You Will Vote or Else!
Democracy….what comes to your mind when you hear that word? For some it may define the very fabric of who we are as Americans, for others it is a new and exciting concept having, perhaps recently, left their own country where choices are made for them. Others may view democracy as a threat to their very existence. Whatever your feeling is towards democracy, one thing is certain, it is first a personal choice and then a collective one. It is certainly not a concept that should be imposed on anyone. In fact, the very definition of democracy goes against having one government impose democracy on another. How can a nation force another to make free choices?
In the current wars of Iraq and Afghanistan the United States is finding itself imposing democracy to peoples that, for centuries, lived under tribal or dictatorial rule. If we think back to when the United States was born, no one came to us and argued that we should be free from British rule. No one taught us that we should vote to select our leaders from within. We merely wanted that for ourselves. We made a conscious decision to free ourselves from the heavy handed rule of the British Monarchy. We were fed up with excessive taxation and governance from across the ocean. We wanted to determine our own destiny, our own leaders, our own laws and levels of taxation. Change from tyranny and the choice of freedom was decided upon from within and consequently, we willingly bore arms to fight against the British. The rest, as they say, is history. We are now a nation that is steeped in democratic values and systems, down to the lowest levels of government and civil structures. Even schools have democratically elected student bodies, including many middle and elementary schools across the country.
Given our history how then can we assume that the rest of the world would like to be like us? Granted, we are the greatest country in the world and clearly no one can even come close to how our form of government operates at the will of its people. However, going back to my original point, how can democracy be imposed on others? Some might say that we are “enabling” the Iraq and Afghan peoples to exercise their “right” to vote and freely elect their leaders, but seriously, who wouldn’t do what an invading army asks of you when they are in your country with tanks and bombs and no way to defend themselves except for the occasional Taliban or foreign fighter claiming to free their country of the invading army? Many in Iraq and Afghanistan have no idea who they are voting for or why. Although, quite honestly, we don’t know either when it comes to some local or regional elections. They just do so because it seems the right thing to do, not knowing if their vote will have any impact on their immediate lives. In addition, many are aware of the election corruption schemes that go on, perhaps knowing because they themselves either participated in corruption or know someone who has.
I once worked in Mexico City for 2 years, commuting back and forth each week from Atlanta. Some of my Mexico staff had requested vacation around the time of their national elections. I thought, how patriotic, taking vacation around election time in order to make voting a priority. I was most incorrect in my thinking. Three of these individuals were hired guns from their political parties. Their mission was to travel to as many precincts as possible that their parties had registered them to vote in (under different, assumed names) and cast their vote for their party. How shocking! I was intrigued that all three of them thought it their duty to get to all their precincts before polls closed. In fact, one of them told me that he had to make sure he reached all of his since he knew that one of the other three could not make all of his precincts, therefore giving his candidate an advantage. How is that for a working democracy? All three of them told me that this was a way of life for them and the only thing that prevented them from being appalled (as I was) is that they knew every candidate did this, hence the one with the most cheaters wins. Shall we invade Mexico and help teach them “true democracy”?
As you can see, even Mexico with its recent democracy has to rely on non-democratic methods to ensure their “democracy” works. How then, can we as a nation justify the spilling of American blood to impose a system of governance that we ourselves have yet to perfect, given the outcome of our 2004 elections? Afghanistan and Iraq have been fighting internally for centuries longer than the United States has been in existence. Why do we think that we will fix their problems, teach them to vote, leave and then go on our way assuming their democracy will hold and we will “live happily ever after”? Are we that naive? Mr. President, we need to leave responsibly as soon as possible and protect our nation from a distance with good intel, fierce defense of our borders, advance weaponry that “reaches out and touches” the enemy from a distance and leave nations to determine their own destinies. If we are that concerned about Iraq and Afghanistan having working democracies, then let’s add North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Somalia, etc, etc, etc, to the list of nations we will send our men and woman to die in so that their citizens can exercise their right to vote. I say let Afghanistan, Iraq and all the others discover democracy from within as we ourselves did.
Imposed democracy; another irony of The Audacity of War.
theaudacityofwar
