Thread
Cheney's chums get war contracts
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Originally posted by Nicko: You know what would be ironic? If in a few years with their new 'democracy' the people of Iraq elect an Islamic government into power and they nationalize all oil companies. What are the odds of that? 
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Question: If a 'democratic' state votes in a Fundamentalist authoritarian government (i.e. Iran, pre-war Afghanistan), is it still going to be considered 'democratic'?
I would think that a real democracy would involve more than one single trip to the ballot box. Wouldn't it require a succession of elections, some progressive representation including the peaceful transition of power?
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Originally posted by Jacket: please... you people are ridiculous.. evreything is a conspiracy to you. |
Conspiracy? A conspiracy would imply secrecy. Seems to me that the Bush Administration doesn't give a rats a** whether or not their intentions are seen or not.
How many examples do you need? Let's start with the Energy Policy that focused on big oil, coal (now that's progressive), and loosened restrictions on power companies. Or how about essentially eliminating mileage goals for autos. I'm sure the auto companies were real disappointed with that move. Now Haliburton is a given a contract in Iraq BEFORE THE WAR IS EVEN OVER.
Oh yeah, and Cheney was given $36 million in compensation for the year before he became VP. Of course he must've worked real hard for that money, right? Stretch those work weeks to 50, 60 maybe even 80 hours a week. Well, probably not because he was on the road the whole year campaigning for the election. But I'm sure he was worth it, right?
How could anybody think this is payback? Really.
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Originally posted by vmpaul: Question: If a 'democratic' state votes in a Fundamentalist authoritarian government (i.e. Iran, pre-war Afghanistan), is it still going to be considered 'democratic'? I would think that a real democracy would involve more than one single trip to the ballot box. Wouldn't it require a succession of elections, some progressive representation including the peaceful transition of power? |
Correct. That's why people in the field (like the National Endowment for Democracy and the German Stiftungen (e.g. the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) talk about democratization as a process that takes years to complete (if it can ever be said to be complete). It takes more than just holding an election, it takes building a pluralistic civil society.
It's a difficult, and often painful process. Democratizing regimes can often be pretty brutal. Nevertheless, in the long run it is worth the effort.
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Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey: It's a difficult, and often painful process. Democratizing regimes can often be pretty brutal. Nevertheless, in the long run it is worth the effort. |
Seems to me the history of the 20th century shows that it can happen in at least two ways:
Organically (russia, baltics, latin america)
or
forcibly (germany, japan).
Hmmm...Iraq, this might hurt some going down.