"Interesting Ride" May Be Long

Submitted by Mike Ramirez (United States), Nov 17, 2003 at 18:02

Dear Mr. Pipes,

The closing comments to the article, "Bush The Radical," state: "Get ready for an interesting ride."
While I sincerely hoped that Iraqis would welcome a change toward democracy as much as anyone, it appears that it may take longer than expected to change the ideological mindset and structure of the average Iraqi citizen who has no concept of living in anything other than a theocratical form of government. In fact, western culture and an American style democracy goes against the religious dedication that Muslims have toward their faith of Islam. It should be apparent that a secular-type/democratic form of government is not very welcome.

Let us be reminded that during the past 50 years, Arabs have not accepted the right of Israel's government and people to exist as a nation. Will we also have to endure 50 years or more before we realize that Arabs are not going to accept a democracy as we know it? It appears that the only governance acceptable to an Arab country will be one established upon their faith of Islam and a system of jurisprudence based upon Sharia Law, which does not reflect democracy at all.

I hope I am wrong, but if democracy is not welcome at all by the majority of Iraqis, I am afraid that our military involvement and engagement of war will be ongoing for quite some time and the "interesting ride" may be taking us down a very long road.

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