How the US is supporting dictatorship and terrorism
Reader comment on item: Arabia's Civil War

Submitted by Alain Jean-Mairet (Switzerland), May 20, 2003 at 06:01

Democracy doesn't start at the government level, but at the people level. It is illusory to install, or support, some sort of democratic government in a country where people are living on tribal systems, dominated by corrupted habits. On the other hand, it is but natural for people living in a free environment to promote a decision system that relies on the majority's opinion.

Of course, there are exceptions, but in the vast majority of cases, so my hypothesis, democracy will flourish better and more rapidly if we support the basic attributes of a free country rather than the instruments of its government. For instance, in Iraq, after the military action, the US should have provide police forces, in order to insure security, and engineering assistance, in order to provide the most necessary resources, and it should have let his fingers away from all potential political leaders.

For the most part of the US, it is enough, though, to defeat the obvious evil-doers. The rest of the job is to be done by the locals, backed by the UN. This position sure looks defendable at first sight. And as the US is a democratic country… But if we accept the hypothesis that democracy needs freedom to rise, in the first place, we see that the action of the US is seconding rather dictatorship than democracy. Well, this is at least the point of view of many people too. Of those who support terrorism, more or less actively, for instance.

Democracy is a gift. Truly. But you cannot throw even such a beautiful gift at someone's face. Then it becomes a weapon. Then it will launch aggressive feelings.

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