Daniel J. Pipes

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NATO and "liberal" democracies

Reader comment on item: NATO Fights the Jihadis

Submitted by Jerry C. (United States), Oct 3, 2006 at 21:02

Interesting article, but contains one worrisome phrase: ..."That NATO invite for full membership, countries that are both liberal democracies and able and willing to contribute to the war against Islamic Jihadism."

The problem is that under the Bush regime, most Republicans today are opposed to liberals...the demonize liberals at every turn. Under FAES' proposal, the United States would no longer be eligible to be a member of NATO.

Here is just a short list of people who don't or didn't like liberals, just in my lifetime: Fidel Castro, Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier, Rafael Trujillo, Augosto Pinochet, Mao and the current rulers of Communist China, Kim Il Jong and his father, the Assads, father and son, the mullahs in Iran, Sadam Hussein, the Saudi Royal Family, Idi Amin, Francisco Franco, Benito Musselini, and Adolph Hitler. The most prominent anti-liberal before I was born for us Americans, of course, was King George III who detested the liberals who wrote the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution...two of the most liberal documents in the history of the world. Our two greatest Republican presidents were liberals...Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

Liberal democracies don't spy on their own citizens without warrants; don't torture people; don't do away with habeus corpus; and don't crush an informed and large middle class; and don't claim the right to lock up their own citizens just because the president declares them to be "enemy combatants without due process.

We are rapidly becoming something other than a liberal democracy. It's too bad, because it was so nice while it lasted.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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