Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy
Why are we in Iraq? First we were told it was because Saddam had WMD and we could expect mushroom clouds over American cities if he were allowed to stay in power; then the goal was getting rid of a brutal dictator who gassed his own people and by the way has a "blood feud" with America; the latest rationale is that we are bringing democracy to a troubled part of the world.
The rad-con democracy domino theory is that Iraq will become a shining example of representative democracy in the middle east that all its neighbors will desire to follow. Despite a couple elections, this utopia seems further away than ever.
Meanwhile, back here in the USA, the Bush administration is quietly choking off funding to the primary organizations that are actually training Iraqis on how to set up and run democratic political parties, elections, and governments. Is this hypocrisy?
"The commitment to what the president of the United States will say every single day of the week is his number one priority in Iraq, when it's translated into action, looks very tiny," said Les Campbell, who runs programs in the Middle East for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, known as NDI.(see link to story in title) Apparently, there has been no response to these reports from the White House.
It appears that military and security spending is cutting back the only legitimate pro-democracy efforts America is conducting in Iraq. This is just the latest example of the Bush administration's failure to put the money where its mouth is. If we really want to know what politicians value, we need to find out what programs they fund and which they cut.
QuestionItNow
The rad-con democracy domino theory is that Iraq will become a shining example of representative democracy in the middle east that all its neighbors will desire to follow. Despite a couple elections, this utopia seems further away than ever.
Meanwhile, back here in the USA, the Bush administration is quietly choking off funding to the primary organizations that are actually training Iraqis on how to set up and run democratic political parties, elections, and governments. Is this hypocrisy?
"The commitment to what the president of the United States will say every single day of the week is his number one priority in Iraq, when it's translated into action, looks very tiny," said Les Campbell, who runs programs in the Middle East for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, known as NDI.(see link to story in title) Apparently, there has been no response to these reports from the White House.
It appears that military and security spending is cutting back the only legitimate pro-democracy efforts America is conducting in Iraq. This is just the latest example of the Bush administration's failure to put the money where its mouth is. If we really want to know what politicians value, we need to find out what programs they fund and which they cut.
QuestionItNow
posted by REB 84 at 4/06/2006 11:03:00 PM
3 Comments:
Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy was cross-posted at TeamBio.org. Follow the title link to view additional comments.
You make perfect sense. Thankfully there are Americans like you who can see the obsurdity of the Bush administration.
You responded to: http://williblog.blogspot.com/
-- his piece titled: All the news that's fit to print.
As you know Willi is one of those Americans who support Bush. He's a bright enough guy -- but stuborn. How can we help people like him face reality?
Stan Jones
Hello Stan,
Thanks for the compliment and for stopping by.
I believe that people like Willi fall into two camps. The first will stick to their guns and ignore any argument that contradicts their way of thinking. Of course there is no way to convince these people of anything different.
The second group is more open minded, and can be persuaded to at least allow open debate. It is this second group I am attempting to reach. Often these people spend time at blogs of the "True believers." Therefore, I believe it is still important to debate the first group, if only to have an alaternative voice heard.
You will also note that I allow differing points of view on all three QuestionItNow blogs.
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