Hi, I am Z-kid. I am a homeschooled kid with Tourette's syndrome. I enjoy video games and many other constructive activites (litteraly!) such as legos, etc. I enjoy computers very much, mostly the tech. behind 'em. I don't know what to say yet but I do have one thing to say.
Why are we trying to bring democracy to Iraq?
I mean c'mon, they have been violent apes for thousands of years (no offense, LOL) and we try to change that simply to make them more like us? I don't believe all Iraqis are like that, I mean there must be one of them who stood up for womens rights (which ended up in a car-bomb), but the majority of the natives living there kill in the name of their god! Thank you for your time, and this concludes our brodcast day.
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"Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room." Sir Winston Churchill
6 comments:
Beats me, Z. I think Iraq should be left on its own now; that would save the U.S. a lot of trouble, and let the Iraqis do whatever it is they want to do (which they'll do anyway, not matter if they have a democratic government or not). According to greatwhitebear.blogspot.com, the new government in Iraq isn't democratic anyway: There were more votes cast than there are voters!
Hi there Zkid. I'm a bloggin buddy of your mom.
Careful about the stereotypes - remember that before the industrial age the Arab nations were far more advanced and that "we" were the violent apes killing in the name of god.
I agree we have no business over there, but imagine what the reaction would be in the US if a foreign power took control, bombed cities, and tried to impose their rules on us... I think we'd fight back.
You'll find your voice... bloggin is difficult at first. ;-)
Did TSHS Mom warn you about my long posts?
Z- The theory with democracy is that it can work for ANY group of people. Check on Robert's Rules of Order sometime. It's like the Hoyle rules for card games. It tells you how to conduct a fair and democratic meeting. It is standard for private organizations (political, charitable, you name it) to Adopt Robert's Rules of Order.
Pro-life and Pro-choice groups both use the same manual, even though their thinking is opposite of each other. The same is true of Republican clubs and Democrat clubs.
There is an important principal here: Form and Content. In this example, the form would be Robert's and the content would be either Democrat or Republican. This can go the other way, too, however. Indians of different tribes might join AIM. They might conduct local meetings using a variety of formats -- round table, Robert's, or whatever. Then the Forms would be different, but the Content the same.
So, we want to offer the Iraqi people a chance to decide amongst themselves, by voting, what rules of government, or Form they want. This will be their Constitution. Then, they will follow their own rules in order to hold elections.
The elected officials will create a content that is very different from ours. They might decide on more than one set of laws to be applied to people, rather than having the same laws for everyone. That is because of religious differences.
The Muslims belong to different "sects." Here we would say they belong to different denominations. They are considering passing human laws that are the same as what they believe the laws of God are. But they disagree about that, even though they have the same Holy Book.
So, as an analogy, it would be like passing laws that say, "No Baptist way drink alcohol, but Catholics may. No Catholic can go too long without confession and penance, but Baptists may do without that."
That's why we are there -- to keep the people themselves deciding what they want to do, without a dictator interfering. Saddam Hussein came from a minority denomination. He did two things that were unfair to most people in Iraq: he adopted a "socialist system" which forbids any religion. Even his own people wanted a religious law. As a dictator, Saddam got around the prohibition on religion by making human laws which matched the Sunni denomination -- a minority.
In Iraq, political power was the opposite of what it is here. Here, the majority has power over the minority. Under Saddam, the minority had power over the majority.
Imagine how you would feel if the American Nazi Party came to power here, in a dictatorship, and made laws based on their strange ideas about God. You would be waiting for the right chance to get rid of them. We gave the Iraqi people that chance, and they were overjoyed as they tore down a statue symbolizing Saddam's power.
I think we are there for all the right reasons. Here is the problem: we didn't have everything well planned. We have run into serious problems, and things have not gone as we and most Iraqis wanted them to go. Russian President Vladimir Putin was right to admonish President Bush that we cannot "export" democracy. Democracy is a priviledge, but it is also a responsibility. There are societies whose people are uneducated, and whose people speak many different languages, and have different cultures. They are not ready to have elections right away if we get rid of their dictator.
So far, that has not been a bad problem. In Afghanistan they have a history and culture that supports the concepts of democracy. We didn't have to teach them. In Iraq, the people are highly educated. They can learn the Form and add their own Content.
I guess that's true. So either way it was pretty stupid to jump in there with little idea of what we were doing. Thanks for your insight!
z - i like your blog alot, I'll be back from time to time.
sage, while you are mostly right, i am gonna disagree with one statement: "Here, the majority has power over the minority." This is not exactly true. The reason we have a bill of rights is to keep the majority from lording power over the minority.
And it is the Sunnis main complaint with the new constitution. The fact that the deeply religious Shia will be able to force thier religious views on the much more secular Sunnis.
My friend Alan tried to impose Robert's Rules of Order at Walterdale theatre: Total bust. When someone forces parliamentary procedure on you, isn't that a dictatorship?
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