Edmunicate me about "spreading democracy"

[devilgrrl]

Let's say * is "spreading democracy." What makes everyone think these new "democracies" are going to be pro-American?

Edmunicate me on this!

Thank you.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. This is what Gandhi said about "spreading democracy":

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

Spreading "democracy" over the corpses of the supposed beneficiaries isn't likely to make us many freedom loving friends yearning for WalMart.

[devilgrrl]

2. Thank you for the quote!

That's a keeper. :-)

[bilgewaterbill]

3. What difference does it make if they're pro-American?

Don't all people deserve the right to determine the course of the government?

[devilgrrl]

6. It doesn't.

However, I'll damned if I'm going to accept that bombing the fuck out a countries is the way to go about doing it.

[bilgewaterbill]

8. That's different from the question you asked? nt

[Lars39]

4. The US has never bombed any country into a democracy.

FROM WOUNDED KNEE TO HAITI: A CENTURY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
by Dr. Zoltan Grossman
http://www.uwec.edu/grossmzc/interventions.html

[Demit]

5. That phrase makes democracy sound like a disease. I hate that phrase :(

I think it's another example of Bush's inadvertent truth-telling. On some level he is aware that his kind of democracy is perverted. A leader acting in good faith would talk about "planting" democracy, or instilling democratic ideals, maybe, but Bush's intention is not good; he doesn't intend that people should have self-determination. They will be like everything else he is involved in, a sham. He only intends for them to have the outward appearance of democracy.

If these Potemkin democracies do not prove to be pro-American he and his cabal will destabilize them and bring them down.

[applegrove]

7. As long as the only big rich dogs in the world are Western Corporations

and no longer strongmen, royal families sitting on oil, who make terrorists rich... then it is a good thing. Democracy falls into that basket. They did not pick that ... it is a tool to disperse oil money around an Iraq so that USA doesn't have to fight enemies that are too rich in the future.

Trust me. If being pro-democracy (after taking them apart for 40 years) was not a useful thing... it would not be happening.

Democracies who follow neocon models of corporate irrisponsability.... are also very easy for big corporations to dominate. Government is easy to dominate when the only people who have big money are corporations. Why look at what happened in the USA!!!

[Make7]

9. Because if they aren't pro-American...

we will continue to sanction, embargo, economically isolate, and perhaps even bomb them until they are.

---

Of course, your premise that Bush is spreading democracy is mistaken. The US has a long history of saying they support democracy and human rights, but it also has a long history of actually undermining them.

But "spreading democracy" sounds so much better than: "Spreading a favorable investment climate for multi-national corporations."

-Make7