News Articles.
This news article, quite frankly, scares me to death. I'm used to having to read between the lines of an article in the US news, to see what isn't being reported. In fact, one of the reasons I listen to NPR is because of the counterpoint views often supplied to the mass media overdigested version of the news so common here
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"The United States has promised to establish an Iraqi democracy but ruled out any Islamic-oriented government similar to that of Iran."
These parts struck me as well. Bush is imposing a cultural template on the Iraqi people, as well as a religious one. These statements literally contradict themselves.
What I don't get is this: How can he say that he believes them to be people capable of autonomous control when he's determined to manufacture a ready-made governmental structure that has no bearing on their cultural practices whatsoever? I realize that the democracy is supposed to be "by the people, for the people," but is it even that in the U.S.? Yes -- everyone of legal age has a vote. Yes -- everyone is free to pursue their personal happiness as they choose. Yet, the political and legal systems are so highly fallible that we've imprisoned any number of innocent individuals and put people in office who feel that "their way is the only way." There is also the fact that many religious beliefs are dismissed out of hand as being simply idealistic dreaming that has no basis in reality whatsoever. This in a democracy?
While I cannot say that I have suffered unduly at the hands of any American system, there are countless examples of those who have. Our country is one in which the money drives the individual. Doesn't it bother anyone else that financial stability should be the ultimate dream, when money is one of the filthiest materials in existence? Just look at those old bills in your wallet. How many people have handled them? Where have they been? Do you know?
Yet, it is for money that everyone must strive. We must have an education that allows us to run the rat-race... which is becoming more and more of a maze that shuts out all of those who don't see things the same way as "everyone else." We perpetuate stereotypes from simple idiosyncratic connections that have little or no material basis in fact.
There is no such thing as a governmental structure that will satisfy all citizens of a nation. There is no such thing as one universal religion. While we are all of a common race (something that a lot of us human beings seem to forget a great deal), we each have something individual to contribute to a nation, just as we each have our own system of beliefs. If two individuals sit down for a discussion of a single law, each has his/her own perception of that law. If the same two individuals sit down to discuss a denomination of a particular religion, their views will also differ. Why? Their experiences are different.
Bush is attempting to impose what he feels to be an ideal system of government on a nation that he believes to be too chronically dependent on an authoritarian figure that is now absent. He seems to be working from the perspective that, since the Iraqi people have been repressed for so long, they now need a "helping hand," a guide to follow. While I can appreciate the fact that he (probably) genuinely believes this to be helpful, it is likely to incite at least some degree of resentment. Can they not think and judge for themselves, just as you or I would be able to?
Even if they are not, should we not let them make their own mistakes? They are responsible for their lives. Yes -- they celebrate their freedom, and I cannot judge any part of what has happened, since it happens for a reason. Regardless of that necessary "neutrality" (i.e., it happened regardless of any view that I hold on the subject), I believe that we need to mind our own business.
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