eudaemonia

Birthing Democracy

"The US invasion of Iraq has so shaken and stirred the Middle East [ME] that some exceptionally strange things are happening. More importantly, these things unequivocally favor the US in influencing the outcome of the Israeli-Hezbollah War now taking place in Lebanon."

This is the operational thesis for the day HT to TCS. Through this lens we must view the current ME situation. If a new dynamic is indeed in play, then the precedential value of past approaches; the endless and fruitless diplomacy, the hand wringing, etc... no longer hold the presumptive sway. On a pure speculative and theoretical level we should ponder the initial almost alien thoughts or ratiocinative processes underway in the fresh democratic minds of those unaccustomed to the practice of liberty. Such folk must be reeling under the currents and memes invoked by demagogues of every stripe. Sure, this leaves open the possibility that a Hamas or a Hezbollah is brought to power. But when the policies fail to deliver prosperity, will this be a painful, but necessary, lesson to the voters in a nascent democracy? Or will this be an event that weakens their trust in the democratic process?

posted by spelunker @ 8:15 PM