Democracy.

For a while now, during my discussions with various neo-cons that I know, I have been hearing the same thing. That I do not understand what democracy is. I am wrong for saying it is unlikely it will ever work in Iraq. The "evidence" they have used is spotty at best, but it involved pointing at newspaper photos of people with ink on their index finger. See? People voting! Ill bet you hate that.

But I have always known that THEY were the ones who are wrong. Democracy is NOT a form of government. Democracy is just an idea - with as many weaknesses as strengths. But my associates who blindly support Bush do not see this. I have been accused of being an America hating communist and told that maybe I should just move to France. By idiots. I just want the war in Iraq to fail so I can blame it all on Bush. As if I think people getting maimed and killed just to achieve a political goal is good. And all because I dared to state the obvious - democracy will probably NOT work in Iraq.

What is my evidence? History. Did you know that Adolf Hitler was voted into power by a democratic election? Well he was. Go on and look it up. The people spoke - and WWII was the result. And that is not all. Many people that were voted into power by fair elections turned out to be turds on a stick.

But the other side - the people who think that somehow the democracy fairy will wave a magic wand over Iraq and make everything OK still refuse to see the facts. They continue to follow the pied piper of madness, blind to what is going on right in front of them.

In the new nation of Palistine, Hamas was voted into power. By democracy. But do you hear Bush saying "See? Democracy works!". No, you do not. Hamas, a group known to support terror and a group who refuse to extend diplomatic ties to Israel - was voted in.

With Hamas in power, it is unliely that anything constructive can happen. The Fatah supporters are pissed off, and will not accept rule by Hamas. Sounds like the makings of a civil war to me.

The USA is "reviewing foreign aid packages", meaning that aid the new nation so desperatly needs in order to build infrastructure will be cut off. We do not deal with terrorists. And now that Hamas is a legitimate government, we will probably also cut off diplomatic ties.

Hamas was voted in because the people are unhappy with the way things are. And can you blame them? Would you like your home to be occupied for decades, and see lavish gated communities guarded by an army spring up while you continue to live in a shack because there are no jobs? Hamas offered people something different, and they went for it.

Who is to say this will not happen in Iraq? The elections there were not by any means "free open elections" like the White House claims they were. In open elections, anyone who wants to can run. But could the "bad guys" we are looking for in Iraq run for office? If you think the answer to that question is no - then you can not accept that the elections were open to everyone.

And what happens if a militant in Iraq does run? What do we do? Respect democracy? Let the people decide? Or bomb the crap out of the guy when he is at home. Of course the White House would choose to bomb the crap of the guy. Totally disrespecting the voice of the people.

I wonder what my neo-con associates would say about this. Could they admit that my views are closer to reality than their warped vision? Probably not. They would just accuse me of wanting everything to fail because I hate apple pie, fireworks on the 4th of July, and bald eagles. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, on the planet I live on (as opposed to Planet Happy-Everything-Is-Fine) things do not look so good. I think the people made a terrible mistake voting for Hamas. I do not think that anything good can come from a Hamas controled government. But - the people did vote. And the election was fair. There are no dingleberries on the ballots, no chads, or anything. Nobody disputes the results. Hamas won.

Ain't democracy great?