Political Swan Song....

I swear this is the last post (at least for a while) in which I will attempt to pretend that my opinion on things political should matter to anyone who is not dependant on me for hot meals and clean underwear.

But as I watched a few clips on the news networks today talking about the direction the US should take things in Iraq, now that there's the whole massive overhaul of government going on... I couldn't help but compose a brief tirade in my head. The pundits on both sides were talking about things like "how to extricate without worsening the situation" and "not abandoning the country until we have established viable democracy", etc, etc, etc.

My brief and totally unpolished statement for the evening is this:

Democracy is not something that can be handed out like holiday fruitcake, or imposed in a parental fashion. True populist rule, true democracy, true freedom... is something that must be carved out of the flesh of the people by whom it will rule.

A nation cannot be taught democracy, or groomed to govern according to the dictates of a western-guided ethic. The nation must cry out for democracy - not to a powerful global "savior" but to itself. The population must cry out for it, must demand it, must fight and bleed and die for it. No nation can serve as a mentor. The U.S. cannot "spread" democracy like so much apple seed.

There will never be a true democratic government in Iraq with the U.S. camping out to "assist" them. One need only look to our own revolutionary war; it was not won by way of the French supporting the cause to spite the Brits. It was won because farmers and merchants and noblemen, for reasons each their own, raised musket and pitchfork in the name of their own determined cause. It was won because passionate individuals - with a vested stake in the dream of a free nation - opened their vaults and their veins and gave everything in the cause.

We will never secure a stable Iraq. Not long enough even to merit a passage in future elementary textbooks. The seed of "democracy" will not take root unless the people of that nation are left to make a choice - to ride with the current of the tide in the vacuum of a U.S. withdrawal, or to richen the field with their blood and sacrifice - to flesh out the dream of a better future of their own making. To find their own path, fight their own civil wars, and find for themselves an identity- untainted by the architects of a nation such as ours.

After all, Angkor Wat is undeniably a structure of immense beauty and fantastical imagination... but would it be considered a work of beauty if it were reconstructed in, say, downtown Tuscon? For true freedom to find its form in a country such as Iraq, it must be a democracy of their own design - not a hollow clone of our own less-than-flawless system.