[John Kilduff]

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John you should pick up a copy of deterring democracy by Noam Chomsky. It will help disabuse you of your beliefs about the good intentions of US foreign policy.

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I'll look into it if iI can get it cheap [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] or maybe I'll see if the local library has it - I like to go to the library about once a month and browse and read a bit.

I'm not saying that American policy is based on altruism, but rather that I think this particular administration genuinely thought they could bring "democracy" to Iraq and from there to the Middle East, and that that would be a good thing as well as a good long-term strategic move (of course they miscalculated). I also think that it was somewhat down the list as far as their priorities went.

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i respect your posts john, however democracy in postwar iraq definitely wasn't the agenda of this administration. in fact democracy in iraq would be painful for US interests. just look around the region about the closest american allies. the last thing US want in the middle east would be a democracy.

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Well it is true that democracies such as seem to be developing in Afghanistan and Iraq, will likely be ultimately contrary to U.S. interests. I think that is pretty clear.

Going back well before the war, though, I seem to recall that the Neo-Con idea was that democracy in the Middle East would be modeled after U.S. democracy; that is, with assurances of full civil rights, freedom of religion, a secular government, etc. And I seem to recall something about the Project For A New American Century suggesting that democracy be spread, and the tacit assumption was that would be in the model of U.S. democracy. Of course, it isn't turning out quite that way. Maybe it wasn't actually in the PNAC, but if not, it was likely in the writings of the prominent Neo-Con theorists, at least. Sorry I can't remember better or be more specific.

I do agree, though, that democracy in the Middle East looks now like it may become the worst of both worlds, the way things are going; and because it will offer inadequate civil rights protections, and because it may well give a green light to both tyranny of the majority and to strong and widespread anti-US sentiments held by many across the Middle East.