FREEDOM AROUND THE GLOBE? A STRONG MAYBE

Take on the Bush speech, sans God who was only mentioned four times. “Freedom” around the world is a feel good concept and, in an intellectual way, a noble purpose. I hope the Bush policy is a success and I hope I am wrong in what I see. My view does not mean that freedom is not worth trying, because it is. The success of freedom depends on other factors being present too: a good economy, a strong middle class, a high literacy rate, and low unemployment among young males.

I have had my doubts about a democratic Iraq from the very beginning. HERE and
HERE among others. I have these reservations even though almost every strong democracy has evolved from a strong dictatorship---that includes monarchies--- (look it up). Iraq's problem is that their dictatorship did not create a strong midle class or any respect for institutions; they feared the institutions and do not trust them.

First, where is Freedom unsuccessful? By that I mean, where in the world are there democratic forms that are forms only; where the economy is a shambles, literacy is less than 50%, no middle class, phony press freedom, an underclass of around 80% of the population, together with massive corruption?

Leaving out the obvious fakes let us take a quick look at South Africa, the darling example for the Left elite in our country. Highest murder rate in the world–20 gun deaths per day—in a country the size of California. A violent crime is committed in Johannesburg every 17 seconds. The upside to all this violence is that beach property sells for 5% of what it does in California but the chances that you will live long enough to enjoy it if you buy it are the same as the 49ers winning this year’s Super Bowl.

The South Africans wanted a better life, instead they have been given the right to vote. The democratic forms are all European and French enlightenment and, I would argue, they are bereft of anything that the tribal Blacks have any history of using or wanting to use. The democratic forms are Left Wing white European, and if you want to see the typical nightmare of white liberals “analyzing” South Africa, just go HERE. Their elections are even worse than Washington State, Wisconsin, and Florida combined; the last number available showed a million phony votes cast. No surprise that fewer and fewer people are bothering to vote, other than with guns. A single party—African National Congress--- gets 80% of the vote (a fair count) which means the ANC party governs absolutely without any real opposition possible. It should come as no surprise that corruption runs rampant from top to bottom, the latest being

The biggest corruption probe in South Africa's post-apartheid history ensnared one in 10 of the country's MPs (Members of Parliament) yesterday when prosecutors announced that 40 will be charged with fraud and accused of misusing at least £1 million of public money.—Telegraph 1/22/05

And keep in mind that South Africa may be the most democratic of all the so-called free countries in Africa. The list of “free” countries as posted by all the usual suspects include---The PEOPLES Republic of China, People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (that’s NORTH Korea, folks), Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Lybia to you philistines out there)----and many other fakes. To be fair many smaller countries, while not democratic in any sense we might recognize, are moving in a “freedom” direction.

Democracy of any kind cannot survive without a viable economy and middle class, a literacy rate above 65%, an unemployment rate of less than 15% and falling among young males–who in every case are responsible for 90% of all violent crime—a homogeneous population, and a respect for institutions. Everybody wants freedom. I want a Rolls Royce, a sex crazed subservient supermodel girl friend who will love only me, and twenty million dollars or so to throw around every year. Wanting is not the point. Working and sacrificing to get what you want is what counts.

Which brings us one more time to Iraq, home to the non homogeneous population of Kurds, Sunnis, and Shias who actually hate each other. A country where 40% of the young males are unemployed, where respect for established institutions, other than Muslim, does not exist, and an economy that manufactures nothing, grows barely enough food to feed the population, and has no service sector at all. Most important: Turkey now controls all their water supply and can cut them off in a nano-second. Their economy is oil and potential tourism. The Muslim religion demands Shiria law obtain in the country over civil law, they are intolerant of any free expression that challenges Muslim orthodoxy– Salman Rushdie is once again on death watch and our government pretends the execution of the Coptic Christians in Jersey is not a terrorist execution—and women in the work force? fuhgedaboudit.

Iraq is not a country. It is a map creation by the Brits and Frogs, a quickie so they could divvy up territory and get on with the sacking of colonies. There is no Iraq. At best there are three homogenous groups there that on their own could get along so long as all left the Kurds alone, or if the Kurds left them alone. The Kurds are not only the huge majority in Northern Iraq, they are a huge majority in southern Turkey, a threat to the Turkish government every day. Not only there, but they exist in great numbers in Iran and Syria. They are a constant threat everywhere because they were never a part of the maps laid out by the Colonial Powers. They were ignored as if they didn’t exist. They now smuggle goods across invisible borders with all countries in the area. Turkey has now dammed the Euphrates river as well as most others and is days away from controlling ALL the water entering Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, which means that The Big Dog in the area is Turkey. Iraq has oil, which is the only reason the so-called country can exist. This cannot end well. There is not a real country in all the Middle East other than Turkey, and Israel. Always remember Israel. Lybia? Algeria? Sudan? All are simply map entries that no longer apply. And when you get to West Africa you have the same thing. There are no real countries there either, just lines on a map drawn by either colonial powers or by the UN. The entire continent from Africa through Iran has no real borders. They have only Islam. And Israel. And why Islam? Islam attracts the poor because it is the only religion that will fight for them. We are playing a card came while everyone else plays checkers. They don’t want democracy. They want Islam. Just wait. I just hope we can get out of there leaving some form of government where the input of the people means something, other than Jihad.

Does this mean we should just shine the Bush agenda to bring freedom everywhere? No. There are places where the factors are in place for democracy to emerge, and it could be that Iraq is one of those places. After all, Russia is the last place Marx expected Communism to succeed. Just don't expect anything but trouble if the dictators in Saudiville, Kuwait, and the rest of the Middle East are leaving prime time and going to the video stores. My bet is on Islam. The Iraqis want a better life, are they instead being given freedom?