Dictatorship failed, can democracy be any worse?

Submitted by Pat (United States), Jan 27, 2006 at 22:18

The idea that we should slow down the democratization of the Middle East ignores two important points:

1. Dealing with "stable" governments (however autocratic or dictatorial they were) brought us Saddam Hussein in Iraq and 9/11 in America. It's been said that democracy is the worst form of government, after all the others. However messy it is and however unpalatable the outcome may be to us, the alternative is worse.

2. Democracy puts the people who vote in control. It also makes them responsible for their vote. They can't feign a non-terrorist stance when they vote directly for terrorists. The Palestinian people are not infants and they're not ignorant. They know full well what they're doing and now they should be held responsible.

A former Israeli leader said the Palestininans never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They've missed it since 1993. Nothing has changed.

But we in the West shouldn't miss this opportunity, which is how I view the Hamas victory. It should be a time to hold the entire Palestinian populace responsible for the outcome. No more aid, of any kind, as long as the platform of their "leaders" includes the destruction of the state of Israel.

The Palestinian people have made their bed, first with Arafat and now with Hamas. Let them lie in it.

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