So, from the point of view of someone implementing a command, this issue just can't be ignored . It has to be confronted with the same depth that an ordinary civilian should understand as to what the military is doing thousands of miles away in his nation's name.
We necessarily encounter questions because the concepts themselves lock horns in oxymoronic struggle above our heads.
Just how do you teach people to embrace and utilize democracy to better their lives when you do it at the point of a gun ? If democracy is indeed the self-liberating idea that is so plain for all people to see, why is there a need to intervene in a society to ensure Democracy's "enforcement"? If the presence of a despotic regime is seen as an obstacle to Democracy's fulfillment, as is the case in numerous areas of the world, would this now mean an invasion of say, Fidel Castro's Cuba , Mubarak's Egypt , the Saud Family's Saudi Arabia or that theocratic state, Iran among others? Who exactly interprets what is "democratic"? What would now prevent, say, Russia or China from declaring in the future that America needs to be "liberated" from "its government "? In these days of global interdependence, nurturing a host of countries where the United States needs to "enforce" Democracy gives a disturbing sense of false security.
Then there's the domestic politics that is certain to be altered whenever an invading army comes in to arrange what it deems to be the proper order . Now with the Sunni Baathists neutralized, the tribal Kurdish fiefdoms strengthened and a largely Shiite Iran-friendly parliament in place, how are we suppose to proceed from here ? Is this what the old bin Laden mentioned as the "done deal" in his latest audiotape ? How long will it be before the Iraqi Parliament votes to ask the US troops to leave Iraq? What will we do then? Or would it be un-democratic for them to do so ?
It does come so ironic not only for the ordinary civilian but for an ordinary Iraqi that America has to teach them the basics on self-governance when their civilization is the much older one, as those archaelogical findings confirm. So as we move forward to train them for their own defense , would not their guns one day for their own Democracy be trained on us ? .......No answers, so far.
But we plod on and do what we have to do.
