Are the Birds Coming Home to Roost?

Over night President Musharaf of Pakistan declared marshal law, a surprise to no one, except maybe the White House.  And with that declaration, we see once more the incompetence of Bush, Cheney, and “Leather Boots” Condi Rice.  Let’s hear it for more Democratic governments around the world.

The issue is not that a Democracy might be the best and most stable form of government (although I am not at all sure there is a lot of evidence to support that).  Rather it is to recognize that Democracy is a very complicated form of government and it takes a rather educated and wealthy population to abide by democratic laws.  (Giving up power and the access to money, is not easy.)  Relatively few countries in the world have much of a democratic history and many that had democratic governments ended up voting it out and slipping into some form of dictatorship.

Ranking far ahead of democracy are

1. Rule of law…  When a country and its government choose to operate by a set of laws, this represents a major step forward.

2. Civil order…  The absence of pirates, robbers, and any other type of disorder is valued by most citizens.

3. Property rights…  Next to personal safety, most people want to feel that their personal belongings are safe from seizure.

4. Freedom of speech and movement…  With in some broad limits (non-democratic forms of government usually do not like criticism), a citizen’s freedom to travel, use computers, and telephones is considered a valuable right.

5. Human rights…  Freedom from torture and “cruel and unusual” forms of punishment (like caning, stoning, and branding) are signs of enlightenment.

For many reasons some governments choose to hold strict control of who can be the ruling leader.  Countries like China and Russia recognize that their citizens are not ready to shoulder the responsibilities of a Democracy but are working to provide the five values listed above (to varying degrees).  Countries like Egypt have long recognized that a truely free vote would lead to a sectarian government where freedoms will be only as seen ok by the sectarian leaders.

But none of this has ever bothered our President or his Secratary of State.  Democracy works for us, so it must be right (right now) for others.  When the Palestinians used Democracy to pick their leaders, the population voted to kick out the corrupt Fatah Party and select Hamas.  Bush and company immediately showed the world what he really thinks about Democracy by denouncing the new Hamas government and refusing to recognize it.

With respect to Pakistan, it should take us about 5 seconds to understand that Democracy is not suited for Pakistan at this time.  The stakes are enormously high.  Pakistan has nuclear weapons, a history of sharing its nuclear technology, and some of the most radical Islamic clerics around.  What you need in Pakistan is stability with an eye towards modernization.  Musharaf is that person.

So Bush will need to eat his words once more (and well he should).  He has a track record of sermonizing the world’s leaders.  Once more there is a need for a Baker-Hamilton type group to visit the key Capitals around the world and explain that George and Dick really got this one wrong.  They should continue and explain that it is too embarassing for Bush to admit publically a mistake, but never the less, ”the world should adopt democray” ranks right up there with “the iminent threat of Iraq” as foolish, wrong headed, policies. 

This is just another reason for Cheney to resign, Robert Gates to be named the new Vice President, and then George the Bush to step aside.  Only then could we look forward to a sane 15 months, left in the term, with a leader up to responsibilities of the job.

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