Postby sarobah » Mon Jan 10, 2011 4:50 am
I just don’t get that. Although I don’t defend the Iraq War, or any other for that matter, to equate American values – i.e. liberal democracy, freedom of expression and religion, etc. – with those of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship (which started two wars), or the Soviet Union, or any other fascist/communist/theocratic regime is just plain crazy. Remember that in many countries in the world even today, the sentiments expressed in your post would land you in jail, and possibly worse.
The problem is that people criticize democracies like the US because they are allowed to criticize. Dictatorships get a free pass simply because they suppress all dissent. We see this in the Middle East conflict – Israel is condemned because it is an open society which permits its flaws to be exposed to public scrutiny. Israel’s enemies, every one of them a dictatorship or absolute monarchy, get away with appalling atrocities because people, and in particular the world’s media, are too lazy or too intellectually bankrupt to look beyond the propaganda.
Conclusion – I’ll take the evils of American democracy over the fool’s paradise any day.
Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.