QUOTE
Hurray For Democracy!
Although the press and the Bush administration are treating Hamas’ crushing victory in Palestine as a surprise, you, my dear loyal readers, saw this coming a mile away because I’ve been predicting it for a year now. Sometimes I hate always being right.
People in the Middle East are pissed off. They're going to vote for anyone they think is standing up to Israeli and American policies in the region. Everywhere President Bush encouraged free and fair elections -- from Riyadh to Baghdad, from Cairo to Beirut -- angry Islamists gained political power.
Since last night, I've seen a bunch of analysts claiming that having to actually govern will temper Hamas' desire to destroy Israel, as if delivering the mail and hating Jews are mutually exclusive. Maybe those guys don't realize that Hamas has been providing social services and governance in the occupied areas – as well as killing Israelis -- for decades, going back to their association with the Unified National Command during the first Intifada.
Not surprisingly, the Israelis tried to warn President Bush:
Against the advice of Israeli officials, the administration had pushed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold the elections without delay, believing that the voting would strengthen his hand in disarming militia groups. Instead, the plan backfired, and an organization that has claimed credit for dozens of suicide bombings -- some resulting in the deaths of Americans -- is poised to take power.
Even Abbas wanted to postpone elections until he was sure Fatah would win, but though that would have been beneficial to the United States, it's not really democracy, is it. And President Bush is a stickler for democracy -- except in Pakistan, Haiti, Venezuela, and probably Bolivia after Morales nationalizes the natural gas industry there.
As President Bush painfully tried to spin the free election of Israel's mortal enemy as "positive" yesterday, he said "democracy yields peace." That's utter nonsense. Hitler's Nazi Party was democratically elected. Slobodan Milosevic was freely elected, and Iran’s “healthy” system elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On the other side of that coin, Singapore is not much of a democracy and neither are China and Dubai – yet their citizens aren’t strapping on the dynamite vests.
Democracy by itself does not yield peace, and this flawed belief keeps smackin’ President Bush right in the puss with "surprise" election results like Hamas' victory in Palestine, Hezbollah's success in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood's success in Egypt, and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's victory in America’s 51st state.
Anyhow, you can be sure Hamas isn't going to pick up the Middle East peace process where Fatah left off. It's a whole new ballgame.
Although the press and the Bush administration are treating Hamas’ crushing victory in Palestine as a surprise, you, my dear loyal readers, saw this coming a mile away because I’ve been predicting it for a year now. Sometimes I hate always being right.
People in the Middle East are pissed off. They're going to vote for anyone they think is standing up to Israeli and American policies in the region. Everywhere President Bush encouraged free and fair elections -- from Riyadh to Baghdad, from Cairo to Beirut -- angry Islamists gained political power.
Since last night, I've seen a bunch of analysts claiming that having to actually govern will temper Hamas' desire to destroy Israel, as if delivering the mail and hating Jews are mutually exclusive. Maybe those guys don't realize that Hamas has been providing social services and governance in the occupied areas – as well as killing Israelis -- for decades, going back to their association with the Unified National Command during the first Intifada.
Not surprisingly, the Israelis tried to warn President Bush:
Against the advice of Israeli officials, the administration had pushed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold the elections without delay, believing that the voting would strengthen his hand in disarming militia groups. Instead, the plan backfired, and an organization that has claimed credit for dozens of suicide bombings -- some resulting in the deaths of Americans -- is poised to take power.
Even Abbas wanted to postpone elections until he was sure Fatah would win, but though that would have been beneficial to the United States, it's not really democracy, is it. And President Bush is a stickler for democracy -- except in Pakistan, Haiti, Venezuela, and probably Bolivia after Morales nationalizes the natural gas industry there.
As President Bush painfully tried to spin the free election of Israel's mortal enemy as "positive" yesterday, he said "democracy yields peace." That's utter nonsense. Hitler's Nazi Party was democratically elected. Slobodan Milosevic was freely elected, and Iran’s “healthy” system elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On the other side of that coin, Singapore is not much of a democracy and neither are China and Dubai – yet their citizens aren’t strapping on the dynamite vests.
Democracy by itself does not yield peace, and this flawed belief keeps smackin’ President Bush right in the puss with "surprise" election results like Hamas' victory in Palestine, Hezbollah's success in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood's success in Egypt, and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's victory in America’s 51st state.
Anyhow, you can be sure Hamas isn't going to pick up the Middle East peace process where Fatah left off. It's a whole new ballgame.
This was a great post of someone else that I thought I would share with every here.