{"id":3329,"date":"2014-05-02T11:10:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T08:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2017-11-14T21:28:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T19:28:14","slug":"americas-achilles-heart-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/americas-achilles-heart-2\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Achilles heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Since 1789, ambivalence over America\u2019s international role and responsibilities has persisted.\u00a0 This tension can be captured in terms of George Washington\u2019s pragmatism not to seek permanent entanglements abroad and Woodrow Wilson\u2019s idealism in fighting the \u201cwar to end all wars\u201d to make \u201cthe world safe for democracy.\u201d\u00a0 Washington\u2019s argument was amplified by John Adams\u2019 warning against seeking foreign monsters to slay.\u00a0 Unfortunately, presidents from John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush were deaf to such wisdom.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nAmericans have often been seduced or mesmerized by the siren-like call of aiding democracies and especially those pleading for help in establishing them.\u00a0 Foreign wars that eventually would embroil America attracted some of its youth. American pilots flew in the Lafayette Escadrille in the First World War and the Eagle Squadron and Flying Tigers two decades later whether for altruistic reasons of protecting democracy and freedom or by the exhilaration of war. Interestingly, genocides and revolutions in Africa and Latin America lacked the magnetism of stopping the Hun, Hitler and Tojo\u2019s Japan.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nAfter World War II, the United States willingly became the imposer of democracy.\u00a0 Nazi Germany, Fascist Japan and eventually South Korea would become pluralistic democracies under the rule of law in which elections and not the barrel of a gun determined who would govern.\u00a0 Those successes were absorbed into the nation\u2019s political DNA.\u00a0 The Cold War was about preventing \u201cGodless communism\u201d from spreading.\u00a0 And when the Berlin Wall came down, transforming the former captive states from Marxism to democracy was the first step in making Europe \u201cwhole and free.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nYet, there were more failures than successes in aiding democracy. Vietnam was America\u2019s first outright defeat and symptom of an Achilles\u2019 heart.\u00a0 I recall too well in the 1960\u2019s providing security for then Vice President Hubert Humphrey as he toured Vietnam vigorously cajoling the Vietnamese to vote.\u00a0 If the polls were correct, over 90% did.\u00a0 And of that 90% perhaps only a handful knew what or why they were voting.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nGeorge W. Bush wanted to transform the geostrategic landscape of the Middle East by imposing democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan. Misled or suckered by Ahmed Chalabi, certainly the Vice President and Mr. Bush believed (or wished) the Iraqi people would greet Americans as liberators showering the conquering heroes with flowers and candy.\u00a0 Instead, more plentiful were suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices (IED) that are producing a condition of permanent violence and civil war in Iraq.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhile Afghans just voted, elections are not always synonymous with or indicative of democracy and the rule of law.\u00a0 Yet Vice President Humphrey\u2019s exultations for the Vietnamese to vote echoed in the cities and villages of Afghanistan.\u00a0 And when elections in Egypt elevated the now declared terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood to power, no one in the White House was really sorry to see the Army take over the running of the country.\u00a0 Even though the former Army chief abandoned his uniform for mufti and will become Egypt\u2019s next president, does anyone seriously believe real democracy is close at hand in that country?<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nUkraine has now drawn the sympathy and support of some Americans.\u00a0 Protesters in Kiev\u2019s Maidan Square pleaded for establishing a real democracy.\u00a0 And who would oppose those genuine sentiments in the land of the free and the home of the brave?\u00a0 Unfortunately, reality injects itself.\u00a0 Ukraine lacks the basic institutions and structures essential for creating a real rather than a sham democracy.\u00a0 The election of one of Ukraine\u2019s richest oligarchs as president next month a democracy does not make.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nCan we protect our national Achilles heart?\u00a0 Unless we learn from history, the answer is a resounding no.\u00a0 World War II was unique.\u00a0 Germany and Japan were helpless and at the mercy of the allies. \u00a0Both had institutions needed for a democracy to flourish and earlier experience with a pluralistic political system before Hitler and the Japanese military took control.\u00a0 The U.S. also extended great largesse to rebuild and reshape those societies.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nSimilarly, when the Berlin Wall came down, West Germany had the capacity to absorb the east.\u00a0 The other former iron curtain states had institutions and some experience with democracy. \u00a0So that transformation was successful.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nIn Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, our Achilles heart proved catastrophic.\u00a0 And if America was really serious about imposing democracy, perhaps the Middle East and Israel and Palestine might look quite different. Washington and Adams were generally correct. Only in very special or ideal circumstances can democracy be externally imposed. But will we learn?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 1789, ambivalence over America\u2019s international role and responsibilities has persisted.\u00a0 This tension can be captured in terms of George Washington\u2019s pragmatism not to seek permanent entanglements abroad and Woodrow Wilson\u2019s idealism in fighting the \u201cwar to end all wars\u201d to make \u201cthe world safe for democracy.\u201d\u00a0 Washington\u2019s argument was amplified by John Adams\u2019 warning against seeking foreign monsters to slay.\u00a0 Unfortunately, presidents from John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush were deaf to such wisdom. \u00a0 Americans have often been seduced or mesmerized by the siren-like call of aiding democracies and especially those pleading for help in establishing them.\u00a0 Foreign wars that eventually would embroil America attracted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,65,81,76,102,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americas","category-blog-en","category-democracy-human-rights","category-harlan-ullman-en","category-issues","category-regions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3330,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions\/3330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}