perfidy

To respond, albeit a bit late, to John's big question, how oh how shall the United States foster republican government in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'll offer my thoughts. First, this begs the question, is it the place of the United States to foster any sort of government in those countries? Well, we broke it so we'd better buy it. At this point it does seem irresponsible not to lend a hand, seeing as we're pretty much the folks that punched them in the nose. I'm uncomfortable with American conduct viz-a-viz those countries, but what's done is done, and I admit that fostering republican governments is probably the way to proceed at the moment.

The thing is, if those republican governments should return a majority of anti-republican parties who want to remake the political structure of their own country, then tough. We can't say, "You can have a representative government, provided they play ball on our field by our rules." We used to say, "You can have a repressive dictatorship (and we said this to Hussein as well) provided you play ball," so no more of that shit. Pays your money, takes your chances.

But cliches aside, how to foster republican government in Afghanistan? No idea. That's a tough one. As to Iraq, the answer, though this might seem strange, could very well lie in Europe.

European states rely heavily on the near east for oil. The United States relies more on its own resources and South America, but we're talking about Europe and the near east. Oil producing countries tend to lean toward the repressive dictatorship side of things, as those who control the oil tend to control the country. Take Saudi Arabia for instance. On the other hand, as a friend of mine not long ago pointed out, in a strange reversal of fortune, my grandmother's country, Lebanon, has a significantly more representative government than other near eastern states at this point. Despite the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s, and a complete collapse of governance, as well as the personal loss of family members and possibly a legitimate claim on an olive tree farm, Lebanon has nonetheless risen from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix. It may be that it is because Lebanon has no oil.

Therefore, remove the oil from the equation, and possibly pave the way for representative government in Iraq. If the Europeans switch to synthetic/alternative fuels when they become available, or start driving hybrids, it could eliminate the he-who-controls-the-oil-controls-the-government-in-a-non-representative-fashion factor. If that is the case, the answer to Iraqi representative government lies not in Baghdad, but in Paris.