Enforced Democracy

In an article entitled "Let Freedom Ring" about additions to Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech, Time wrote, "The sober, wise Wall Street Journal editorialized for still another: "The freedom of every people to reject any or all of the other four, for themselves, if they so desire." Reason: "Democracy will become the political salvation of the race, if and as it is voluntarily embraced by non-democratic peoples and adapted to their respective conditions, but never if it is made a pretext for an attempt at enforced conformity.""

The War in Iraq is doomed to failure. Democracy can't be forced with the barrel of a gun. The people of Iraq are incapable of democracy. Democracy will only come to Iraq after a significant period of transition. You can't go from totalitarianism to democracy in a single step. The situtation in Iraq will only improve when Iraq gets a strong-willed leader who can force the competing factions to cooperate. The current Iraqi administration is too weak to survive long without the backing of the United States.

The democratic process brought totalitarianism to Germany in 1932. So, after 1945, western Germany was able to reestablish democracy in pretty short order. Japan had no tradition of democracy, but there was a populace compliant to the will of its emperor and when he endorsed democracy, the people willingly followed. Iraq has no history of democratic institutions to reestablish and there is no unifying political force to lead the people of Iraq to democracy.

John McCain is right. There will be dire consequences for failure in Iraq. The War in Iraq was a monumental mistake and there will be a heavy price to pay for that mistake. The "surge" is only delaying the inevitable unpleasantness and wasting American lives and treasure. One of those consequences, the terrorists following us here from Iraq, can be avoided if the President would enforce existing immigration laws. They can't attack us here if they can't get here. Security at all foreign US installations has to be significantly increased. And, Americans have to be strongly warned about their vulnerability overseas. We can't prevent the consequences of our failure, but we can prepare for them.

We must also learn three vital lessons from this fiasco. First, never give a President a blank check for aggressive action. There must always be clear objectives and a certain exit strategy. Second, nation building is not an acceptable use of the US military. It always backfires and further endangers us. And we must learn the unpleasant truth that not everyone in the world wants to be an American.

The world did not change on 9-11. Only the United States changed. There is still a military dictatorship in Pakistan. The people of Darfur are still suffering. Global temperatures are still rising. Poverty and AIDS are still rampant across Africa. The only thing that changed on 9-11 is that Americans realized that the world is a truly dangerous place and that no place on the planet is safe. That danger is largely of our government's own making. And, just as the Roman Empire couldn't protect its citizens everywhere in the world, the United States can't either. And, because of Iraq, the world will be an even more dangerous place and there is even less that the United States can do to protect us. Ramming democracy down the throats of the Iraqi people doesn't help.