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The ABCs of Democracy or the Children of Iraq Thank You |
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by Lainees Turschuman
Email: mbatko (nospam) lycos.com (verified) |
11 Dec 2004
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Law in a democracy according to the Ameri-can model is nothing but the law of the stronger. Justice is the freedom of those with the law of the stronger on their side to divide the spoils according to degree of friendship. |
“I KISS THIS HAND”
The ABC of Democracy or the Children of Iraq Thank You
By Lainees Turschuman
[This guest commentary originally published in: Freitag 50, 12/3/2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.freitag.de/2004/50/04500703.php. Lainees Turschuman is a German commentator on Radio Damascus.]
Every educator and psychologist will agree that the best lessons are those experienced by a person in his or her own body. As everybody knows, the US had the noble intention of bringing us ignorant ones in the Arab world near the values of democracy with the help of an example called Iraq. The children of Iraq have the dubious advantage of experiencing the values of the western world in their own bodies. This is a lesson for all life if one survives the learning hour.
The foundations of American democracy should be briefly outlined. Democracy, as George Bush taught us, stands for “law”, “freedom” and “justice”. We begin with the basic value “law” and use the example of Iraq offered by the US to teach our children. “Law in a democracy according to the American model is nothing but the law of the stronger!” This is easy to understand. Those with the sharpest teeth take the largest part of the spoils. Those with the most efficient “killing machines” gain all the oil.
The second foundation of democracy is “freedom”. Bush teaches us that we are free to slip from the drawer labeled “terrorist” into the drawer “friend of the US”. Everyone is free to decide. Do I let my house be bombed, my child mutilated or do I play the dear snail and kiss the hand that I cannot break? Do I let my parents appear crying and mourning in the news or do I thank God – since the price of democracy must be paid – that I don’t have to be calmed by sedatives as a criminal terrorist in Guantanamo?
The most important foundation, as everybody knows, is “justice”. We can now teach this very simply to our children thanks to the Iraq example: “Justice” is the “freedom” of those with the “law” of the stronger on their side to divide the spoils according to the degree of friendship.
Dear Mr. Bush, the children of Iraq thank you that they will be immortalized for all future generations of Arab children as corpses or parts of corpses in the textbooks of Arab history. Their fathers and mothers would also thank you, Mr. Bush. Unfortunately they are either dead or written off as rebels and terrorists – “lawless” and thus not “free” to express themselves. |
See also:
http://www.mbtranslations.com
http://www.commondreams.org
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