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USA can be called a Power to
export Democracy in the world.!
By Shyamal K. Ganguly and
Alamgir Hussain
From: "Shyamal K. Ganguly"
Date: Fri Nov 26, 2004 1:58 pm
Subject: RE: [mukto-mona] RE: World leaders back Iraqi election
Only USA can be called a Power to export Democracy in the world. Do you
suggest
any other country who can export democracy?
Name a few if you can. Thanks.
Shyamal Ganguly
From: "Dr. Alamgir Hussain"
Date: Fri Nov 26, 2004 8:15 pm
Subject: Re: World leaders back Iraqi election
Re:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/21265
Democracy was exported to the world from one country only, which is
America. The modern example of export of democracy is Japan, South Korea -
the two finest spot of democracy in Asia - plus Germany. Whether you like it
or not, democracy & prosperity in the modern world hasn't been possible
without alliance with the US. There has been failures but one cannot
point fingers to America's sincerity to promote democracy at each and every
spot on the world map. They might have read some cases poorly & failed.
America is not GOD to be able to read every case properly; not everything is
within America's capacity. Failure to catch people like Osama & Gaddafi
(previously) are examples which, some arm-chair critiques think, should a
cinch for the US though. Neither is America well-resourced to go to every
corner in the world to do it. However, other countries in the West could
have done a better job by putting in some efforts instead of being happy
with the fine democracy they have within their boundary. That could have
reduced suffering of people around the world.
Thanks, Alamgir
Rebuttal to the above posts
Export Democracy in the world by US - An Oxymoron!
By
Nalinaksha
Alamgir Hussain wrote:
Democracy was exported to the world from one country only, which is
America. The modern example of export of democracy is Japan, South Korea -
the two finest spot of democracy in Asia - plus Germany.
Response:
Regarding Japan,
Korea and Germany-here are some quotes from "What Uncle Sam really Wants
by Noam Chomsky. The book is available online in the Chomsky archieve
hosted by ZNet ( http://www.zmag.org )
"The major thing
that stood in the way of this was the antifascist resistance, so we
suppressed it all over the world, often installing fascists and Nazi
collaborators in its place. Sometimes that required extreme violence,
but other times it was done by softer measures, like subverting
elections and withholding desperately needed food. (This ought to be
Chapter 1 in any honest history of the postwar period, but in fact it's
seldom even discussed.)
The pattern was
set in 1942, when President Roosevelt installed a French Admiral, Jean
Darlan, as Governor-General of all of French North Africa. Darlan was a
leading Nazi collaborator and the author of the antisemitic laws
promulgated by the Vichy government (the Nazis' puppet regime in
France).
But far more
important was the first area of Europe liberated -- southern Italy,
where the US, following Churchill's advice, imposed a right-wing
dictatorship headed by Fascist war hero Field Marshall Badoglio and the
King, Victor Emmanuel III, who was also a Fascist collaborator. ...
In Japan,
Washington initiated the so-called "reverse course" of 1947 that
terminated early steps towards democratization taken by General
MacArthur's military administration. The reverse course suppressed the
unions and other democratic forces and placed the country firmly in the
hands of corporate elements that had backed Japanese fascism -- a system
of state and private power that still endures.
When US forces
entered Korea in 1945, they dispersed the local popular government,
consisting primarily of antifascists who resisted the Japanese, and
inaugurated a brutal repression, using Japanese fascist police and
Koreans who had collaborated with them during the Japanese occupation.
About 100,000 people were murdered in South Korea prior to what we call
the Korean War, including 30-40,000 killed during the suppression of a
peasant revolt in one small region, Cheju Island. ... One aspect of
suppressing the antifascist resistance was the recruitment of war
criminals like Klaus Barbie, an SS officer who had been the Gestapo
chief of Lyon, France. There he earned his nickname: the Butcher of
Lyon. Although he was responsible for many hideous crimes, the US Army
put him in charge of spying on the French.
When Barbie was
finally brought back to France in 1982 to be tried as a war criminal,
his use as an agent was explained by Colonel (ret.) Eugene Kolb of the
US Army Counterintelligence Corps: Barbie's "skills were badly
needed....His activities had been directed against the underground
French Communist party and the resistance," who were now targeted for
repression by the American liberators.
Since the United
States was picking up where the Nazis had left off, it made perfect
sense to employ specialists in antiresistance activities. Later on, when
it became difficult or impossible to protect these useful folks in
Europe, many of them (including Barbie) were spirited off to the United
States or to Latin America, often with the help of the Vatican and
fascist priests.
There they
became military advisers to US-supported police states that were
modeled, often quite openly, on the Third Reich. They also became drug
dealers, weapons merchants, terrorists and educators -- teaching Latin
American peasants torture techniques devised by the Gestapo. Some of the
Nazis' students ended up in Central America, thus establishing a direct
link between the death camps and the death squads -- all thanks to the
postwar alliance between the US and the SS. "
Alamgir Hussain wrote:
Whether you like it or not, democracy & prosperity in the modern world
hasn't been possible without alliance with the US.
Response:
Also consider the following
Anti-democratic instances of US policy
-Overthrow of Mossadeq of Iran
and Installation of Shah.
-Coup by Suharto of Indonesia.
Invasion of East timor and genocide by Suharto under US, australian and
Canadian backing.
-Supporting Pol Pot in the UN
after Vietnam had overthrown the Pol Pot regime.
-Support for Chilean dictator
Pinochet who took power in a bloody coup from the democratically elected
Allende.
-Support to Argentinian Generals
-Backing barbarity in El-Salvadore
-Throttling democracy in
Nicaragua. US is the only country condemned of terrorism by the world
court in the matter of Nicaragua.
-Supporting and propping up the
very democratic Saudi monarchy.
-Supporting millitary dictators
like Zia ul haq of pakistan. Zia let to radical islamization of
Pakistan.
-The role of US during
Bangladesh liberation. Mujib did win a democratic election. The US
however came to the side of the murderous Pakistani army.
Alamgir Hussain wrote:
There has been failures but one cannot point fingers to America's
sincerity to promote democracy at each and every spot on the world map.
Response:
I am sure the
100,000 dead in Iraq, the three-four million dead in Vietnam, the
thousands dead in Latin America, the 500,000 children who died in Iraq
due to sanctions, the Afghan women whose liberation was ensured by
introducing Osama in a country with women doctors and women ministers
will whole heartedly agree with your assessment of American sincerity.
With best wishes.
Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya
Sat Nov 27, 2004
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