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0 pointsfineman10y ago0 comments

> Some tried giving Arab countries democracy and it turned out they never really wanted it

Does the presence of terrorists in developed countries prove "we" don't want democracy either?

Because I didn't see the people (of the middle east) choosing, I saw the same thugs and warlords of the past continuing to make the decision for them.

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TeMPOraL10y ago· 3 in thread

Are you implying that all those middle-eastern countries were failed states, ruled by hordes of warlords? For instance, I vaguely remember Iraq being a pretty fine country; for decades, a lot of engineers from my country went there, and we had a pretty good economic cooperation. Then the US came and bombed the living shit out of it.

As for Africa, isn't most of the mess the result of Europe coming there, destroying their local governance, abusing them for a while and then withdrawing, leaving a huge power vacuum behind?

clock_tower10y ago

Iraq after the invasion sort of was. No civil society existed, but there were plenty of bands of guerillas and local religious extremists who'd been fighting Saddam; they inherited the state when we destroyed the Baathists. (The CPA tried to create a civil society, but that can't be done artificially.)

_The Prince of the Marshes_ is a good book to read on this subject.

TeMPOraL10y ago

Please don't recommend me any more books today. I already bought one because of this discussion[0].

But more seriously, thanks for the recommendation :).

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10474120.

finemanOP10y ago

While Iraq was being a fine country they were gassing hundreds of thousands of people.

And theocracies and kingdoms are slave states by definition, so most of what was around them is the same or worse.

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