05 April 2006
Toadyism on Iraq
The OpEd article in the April 4, 2006 Wall Street Journal by Peter Wehner reminds me of the Justice Samuel Alito’s application to join President Reagan’s Department of Justice. The gratuitous opinion on the constitutionality of abortion that Alito expressed in that document displayed a toadyism that he apparently believed would appeal to the Attorney General, Edwin Meese. It certainly seemed to appeal to President Bush, resulting in his nomination to the Supreme Court last year. And it set a model for Mr. Wehner who may be trying to cement his position in the White House now that Joshua Bolten has taken over responsibilities as Chief of Staff.
Mr. Wehner wants us to believe that imposing democracy is the nervy route to accomplishing the “freedom agenda.” However, the definition of “freedom” that Freedom House, his authority on the subject, uses is clearly distinct from “democracy.” Its 2006 survey called only 89 countries free although 122 were “electoral democracies.” Clearly, having a democracy is not sufficient “for freedom to succeed.”
It is not only wrong to say that Iraq lacks a democratic culture. What it also lacks is a common civic culture with institutions that cut across its factional divisions to support democratic or any other orderly method of participatory government. For it to achieve the Freedom House status of “Free,” it would have to offer its citizens “broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media.”
None of these ambitions is possible in the current climate of unrest, unleashed by the U.S. invasion. Nor will they result from militarily administered elections. Threatening Iraq’s elected leaders that the U.S. will withdraw unless they adopt democratic solutions to their civic problems won’t speed things up either. It will take years to create a civil society out of the Iraqi artifact of early 20th Century imperialism. We entered this whirlwind blindly and will have to live with its costly consequences for a long time.
The OpEd article in the April 4, 2006 Wall Street Journal by Peter Wehner reminds me of the Justice Samuel Alito’s application to join President Reagan’s Department of Justice. The gratuitous opinion on the constitutionality of abortion that Alito expressed in that document displayed a toadyism that he apparently believed would appeal to the Attorney General, Edwin Meese. It certainly seemed to appeal to President Bush, resulting in his nomination to the Supreme Court last year. And it set a model for Mr. Wehner who may be trying to cement his position in the White House now that Joshua Bolten has taken over responsibilities as Chief of Staff.
Mr. Wehner wants us to believe that imposing democracy is the nervy route to accomplishing the “freedom agenda.” However, the definition of “freedom” that Freedom House, his authority on the subject, uses is clearly distinct from “democracy.” Its 2006 survey called only 89 countries free although 122 were “electoral democracies.” Clearly, having a democracy is not sufficient “for freedom to succeed.”
It is not only wrong to say that Iraq lacks a democratic culture. What it also lacks is a common civic culture with institutions that cut across its factional divisions to support democratic or any other orderly method of participatory government. For it to achieve the Freedom House status of “Free,” it would have to offer its citizens “broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media.”
None of these ambitions is possible in the current climate of unrest, unleashed by the U.S. invasion. Nor will they result from militarily administered elections. Threatening Iraq’s elected leaders that the U.S. will withdraw unless they adopt democratic solutions to their civic problems won’t speed things up either. It will take years to create a civil society out of the Iraqi artifact of early 20th Century imperialism. We entered this whirlwind blindly and will have to live with its costly consequences for a long time.
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