What Is This "Democracy" That Bush Is Exporting?
President Bush's love of democracy appears to be subject to the said democracy choosing leaders of whom he approves.
First, he writes to the Iraqi government demanding the removal of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the democratically elected Iraqi prime minister.
And now the US government have announced a new policy on contacts with Palestinians that bars dealings with officials of Palestinian government agencies that are controlled by the democratically elected Hamas.
Bush's desire to export democracy is not to be doubted, but his understanding of how it actually works appears to be extremely limited.
We have all heard that he has read a book, one book, and that this has led him to a single conclusion that has become the driving force of his Presidency. He states it simply as, "Democracies don't war".
(When one considers the fact that his administration started the illegal war against Iraq, we have to ask whether this is a tacit admission that, under his leadership, the US is no longer a democracy.) But, I digress.
The more important lesson both these cases illustrate is this: if you want your elected government to be recognised by the US, then you must vote for the government that the US wants you to vote for. Any other result is considered null and void. And your democtratically elected spokesperson will be ignored, by this US administration, until you next have a chance to go to the polls and correct your "mistake".
How "liberating" this must feel for countries that have endured bombing in order to enjoy such "freedoms".
The democracy that Bush is exporting only appears to give "the power of the ballot box" to those who put their tick in a box of his choosing.
If that's his version of democracy, there are many of us who feel it is not worth exporting.
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