to work something out, they are just going to goat Israel into and all out war and it’s going to end up with Israel taking back ALL Palestinian territory or spreading into the biblical end times the conflicts spread through out the middle east and WMDs are brought to the playing field.

I’ll just say this after my long rant, the people have spoken and picked their side, now be prepare to reap the consequences of what they have chosen.