Ken Buck, diplomat: No way “people as backward as the Afghans” can run an industrialized, “Western-style” democracy: http://bit.ly/aVbPoW.
Ken Buck, diplomat: No way “people as backward as the Afghans” can run an industrialized, “Western-style” democracy: http://bit.ly/aVbPoW.
That’s quite the common viewpoint among various realpolitik proponents on both sides of the aisle. George Will might make the point more eloquently, but I’d prefer this kind of undiplomatic straight-shooting to the “nuanced” beating around the bush you usually hear.
As a mesure of brutal honesty, the question comes down to this. If he means can’t and never will be able to I think he is wrong. If he means that in the current political, social, societal will, security, etc. sense; we may not want to hear it but he is probably accurate. The things that make democracy possible and functional don’t seem to be present at the moment. I don’t think that means, per se, that the can and will never be present, nor does it mean that we shouldn’t support and nurture those preconditions of democracy. I think this is a vital distinction. There is being realistic about the facts on the ground, and then there is being a pretentious jackass, there is a fine line between two. But when it comes down to it you cannot “install” democracy the same way you install Firefox (I was going to say Windows 7, but I think that might have issues rhetorically.)