Sunday, May 30, 2004
The headline on AOL news gloats: "Iraqis wrangle over president to replace Saddam," and the story itself devotes about one paragraph to explaining the headline before plunging off into a rant about violence in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
How soon we forget. Our own nation was not expected to survive. Because we've lasted two hundred plus years we've grown comfortable and assumed we were always stable. But the United States too was born in the violence of revolution and outside help from European countries. Still, no one expected the new form of government to work here. Everyone was surprised when the government managed two terms of Washington, who then retired rather than seize military control, and a term of his Vice-President, who everyone knew was his handpicked successor. But the real stunner came in the election of 1800. A hardfought electoral race had ended in the House of Representatives. It had been the bitterest, most partisan campaign yet and many predicted that with the advent of a president whose views on government were pretty much antithetical to the outgoing president, the experiment of democracy would self-destruct into violence. It did not happen. The transition of power from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson showed the world that the same people who could riot in the streets could show restraint and reason in governing themselves.
I do not want to open myself to the charge of blind idealism here. I have often wondered whether our views of the equality of all men, at least as applied to Arab's self-government, is true. But it could be. In the months that follow the Iraqi people could prove to us that they can do more than riot and pull down statues. They could elect a president who would protect their liberties. Those who wished for another choice could choose to restrain themselves and their followers and live on until the next election...much like we do here and have done for years. Power could move safely and peaceably from the interim government to a permanent democracy. The new government could choose to crack down on terrorism and accept the friendship of the United States, as an older brother of sorts. We were born in a very similar way and we have survived. Iraq could, at least in theory, do the same. A little History always puts things into perspective.
How soon we forget. Our own nation was not expected to survive. Because we've lasted two hundred plus years we've grown comfortable and assumed we were always stable. But the United States too was born in the violence of revolution and outside help from European countries. Still, no one expected the new form of government to work here. Everyone was surprised when the government managed two terms of Washington, who then retired rather than seize military control, and a term of his Vice-President, who everyone knew was his handpicked successor. But the real stunner came in the election of 1800. A hardfought electoral race had ended in the House of Representatives. It had been the bitterest, most partisan campaign yet and many predicted that with the advent of a president whose views on government were pretty much antithetical to the outgoing president, the experiment of democracy would self-destruct into violence. It did not happen. The transition of power from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson showed the world that the same people who could riot in the streets could show restraint and reason in governing themselves.
I do not want to open myself to the charge of blind idealism here. I have often wondered whether our views of the equality of all men, at least as applied to Arab's self-government, is true. But it could be. In the months that follow the Iraqi people could prove to us that they can do more than riot and pull down statues. They could elect a president who would protect their liberties. Those who wished for another choice could choose to restrain themselves and their followers and live on until the next election...much like we do here and have done for years. Power could move safely and peaceably from the interim government to a permanent democracy. The new government could choose to crack down on terrorism and accept the friendship of the United States, as an older brother of sorts. We were born in a very similar way and we have survived. Iraq could, at least in theory, do the same. A little History always puts things into perspective.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 4:28 PM 
