Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Andrew Sullivan prints this e-mail from Sana'a, Yemen:
- " Democracy is something a nation has to want, something a nation has to want so much they will shed blood for it. And the Arab world wants democracy as much as they want a hole in the head. They don't get it, they don't care to get it and it seems to be making life particularly shitty for their Iraqi brothers. I don't care what Bush or Wolfowitz or any of that crew have to say, people are not going to embrace this imposed "freedom." I am here, you aren't."
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I don't get why you even would post something like this. Do you think of yourself as a racist or a bigot? If you agree with the sentiments of this post you are. If you think Arabs are not capable of democracy you are a racist. It is that simple. Not ready for Democracy? Don't want Democracy? This has been the cry of every tyranical dictator since time started. This exact same argument was made about Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and almost every Asian nation. Turkey is a muslim nation. So is Indonesia and Malaysia. What person does not want a say in how they are governed. Everyone does. Everyone has an opinion. Sure. Not everyone in Iraq wants a democracty. But only those people that think their opinions will hold sway in a nondemocratic nation. Like the Taliban. Members of the Taliban are against democracy because they know in a Taliban regime what they think is right for the government will prevail. A lot of them sure voted in Iraq. Those people don't want democracy? Or is it possibly the insurgency is a minority, like the Taliban, that thinks that they know what is good for everyone else.
See the problem with the people that are against the war is that they will throw out any argument that is against the war. The problem th some of these arguments are not only weak but are racist and bigoted. If you want to argue - not in our strategic interest - fine - If you want to argue that the country may divide up - fine. But the arguments that Arabs don't want democracy or don't have a culture amenable to democracy, or that the people were better off with Saddam Hussein does not strengthen your argument and reflects much more negatively on the person making the argument than it does on the war.
