31 January 2006
Newsmen Attacks
The IED injuries to ABC’s anchorman, Bob Woodruff, and cameraman, Doug Vogt, in Iraq as well as the kidnapping of the Christian Science Monitor’s stringer, Jill Carroll, illustrate how different the cultures of Iraq and the U.S. are. How can one expect to create a “democracy” there in a few years when reporting on events is granted no exemption from the violence? In Iraq, there is little understanding of or belief in the universal benefit of information.
As Frederick Kempe was said to note in the online Wall Street Journal on 31 January 2006, some countries may not be “ready” for democracy. It may be more accurate to say that it is a form of government not appropriate to the cultures of those countries, e.g. Iraq and Palestine. The “Enlightenment” founders of the American republic in the eighteenth century distrusted democracy for its empowering of unruly majorities. Such a majority seems to have taken the upper hand in the Palestinian elections, and could lead Iraq into civil war.
Clearly, democratic government does not create order and popular commitment to civil liberties. It can only follow.
The IED injuries to ABC’s anchorman, Bob Woodruff, and cameraman, Doug Vogt, in Iraq as well as the kidnapping of the Christian Science Monitor’s stringer, Jill Carroll, illustrate how different the cultures of Iraq and the U.S. are. How can one expect to create a “democracy” there in a few years when reporting on events is granted no exemption from the violence? In Iraq, there is little understanding of or belief in the universal benefit of information.
As Frederick Kempe was said to note in the online Wall Street Journal on 31 January 2006, some countries may not be “ready” for democracy. It may be more accurate to say that it is a form of government not appropriate to the cultures of those countries, e.g. Iraq and Palestine. The “Enlightenment” founders of the American republic in the eighteenth century distrusted democracy for its empowering of unruly majorities. Such a majority seems to have taken the upper hand in the Palestinian elections, and could lead Iraq into civil war.
Clearly, democratic government does not create order and popular commitment to civil liberties. It can only follow.
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