tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post113024539475930114..comments2023-10-10T08:02:18.073-04:00Comments on Rationally Speaking: Iraq has a constitution, good. But is it democracy?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130382581294609102005-10-26T23:09:00.000-04:002005-10-26T23:09:00.000-04:00Do they even want a democracy, or a republic?Good ...<B> Do they even want a democracy, or a republic?</B><BR/><BR/>Good question, what do they want? My humble opinion is that they want to be something like Iran (maybe even join them? no, too much) - but they have to pretend they don't, with US forces and influence still there. But I'm not specially geopoliticaly savvy, so I might be saying BS. My opinion anyway, I'll be glad to be hear arguments to the contrary.<BR/><BR/>Cheers<BR/>J<BR/><BR/>PS - I don't know exactly what you mean "democracy OR republic". These two things are not mutually exclusive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130379720557857312005-10-26T22:22:00.000-04:002005-10-26T22:22:00.000-04:00Do they even want a democracy, or a republic?Do they even want a democracy, or a republic?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130312978443130582005-10-26T03:49:00.000-04:002005-10-26T03:49:00.000-04:00To claim that Iraq is a democracy, or that it is r...To claim that Iraq is a democracy, or that it is remotely close to being a democracy is ludicrous. They had to close the borders, shut down travel within the country - the cities were armed camps (with Americans setting up and guarding polling places). The country was in lockdown for several days just to hold an election - this is not democracy - it is just another pipedream being passed off as reality by the Bush administrationAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130293128292128892005-10-25T22:18:00.000-04:002005-10-25T22:18:00.000-04:00Although the new constitution should be a good sig...Although the new constitution should be a good sign, I'm not very optimistic about the situation there, because I think democracy is something that has to be achieved from within the society, and not imposed and forced by an invading power. Maybe post WWII Japan was an exception? Well, I don't know enough of that history to judge it.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, democracy is part of culture, and significant cultural changes are slow, I guess. It may hopefully come a day in our life times when we'll see a Middle Eastern democracy (besides Israel).<BR/><BR/>JAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com