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The Spectacle Blog
After losing thousands of lives, suffering tens of thousands of casualties, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars, we have brought democracy to Iraq. Sort of. But we certainly haven’t created the sort of liberal politics and free society that Americans think of as characteristic of democracy.
Observes my Cato Institute colleague Ted Galen Carpenter:
The Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is increasingly corrupt and autocratic. Aside from periodic elections with competing parties, the new Iraq is beginning to resemble the old Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Maliki’s bureaucrats routinely harass both foreign and domestic media outlets that dare to expose his administration’s abuses.
Disturbing evidence of such repression has been building for at least the past two years, but matters escalated dramatically in February with the regime’s shocking brutality. As with many other countries in the Middle East, demonstrations broke out in Iraq demanding, among other things, an end to the Maliki government’s rampant corruption. Those demonstrations culminated with a “Day of Rage.” Although the demonstrations even on that day were mostly peaceful, security forces killed at least twenty-nine participants.
The beatings administered to the protestors particularly echoed prior times. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that respect for human rights is going to improve given the current constellation of political forces.
Nor is Iraq proving to be a loyal ally. When it comes to Washington’s friends, in this case the Sunni thieves in power in Bahrain, who relied on Saudi troops to crack down on the majority Shia population, Iraqis—people and officials—came down against the U.S. supported regime. If the Shia-Sunni split further widens things could get even uglier.
Not that this should surprise us. In Kosovo the U.S. fought a war for people now accused of having engaged in organ-trafficking, using prisoners, both Serbs and accused Kosovar collaborators. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appeared prepared to go to war with Russia over the country of Georgia, which actually started that little war back in August 2008 and whose president, Mikheil Saakashvilli, now appears to be a bit less of the democratic paragon that the senator then seemed to believe. (Of course, a couple years ago Sen. McCain was off in Tripoli toasting Moammar Qaddafi on a mission to discuss the provision of military aid. This was before the senator decided that Qaddafi was a vile dictator who needed to be removed.)
The next time someone urges a “humanitarian” war, they should think of Iraq. Irreplaceable human losses as well as a further boost along the road to national bankruptcy. Loosing civil strife which killed a couple hundred thousand Iraqi civilians. And no democracy any of us would want to live under. Some deal.
View all comments (20) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/06/02/we-bought-this-iraqi-democracy
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C Bowen| 6.2.11 @ 6:14PM
Worse, Mr. Bandow.
We didn't buy it, we are paying for it on the installment plan all because some soccer moms were scared of Saddam.
Marc Jeric| 6.2.11 @ 6:56PM
Today's Iraq is the consequence of the British Protectorate formed after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Three different Turkish pashaluks (Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds) were combined into a single unit, today's Iraq) by the English governor in order to reduce the costs of governing. The same thing happened when the Versailles Conference gave Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro to the Serbian monarchy to form Yugoslavia; not to forget the unfortunate combination of Checks and Slovaks now separated. There is no future in the "new" Iraq.
James| 6.2.11 @ 7:09PM
GWB was a disaster for our party and our country.
Richard Baker| 6.2.11 @ 9:09PM
What could one expect from these sand jockeys? Look at the region and all that one can see are dictatorships, murderous theocracies, and brutality of every stripe. When we leave the region will continue down it's historically destructive path. With Islam, nothing good is possible.
danny| 6.2.11 @ 9:22PM
all i have to say is that mr. baker speaks the truth.
BD57| 6.2.11 @ 11:25PM
I fear Mr. Baker has accurately predicted the end result. Whatever its underlying cause, the attitudes and traditions which support true representative government are entirely lacking.
While there are plenty of people who favor "freedom", the "respecting other's freedom" aspect of the equation is missing.
Red Phillips | 6.2.11 @ 11:32PM
I agree with Mr. Bandow's assessment, but at least Iraq allows multiple parties on it's ballot, unlike the US which places significant barriers (esp. in some states) to ballot access for "third parties." So in one respect, Iraq is doing democracy better in it's infancy than the US is after 2000 + years.
bruce| 6.2.11 @ 11:52PM
You paid for Pakistan too.
At least Iraq isn't your enemy any more. You need to be much harder on Pakistan.
India's democratic independence, which FDR insisted on against Churchill, ain't much to be proud of either.
Morgan| 6.3.11 @ 12:36AM
Guess we got what we paid for
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JimH| 6.3.11 @ 8:00AM
Reasonable people can disagree about the case for going into Iraq. What is clearly a mistake is our attempt at nation building and our continued presence. At this point the only possible reason I can see for us being there is to take over the oil fields so we can be compensated for freeing them.
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WJ| 6.3.11 @ 8:37AM
A shockingly good blog post on a site that has typically supported the Iraq debacle despite all evidence against.
Mr. Bandow will not be writing here much longer.
All American American| 6.3.11 @ 8:39AM
You're just figgerin' out NOW that "democracy" doesn't work in muslim countries? Wow. As they say in the Guiness commercials: Brilliant!
See here's the thing--islam is incompatable with freedom, or diversity of opinion, or tolerance, or any sort of attempt at a Western-style republican for of govt. That's a basic Truth, yet for some reason all the really superdee-duperdee smart folks in DC seem to think its not. So we keep spending and spending and our troops keep dying and dying and 10 years later neocons act surprised when its "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
Read a koran and it will (well it should anyway) change your perspective on islam.
Thomas| 6.3.11 @ 10:19AM
The depth and scope of the perceptive abilities of the contributors to this blog is truly amazing. Against all odds, the ever perceptive here have noticed that the governors of Iraq are behaving exactly like 85% of the national governments on the planet. And, for some reason, it is all G.W. Bush's fault. Well, folks, the truth is that outside of Northern Europe, 2/3 of North America, Australia and Japan, true democracy does not exist. And, it only exists in these areas as long as the citizens appear ready to take-up arms to maintain that level of representative democracy.
NO one should be surprised at what is happening in Iraq. And, when push comes to shove, we really don't care. The U.S. went into Iraq to make a point and to establish a military presence on the border of Iran. A democratic state is just gravy.
Skippy| 6.3.11 @ 1:28PM
Thank you!
I never gave a whit whether there were WMD's in Iraq.
I supported us going there to kick Saddam's ass; get him dead; disrupt business as usual in the sewer of the Middle East; and kill as many jihadis as possible. The gravy of democracy is just that; a bonus. If it doesn't happen, so what.
The point has been made; when a man is POTUS, do not screw with us.
When a boy is POTUS, go ahead and walk all over us.
C Bowen| 6.3.11 @ 3:08PM
Removing Saddam made Iran the power player in the region and Iraq--do you really know anything about what you are talking about?
Man, the Iranian agent Chalabi really did fool the soccer moms of America.
Controse| 6.3.11 @ 10:35AM
Well I guess the joke is on us. Maybe with the scales off our eyes we can now soberly address the threat Islam in America is to America's future freedom.
Smirking Weasel| 6.3.11 @ 12:57PM
Don't forget, we brought a new Central bank to Iraq also!