As for the elections in Iraq, if I am not mistaken, they set up their own government: they decided on a constitutional government, they wrote their own constitution, there constitution said they were a democracy (or republic, I'm not 100% sure of which) they decided on how to handle elections.I AM certain that in 100 years there will be people dumping on what was done there, just like there are people saying George Washington didn't believe in God and that Thomas Jefferson said christians would be the downfall of the democracy.It doesn't matter what you do, history will look on you poorly. It may or may not be the history that is accepted by the mainstream, but there will be some version of history that sees you as the bad guy. Someone says that Columbus committed a great offense by discovering America, while someone else will praise him for his treatment of the islanders.
The above was posted as a response to one of my sections of brain septics. And it helps explain part of what I was getting at. because it is a perfectly legitimate answer that many people will agree with, yet there are discrepancies that many people will disagree with.
The government in Iraq was indeed partially assembled by the Iraquis...however, who would be doing that assembling and writing was chosen by the Allies...and if you have to know the U.S., U.K., Australia, and so forth hand-selected the people who would do what the Allies wanted them to do...people who wanted, say, another dictator were NOT included in the group forming the government. Also, thought many in the U.S. will scream bloody murder, it could be argued that Iraq wanted to live under the shariya (sic: basically, living under Islamic religious law) if the wants of the true majority were taken into account, although then you get in to the whole who should be in charge: Sunni, Shiite, Druze, etc. mess.
Of course, just as the Imperialist powers, Colonial powers, Mandate powers, United Nations, etc...WE decided what THEY wanted even though there was no historical background or motivation for that political system in that location. Saying it is what "they" wanted assumes we know...and in truth, we don't and can't. We can know what the people we happen to want in power want...because we would not want them in power if they did not want what we wanted them to want.
I will say this...look back at Columbus. He actually was noted for his mistreatment of islanders even by the Spanish who had enjoyed the Spanish Inquisition and would soon be happily killing hundreds of thousands or even millions of indigenous people and enslaving the rest.
4 years ago
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Fair enough. Although setting up a government for anyone - even if it's a group that you are a part of - would have to be done either by force or vote. If you do it by vote you have already started in on democracy or some facsimile of it, and if you do it by force it would be something like Tyranny. Of course you could set up for yourself a Republic by force and have it be a tyrannical republic. Even monarchies were set up mostly by people who wanted to live under that form of government. Hitler was voted in. So was Musellini. But not everybody who was subject to them wanted to live that way. I wonder, if truly given completely free choice of what kind of government a given person wished to live under, what would be the dominant choice. Granted, you(I think :P) and I bothknow that a representative republic is the way to go(although ours is fast descending into a democracy), but what if we were given the choice to live under any form of government there was?(I am of course assuming full understanding of the way in which the government would work.) It would certainly make for a less combative political environment. Okay, you want to live under communism? Here is your ticket to old Russia. Representative(hah, lol) republic? Here's your ticket for the U.S.A. Socialism? Where in Europe would you like to go? You can also go to Canada if you prefer. :P(To be honest I know very little about the modern day governments of any other country so if I mislabel it is not intentional.) Wow, can you imagine the political process of the U.S. if half of our elected officials weren't trying to turn this country into something it was very specifically intended to avoid becoming?
Incidentally, that is what I meant about someone praising Columbus for his treatment of the islanders. As I understand it, he sort of created the model for Cortes(sp?) and the rest.
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