>Yes. You were linking intelligence and democracy and I was saying >that that the 2 are mutually exclusive. I know a few East Germans >that lived behind the wall and they see no huge comparative advantage >to their lives today versus their lives then.
So democracy and intelligence are mutually exclusive? Are you sure that is really what you mean? I have known many, many people from all over the former Soviet states- government ministers, intelligence people, artists, interpreters, regular folks. The people who had it good had it pretty good, but the people who were seen as subversive, different, or troublemakers had a very hard time. It is exactly the "free thinkers" like you who fared the worst under the Soviet system, so I find it more than a little ironic that you see no problem with it. >Put another way, they'll tell you that there's positives and negatives >of both - that they're different, but that one isn't necessarily >better than another. That argument is over, we won. See 1990-1991. Communism blows chunks. >I'm referring to the fact that every developed democracy in the world >has started from the ground up. >Iraq, in contrast, is democracy from the top down. There is an implicit contradiction in this argument. On the one hand, the anti-war left seems to be saying that top-down democracy is what we're trying to do- as Dana said democracy at the point of a gun. On the other hand, the same faction complains that Iraq is weak internally (meaning that the federal government is weak) and that the U.S. does not have enough boots on the ground to fix the problem. So which is true? We don't have the force to impose anything, but we're imposing democracy? All we are doing is helping the Iraqis organize elections and provide security for those elections. It is up to Iraqis to decide whether they will vote and who they will vote for, just as it was up to them to decide who would be candidates for this next round of elections. Don't forget the Kurds, who have a functioning government and have ten years of self-rule behind them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:185503 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
