The Challenge of Our Generation?

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I had a bit of an epiphany tonight, that I find rather troubling. It comes after having been reading BLACKWATER by Jeremy Scahill, which partly talks about the neoconservative ideal of “spreading democracy” through the use of force.

For whatever reason I started to think about the Cold War, especially between the 1950s and 1970s. I realized that maybe the Cold War hasn’t really ended, rather just merely changed form. During the Cold War, one of the Soviet Union’s main goals was to expand its communist ideals (which they believed were “right”) throughout the world by force or otherwise. Of course the Western World opposed their idea and did all that they could (relying on BOTH U.S. hard and soft power) to prevent the S.U. from doing it.

Now that this idea of “spreading democracy” by force has taken hold of right-wing politics, and become the main U.S. foreign policy, many nations now vehemently oppose us. It seems as if the United States has adopted a very Soviet Union-like position in the world of today. I mean can one truly say that there is NO comparison between the Soviet ideal of expanding communism and the ideal of “spreading democracy” by force? I honestly don’t believe that you can. More often than not, forcing beliefs, or political systems, on others is a very bad idea and can often have major consequences, such as the utter collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Spreading democracy” by force is a complete contradiction in terms! The core of democracy is the ideal that people CHOOSE their own governments in their own time, and on their own terms, or put simply self-determination. By forcing a country, such as by the use of war, to become a democracy, isn’t a true democracy at all! For example, the citizens of the 13 Colonies, were never forced to break away from the British Empire and establish a wholly new nation and government. They CHOSE to do it! If you look around the world, the most stable, longest lasting, and most successful countries are ones where the people have chosen their own government. As opposed to countries where force is used to grab power, rather than the people freely choosing the government, such as many countries in Africa and which are considered “failed states”. I do admit that force was used in World War II to topple the Nazis and Axis Powers, and that those countries have succeeded as democracies. But the entire world helped ensure that those countries were put back onto stable feet with policies, such as the Marshall Plan, which don’t really have any modern counterparts.

I truly hope that this idea of “spreading democracy” by force ends, and ends soon because I fear that if it doesn’t the position of the U.S. in the world could be forever drastically altered. I do believe that democracy IS the best form of government, and that eventually it will be in practiced in every country, but it MUST be the PEOPLE to choose their country’s government! Democracy comes with many responsibilities, as we all know, but if it is forced upon people in a country who aren’t ready, or don’t know how, to handle those responsibilities then that country is likely to fail or at least have severe set backs. This country showed time and patience with itself when it was first formed, and so we must be willing to do the same for other countries.