No Arab Jefferson can be found

by Harrold "Haole" A`hole

Trying to force democracy in the Middle East seems pointless. Shouldn't democracy come from the people? Does anybody think that the ideas and ideals of Khomeni, Saddam, Arafat or Osama are anything like our Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine or George Washington? Can anybody explain why the majority of Iraqis are sitting back and watching the violence in their towns when the U.S. military is there to "help them"?

The Afghan national sport, Buzkashi, which translated literally means "goat grabbing," involves a headless carcass of a goat. The two opposing teams try to get control of the dead goat and bring it to a scoring area. Compare this with the American pastime of basketball or football. The idea is very similar, taking the skin of an animal and getting it to the scoring area. But the difference is striking: a headless goat carcass versus a tanned, inflated leather or pigskin ball. This difference in taste is very real and thinking that we can convert such people to our way of thinking to "straighten them out" is sure to fail.

It seems to me that we had a mission in Iraq: remove Saddam and his WMD. We accomplished both fairly quickly. It seems that we should leave now, unless the Iraqis demand that we stay.

After all, it's time for the Iraqis to stop blaming Americans for their woes. They need to rise up and stamp out those who fight against freedom and democracy, or they can sit back idly and return to totalitarianism or civil war. It is quite telling when they don't rise up. But it tells me that they are not interested in our democracy or freedom, at least when it comes at the end of a tank's barrel or a smart bomb.

There's no sense of ownership or accomplishment if the Iraqis don't do anything for themselves. They may choose a different form of government, but it should be their choice. Nation building is dangerous and the people impacted generally aren't appreciative. When aid comes with bombs and occupation, you may understand why the aid isn't appreciated.

We can always return if they become a threat to our nation in the future. And if they are a persistent thorn, we can do the old fashioned conquest in which their land would be taken from them and become part of the U.S. territories. It would be up to them to play peacefully in the world community or continue to threaten others.

Because we didn't find any WMD or links to 9/11, the Americans should offer an apology and perhaps even hard economic aid. But rather than forcing it the way it's done today, at $1,000 million being spent each week, we should provide them with vouchers. Then let the Iraqis rebuild themselves. They could use the vouchers to purchase the aid and reconstruction they want from approved American suppliers using the vouchers and any money they have. This would allow the Iraqis to control their destiny and remove the scandals that surround price gouging, sloppy work, misdirected efforts and the appearance of corruption within the Bush administration (oil interests, Halliburton and other big corporate interests, and pre-9/11 neoconservative positions).

I'll talk more about vouchers for U.S. citizens, too, since a voucher says you are willing to give someone aid, but you're not pretending that you know what's best for them. Everyone has different tastes, and my love of rock and roll doesn't mean that opera shouldn't be supported (or vice versa).