Democracy is a delicate butterfly

Democracy is about having choice.

Behind the barrel of a gun is not choice.

The question is an oxymoron.

You can't teach democracy to anyone by force. It has to be freely given or its not democracy but socialism.

^^nwlyfree2003^^

BTW:
Technically it's not Socialism. If it's enforced militarily, it's Communism.

so..what the states did/are doing in iraq.. is that democracy?

^Hey, thats another can of worms in some respects. But I tend to think that democracy can't be taught, rather it must be embraced by the people willingly as a way to do things.

Well, if "taught" means making someone accept and embrace the concept, then "no".

What we did in Iraq was overthrow another country's government, which in no way was justified by the original rationale.

We can, indeed, install a democratic government in its place. How democratically it will remain and/or operate is another matter.

And whether we had the right to do that will be the ultimate question.

i agree with nwlyfree2003, its an oxymoron

i think no.

look at iraq, it apperantly can't.

Nope, democracy can't be taught.

haha, thats the american way!!

I America

Just to be a pretentious git: It's actually a non sequitur.

However, the American government has created in Iraq the first ever "Democratic Junta"

Just to clarify, The government in Afghanistan is failing, the government in Iraq will fail. Democracy at gunpoint. Good grief.

And don't bother mentioning germany and Japan. The difference there was the fighting had stopped and the people of those countries (especially Germany) actually WANTED democracy.

I realise Americans might not understand this, but not everyone thinks democracy is a good idea.

The government in Afghanistan is failing?

I would think that if the Iraqis didn't want democracy, they would not have risked their lives to cast their vote during the recent election...

Afghanistan. Opium poppy production HIGHER than under the Taliban, more warlords than before and corruption is rife.

It's true, many people voted in Iraq. The Sunni did not, dissidents did not. The rot has started already.

Opium production is a measure of governmental success?

Ho Ho. Very drole. I said opium production is HIGHER than under the Taliban, so one should be able to deduce that PREVENTING opium production in Afghanistan is a measure of governmental success. Nice try though.

Democracy is about freedom.

Freedom is about choice.

Choice is NOT about having a gun pointed at you.

I would think that preventing opium production would be rather low on the list of governmental priorities at this point...

If they want to live, I guess it can be taught.

Any thing can be taught...the end of a gun barrel is mearly to keep the attention of the student, without the threat of consequences nothing is learned.

Oh, I forgot that Brunnen fellow up there sounds like a French ner do well (aren't they all?)