A very brief word on George Bush: why “freedom” but not “democracy”?
A linguistic nicety? Not necessarily. Notice how he didn’t scribble “let democracy reign!” on that little bit of paper when the US pretended to hand over control of Iraq. No, it was “let freedom reign!” instead.
Why? Because democracy is such a tricky beast. It can lead you to elect the “wrong” leaders. Imagine if you had a “freed” country full of people who then backed an anti-US regime. Gracious, no. That would be dreadful. Let them be free - but not democratic. If Saudi Arabia introduced a democratic regime, wiser heads than me think its people wouldn’t be hurrying to elect a pro-US government.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- And those people who voted for Mr Bush are the jam.... (19 November 2004; score: 68.84%)
- The Onion Infograph on global warming (19 November 2004; score: 59.13%)
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January 21st, 2005 at 1:07 am
Whose freedom? His?
Ah well, we have another Playlist night on january 29 in London - www.ipod-dj.com. Admission is free, and you can win an iPod shuffle. Politics hurts.
January 21st, 2005 at 1:30 pm
Well, I doubt he gave it that much thought to be honest- just the first thing that popped into his stetson clad head. To be fair to the man however, he has pubically stated that they would accept the win of a hardline muslim cleric in the election; although this doesn’t mean they won’t help the voters to make up there mind otherwise.