First of all, peoples establish their own democracies. No other nation gets to insist on anything. Nations that live under Sharia, and they have a right to do that, will never be democracies. Sharia supports extreme patriarchy, polygamy creates a huge underclass of economically, and socio-sexually disenfranchised males, that will oppose any move, off of the system that has made them outcasts, of all but radical mosques. It is like the Stockholm syndrome, applied to the middle east.
We do not have the right to insist on anything, except that it involves intrusions or actions on our sovereign soil. That is the only right we have regarding other nations adaptation to democracy. Until, in modern Islamic states, everyone gets a real education, there will be no change except by force, much worse than the self-imposed controls that exist within their systems.
The move to democracy has to be indigenous to societies. The first thing that happens, is a move to communism, or socialism, so that the rigid distribution of wealth, is demolished. Then there will be a couple of generations of well fed, and well educated kids, who grow up and want more than a bowl of beans and a book, then democracy and economic vigor linked to new generations of would be middle class, helps democracy along.
I was talking to this economics PHD a while back, he was discussing communism. I told him that communism is just temporary, and it is the means of transition from feudal, or slave societies, to democracy. I explained to him, that without a strong middle class, there is no democracy. That has to be built, so that children are safe and educated, and then choose to make a better life, than communism can offer. Starving, demoralized slave children, or children of feudal systems, like seem to exist in the middle east, have been systematically deprived of rights all their lives, and not encouraged in any way, that would make them free enterprisers, or thinkers.
This economics guy was surprised that I didn't have a really negative outlook about communism, and I pointed out that the father of communism, actually named capitalism, the system, by which we function. I assured him that the Soviet Union was going to come undone, and soon, because all their educated people, could see a way out of their predicament, and it was a more western approach to living. Within two weeks the wall came down.
Democracy is a dynamic, and a luxury we enjoy because of education, and care for the weakest individuals in our society. If our society takes care of the children, and elderly, we then as members have a strong commitment to the society that cares for us.
In the middle east, for the disenfranchised males, the mosque, is the only place where they find some acceptance and find their pride. They will do anything that the Mullahs ask of them, because as the fiftieth son, of a distant father, who never favored his mother, a man has only the religious or violent alternative to get power or attention. These males don't get to have wives, and there are a lot of them. Wives come from economic alliances that disfavored sons will never have a chance to make. The family is not the cohesive social unit of radical islam. Male clan heads, and their friends, and their favored male offspring, are the basic social unit of Fundamentalist Islam. There is actually a class war there, that forms between the favored sons of the aristocracy, and the unfavored sons that gravitate to the firebrand Mullahs. Did anyone notice that we might be fighting a class war, for the wealthy middle eastern potentates?
Iraq has a relatively educated populace, it is the birthplace of our civilization. The Shiites hold a majority, they will install religious rule. Even if they do not install a religious government, they will still rule. We can't make them take up democracy. We can only make it impossible for people to live normal lives for the region, for as long as we are there.
Democracy, certainly isn't the goal of the kings, and their families in the middle east. Didn't anyone think of that?
To return to this thread, Democracy has limits that end at violations of basic human rights, and denial of basic human rights for whatever reason, those that wish to violate, might come up with.
Check out this organization. They want to be our new government. A chief contributor to this foundation runs Diebold. This is the kind of democracy that they are seeking. Look into The Chalcedon Society. They will want to rid us of undesirables, by electrocution. Drunkards, and homosexuals are the first in line. They also advocate that female victims of abuse, simply stop whining, buck up, and keep Jesus in their hearts.
Democracy is a fragile item, almost like a healthy mindset within a large population. There are a lot of simple physical things that can lead to downfall, the dynamic of universal well-being, has to be carefully tended, or else wounded populations within democracies will take them down.
Democracy is not a salve, or a bandaid, that can be applied to an amputation, and then expect regeneration, or even basic healing to begin. Democracy is the flowering of a large, complex, cognitively empowered, compassionate system, somewhat like a social ecosystem, with many parts. It isn't injectable, it isn't an installation, it doesn't happen over lunch or over the barrel of a gun. Democracy is an outgrowth of generations of pragmatically applied compassion.
One does not encourage democracy, by prolonging the dirty work of kings. Democracies aren't nice places where everyone says okay to the powerful, and wealthy, either. Democracies aren't where people compromise their basic values, for the good of the all. Democracy embraces the absolute value of individual freedom, within the framework, of human rights. We have not lifted our sights to realize that we violate basic human rights daily, within our own democracy. We have yet to establish what modern human rights are, there have been very radical changes to our agrarian and trade system, since the seventeen hundreds, that require a close look and broad worldwide agreement, that democracy may still be a valuable system, and guarantee the its blessings in this the brave new world.
*claps hands*