If the goal in Iraq was to create a government like ours in America, it looks like we can say (again) 'mission accomplished.' From today's Los Angeles Times:
Maybe we should think twice about remaking the world in our own image...
One would be fairly justified, I think, in saying that this has been the essential but unexpressed (maybe even unrealized) goal of American foreign policy - at least until the Bush people clarified things in their most foul (and mis-characterizing) way. The basic idea has always been something like, 'If the world were simply more like us, foreign policy would essentially take care of itself.' This has been the case since before our founding, when the land that became America was to meant become, in one of Reagan's favorite phrases, as a shinning city upon a hill.
I paraphrase Churchill on Democracy: America's is the worst system of government except for all the others. And I am something of a Patriot and a Nationalist - but really, we can do better! We are, after all, Americans! (and Americans are, in case you've managed to miss the point, better than everyone else)
Is the problem Democracy itself? I'm naturally skeptical of things (especially concepts) that have elicited universal praise. I mean, Pakistani or Palestianian democracy has, so far at least, not merited praise. One can't escape the ultimate (and unsavory) implication: Maybe (and contrary to our long-held goal) Democracy is something only Americans should have!
But, in light of my last post, even that, it seems, is less than shinning and quite unworthy of being atop any respectable hill!
Again, I have no answers. Only prejudices, skepticism and time to write a few things down.
Iraq's parliament ended its summer term Wednesday without passing legislation setting up provincial elections this year, forcing the government to call an emergency session for the weekend. However, a positive outcome remains far from certain...They have created, it seems, a perfect replica of the American government - one which ends its legislative sessions without having accomplished the work at hand, which consequently calls emergency sessions (and thus governs mostly through ever-deplorable omnibus and stop-gap legislation), and which raises questions of whether the ultimate outcome of governmental activity is indeed at all 'positive.'
Maybe we should think twice about remaking the world in our own image...
One would be fairly justified, I think, in saying that this has been the essential but unexpressed (maybe even unrealized) goal of American foreign policy - at least until the Bush people clarified things in their most foul (and mis-characterizing) way. The basic idea has always been something like, 'If the world were simply more like us, foreign policy would essentially take care of itself.' This has been the case since before our founding, when the land that became America was to meant become, in one of Reagan's favorite phrases, as a shinning city upon a hill.
I paraphrase Churchill on Democracy: America's is the worst system of government except for all the others. And I am something of a Patriot and a Nationalist - but really, we can do better! We are, after all, Americans! (and Americans are, in case you've managed to miss the point, better than everyone else)
Is the problem Democracy itself? I'm naturally skeptical of things (especially concepts) that have elicited universal praise. I mean, Pakistani or Palestianian democracy has, so far at least, not merited praise. One can't escape the ultimate (and unsavory) implication: Maybe (and contrary to our long-held goal) Democracy is something only Americans should have!
But, in light of my last post, even that, it seems, is less than shinning and quite unworthy of being atop any respectable hill!
Again, I have no answers. Only prejudices, skepticism and time to write a few things down.
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