Inconvenient Democracies

The conventional wisdom since WWII has demanded installing, with more or less direct US intervention, strongman-dictators in troubled regions for our own benefit. Who cares about the cute-yet-disastrously-poor-and-oppressed colored people in those unfortunate parts of the world. The international community is safer if we help a dictator keep order (by whatever means necessary), as long as he’s a friend to us.

To their credit, the Neocons have bucked this tradition. They have claimed (one might say shouted) that democracy is the best antidote for troubled regions, and that it will serve our best interests better than the possibility of a turncoat strongman, e.g., Hussein. This strategy has been lauded in the past (with slightly more open elections occurring around the Middle East last year). However, it is an obviously terrifying gamble: witness the democratic election of Hamas as the most benign of the worst case scenario. What happens when a people chooses a bad person for a leader?

Apparently, what happens is that we declare that democracy to be defunct, and don’t recognize it. Though the US embassy has denied it, apparently Bush (through Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq) recently told al-Hakim (head of the Iraqi Alliance) that he “doesn’t want, doesn’t support, doesn’t accept Ibrahim Jaafari as prime minister” of Iraq. Mr. Jaafari’s spokesman “accused the US of trying to subvert Iraqi sovereignty” (BBC, “US envoy ‘calls for new Iraqi PM’”). Even though the Shia United Iraqi Alliance chose Jaafari as its candidate, the Kurdish and Sunni parties in Iraq “have threatened to boycott a national unity government unless it [Jaafari’s candidacy] is withdrawn.” The reasons are simple: they think that the nomination is “partly responsible for fuelling the increasing sectarian violence;” we are horrified of any further delays in the formation of an Iraqi government.

That’s right: even though it has become a tiresome refrain to hear the president bring up the glorious elections that took place in Iraq and Afghanistan, as proof that his policies are just (etc.), it would seem that his opinion is different when not standing in front of cameras and trying to garner public support. To quote a bit more from the BBC article:

“‘How can they do this?’ Haidar al-Ubaidi [spokesman for Prime Minister Jaafari] asked. ‘An ambassador telling a sovereign country what to do is unacceptable,’ he added. ‘The perception is very strong among certain Shia parties that the US, led by Mr Khalilzad, is trying to unseat Mr Jaafari.’”

Just what we need.

-W.

Apparently, what happens is that we declare that democracy to be defunct, and don’t recognize it. Though the US embassy has denied it, apparently Bush (through Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq) recently told al-Hakim (head of the Iraqi Alliance) that he “doesn’t want, doesn’t support, doesn’t accept Ibrahim Jaafari as prime minister” of Iraq. Mr. Jaafari’s spokesman “accused the US of trying to subvert Iraqi sovereignty” (BBC, “US envoy ‘calls for new Iraqi PM’”). Even though the Shia United Iraqi Alliance chose Jaafari as its candidate, the Kurdish and Sunni parties in Iraq “have threatened to boycott a national unity government unless it [Jaafari’s candidacy] is withdrawn.” The reasons are simple: they think that the nomination is “partly responsible for fuelling the increasing sectarian violence;” we are horrified of any further delays in the formation of an Iraqi government.

That’s right: even though it has become a tiresome refrain to hear the president bring up the glorious elections that took place in Iraq and Afghanistan, as proof that his policies are just (etc.), it would seem that his opinion is different when not standing in front of cameras and trying to garner public support. To quote a bit more from the BBC article:

“‘How can they do this?’ Haidar al-Ubaidi [spokesman for Prime Minister Jaafari] asked. ‘An ambassador telling a sovereign country what to do is unacceptable,’ he added. ‘The perception is very strong among certain Shia parties that the US, led by Mr Khalilzad, is trying to unseat Mr Jaafari.’”

Just what we need.

-W.