Ousting a dictator not the same as creating a democracy

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: kim brooks wei <kimi () kimbwei com>
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 03:12:07 -0500
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Ousting a dictator not the same as creating a democracy

Dave,

As you see, I've plenty of questions about the Iraq war. Why we're
waging it, for starters. Comments and links you've posted from other
IPers (thank you!) have been hugely helpful to me this week in
getting a perspective on this issue.

I ended up at the Council for Foreign Relations website tonight and
found an article by Thomas Carothers, director, Democracy & Rule of
Law Project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, giving
a pretty balanced view of what the administration is attempting to
accomplish v. how successful it can expect this effort to be
(establishing democratic governments in Afghanistan and Iraq by means
of military force).

Historically, this model hasn't worked so well in a few places,
notably Grenada, Panama, and Haiti. The "post-invasion political life
usually takes on the approximate character of the political life that
existed in the country before the ousted regime came to power."

The author also comments on the dangers of, "wrapping security goals
in the language of democracy promotion and then confusing democracy
promotion with the search for particular political outcomes that
enhance those security goals."

And concludes by warning that lasting reform in the Middle East will
take place over time and cost plenty, "For an effective
democracy-promotion strategy, however, the Bush team must labor
harder to limit the tradeoffs caused by the new security imperatives
and also not go overboard with the grandiose idea of trying to
unleash a democratic tsunami in the Middle East. . . .  In the Middle
East, it means developing a serious, well-funded effort to promote
democracy."

Article: http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=5357.xml

Gave me plenty of food for thought.

Kim
-- 
Kim Brooks Wei
www.kimbwei.com
P O Box 626
Fair Lawn
NJ  07410
V 201.475.1854
mailto:kimi () kimbwei com


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/