One of the premises on which the attack on Iraq was based is that the Iraqi people have no real power - that they are not a democracy. And hence America was justified in "liberating" that country. In blogs and opinion pieces, there is no doubt that most people have bought into the argument that America has to do "something" about dictators or "tyrants". Many people may not support the war but they still think that being a democracy automatically makes America somehow responsible for world affairs.
But, is democracy or "Western" democracy, an ideal?
Don't get me wrong - democracy is definitely a component of an ideal mode of governance. But the people of America and Britain and many other Western countries seem to be satisfied that they have reached the ideal model of a society. And that from henceforth, they can preach to other societies. I do not see any major effort within America to reform her own processes - other than perfecting the voting system.
For example, in the last 50 years, America has launched multiple aggressive wars in the name of democracy. The majority of her citizens have cheered on these wars - and have ONLY complained when the wars went bad for America. To me, this represents a fundamental flaw - not something as superficial as fixed by reforming the voting system. It is obvious that the majority of American citizens do not really care that the "Supreme International Crime of Aggressive War" has been committed by their country - repeatedly.
Thus, is America a natural world leader because of her vaunted "values" or her "freedoms" or merely because of her military strength?
Inspite of the violations of human rights and being a theocracy, the much reviled Iran has not attacked any other country in its modern history. Shouldn't Iran be considered a better world leader and model than the USA?
My point is that American citizens seem to have become complacent about their "natural leadership" arising out of being a democracy. The truth is that being a democracy is an important but a small component of an ideal society. A democratic government model just makes sure that a country's majority are not harassed by their own government. It does NOT guarantee that a country's minorities are safe - more importantly, it does NOT guarantee that the country will not commit aggression against other nations and commit genocide.
With respect to Iraq, the whole sets of arguments are self-centered in America. The Iraqis and the rest of the civilized world are supposed to wait while democracy follows its own course in the USA - whose military continues to kill people in Iraq.
We should not forget that Britain was a democracy when she occupied and looted many other nations across the world. Many "tyrants" of the Third World have a better record than Britain when it comes to aggressive war and occupation. More than 50% of Americans voted for Bush in November 2004, even though it was obvious by that time that the WMD was not there - thus demolishing the primary reason for going to war. Democratic America kept cheering Bush on while Abu Ghraib happened - the tide only turned against Bush when Katrina broke the levees. As long as a democratic leader keeps his constituency happy, he can freely colonise and commit imperialistic offences against the rest of the world.
Stop patting yourselves on the back for being a democracy - we need to evolve better than this.
With this in mind, forget for a moment that you are an American and think about what would be the right set of actions for America in Iraq:
- Obviously withdrawal from Iraq should happen NOW. Any concerns about Iraq breaking into civil war are not your business - you committed aggressive war in the first place.
- Is withdrawal enough? How do we make sure that America never does this to another country? Do democratic Americans have the moral courage to realize that their country has to be punished for its offences? Shouldn't America be foced to pay HUGE reparations to Iraq and her citizens? Do they have the courage to realize that the doctrine of Bush should be completely rejected by the next administration and Bush and his cronies should be handed over for trial as war criminals?
- Shouldn't we find out the motivations of the people who voted for Bush and denounce and root out these beliefs as being identical to Nazism?
This should be a goal sought by progressives - to evolve democracy much more and to carry the message that Western democracies have failed to be any kind of ideal.