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January 06, 2006
The "Screwed-upness Of Iraq" And Why It's OK
I remember a conversation I had with a liberal friend a few years ago in which I claimed that Israel was the only real democracy within a thousand miles of Jerusalem. (OK, maybe not a thousand miles, but you get my point.) My friend, a good Howard Zinn-enabled Leftist, made protestations that there were (cue sinister music) right-wing religious parties involved in Israeli politics. The proper reply occured to me the next day, as it so often does: Of course there are extremely conservative parties in Israel--but Israel is a cacophony of push-and-shove parliamentary democracy. There are parties of all stripes, from far right to far left. The Liberal Party in Israel hasn't exactly been shut out of power in the past 30 years. I contend that my original point stands.
Along the same lines Christopher Hitchens has a new analysis of the election politics in the coming year in Iraq. In his usual precise and comprehensive manner he presents his views on the coexistence of democracy with nationalism and warfare, and concludes that a messy and imperfect democracy is vastly preferrable to a murderous dictatorship:
The screwed-upness of Iraq is a given, but that very fact tells against those who would have let it rot or let it run on as it was. And this was, and is, the point of regime change to begin with.
Read the whole thing.
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