Friday, July 14, 2006

Re: Democracy   [Andy McCarthy]

Michael, I am not condemning democracy.  I love democracy.  I wish the world was democratic.  I am simply saying it is not a viable defense against terrorism.

You say, "Support for strong democratic states requires seriousness."  I quite agree.  Seriousness means we stop mincing words and deal with reality.  Here is reality:  the lack of democracy is not the root cause of Islamic terrorism.  The root cause of Islamic terrorism is an interpretation of Islamic doctrine.  There are many verses of the Koran and the Hadiths that tend support this interpretation.  It has not been created out of whole cloth, and if Thomas Jefferson himself resurrected tomorrow, he could not make these scriptures disappear.

Does that mean everyone who follows Islam will become a terrorist?  No.  But some always will, whether democracy dominates the world or not.  The people who subscribe to this fascistic view of Islam have to be killed or captured; they are not going to be evolved or democratized into ceasing to threaten us.

I support democracy and freedom.  I believe it should be our national policy to support those things for a host of very good reasons.  None of those reasons, though, is that it is insurance against jihadism.

Democracy promotion as a goal of national policy is fine and admirable.  On the other hand, selling democratization as a complete, self-contained response to terrorism is nothing beyond a more appealing manifestation of the regnant political correctness that induces us to call this enterprise the "war on terror" lest we offend anyone by mentioning who the enemy is.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to believe that the problem wasn't a religious doctrine but rather the denial of a great aspiration —  freedom — that we just happen to be in a noble position to provide? 

But it's a fiction.  The terrorists don't want to kill us because they have been deprived of freedom.  They want to kill us because they believe their religion tells them that is what they are required to do.  It is why they continue to try to kill us even when they live in very comfortable democratic circumstances.  Freedom is not a cure for what ails them.

That the Lebanese failure is not a failure of democracy does not establish the corrollary I hear you suggesting:  namely, that the success of democracy would protect Lebanon or Israel from the consequences of jihadism.  Your mention of the need to insist on the expulsion of Hezbollah proves the point.  Hezbollah is comprised of incorrigible jihadists who must be killed or expelled because democratization has not, and never could have, stopped them from believing what they believe.  The lack of liberty was not their complaint.

I admire the proponents of democracy.  I am skeptical that they can succeed in the Islamic world, but I admire that they are trying, and I hope they are right.  Nonetheless, as you have explained more compellingly than anyone I know, this is a war and it's gotta be fought like a war.  A foreign policy in which paeans to democracy substitute for confronting hard truths about what is driving the enemy is not a winning policy.

07/14 07:11 PMShare