Skunk - Democracy
Markand Thakar
Bush-little, our esteemed president of the United States of America has claimed to be leading a crusade to spread democracy throughout the oil-rich countries of Europe's Near-East-Asian nations -- and to any other political entities, worldwide, when and if he believes that it will benefit the interests of his American supporters.
Of course, the kind of democracies he and his Neocon and oil-industry cohorts really want to sponsor, are in those nations thought capable of catering to America's financial and geo-political interests. And, one might ask: Why not? After all, democracy, as far as SKUNK is concerned is the fairest and therefore the best form of government -- so what if only certain Americans benefit from its implementation in foreign lands?
Nevertheless, despite the obvious good that democracy bestows on all sorts of people, should the lives of America's youths (those who voluntarily serve their country) and the moneys of those Americans who actually pay their lawfully-due taxes -- be needlessly wasted? Of course they shouldn't! That is, unless there are reasonable expectations that at least some Americans will benefit (no matter how disproportionately) from such loss of the lives and tax moneys of the American people.
Obviously, anyone who thinks that the expenditures involved in bringing democracy to the backward peoples of the world [and all folks (unless very wealthy) who are not Judeo-Christian, Euro-Caucasian, capitalism-believing Westerners are presumed to be culturally backward] is being done strictly for altruistic purposes - must be considered a naive bumpkin.
So, one should not be surprised, that the current expenditure of American lives and taxpayer dollars in the current war in Iraq has very little to do with the recently stated purpose of establishing a true democracy in that nation. Not only is it unlikely to transpire - but should Iraq become a true democracy, it would probably result in their electing either a government like the PLO-cum-Hamas - as did the Palestinians, or one with a Saddam look-alike. In either event, even if a true democracy did evolve in Iraq - Bush's oil-industry and Neocon supporters would probably not be overjoyed with its politics.
As proof, one has only to look back to the time when the people of Iran freely elected a left-leaning leader, and recently when the people of Venezuela did the same - at which time America worked undercover to unseat both those governments: successfully in Iran - not so in Venezuela.
Democracy, as we all know, does not always produce the most capable leaders. For every president like Washington, Lincoln, FDR or Ike, we get at least a few Dubyas. So we see, that the somewhat tainted elections of the Republican president Bush-little has produced a Commander-in-Chief with but a modicum of intellect. Yet, we loyal Americans, without the ability to impeach the man for malfeasance, will try our best to abide by his decisions. But, what's most sad is that by Bush-little playing on the greed, bigotry and fears of certain individuals, he has managed, through the democratic process, to maintain a degree of financial and political backing sufficient to allow him to run the world's most powerful nation -without too much interference.
In the decades following WWI, America dealt with the duly elected leaders of Germany, Japan and Italy -- this, despite their obvious war-like intentions to appropriate the lands of others. Talking to those leaders served no purpose, and WWII was to follow. And it's that failure that's now being used by Bush-little for not talking to or allowing any Secretary of State to talk man(or Woman)-to-man with the duly, elected leader of Iran - or for that matter, to the leaders, democratically elected or not of any number of other political entities deemed unfit by our duly elected leader.
The failure of Chamberlain's endeavor to prevent WWII by talking to Hitler, and the subsequent attempts at world domination by Nazi Germany, what with its horrific application of Jewish and Gypsy genocide -has, perhaps understandably, been used by Bush-little and his cohorts to rationalize his administration's intransigent refusal to talk to the leaders of any of those nations he's placed in the "Axis of Evil." However, it should be noted that one of those nations included is Iran - which, as already stated, has a democratically elected president.
Now, one might ask: What the hell does all this have to do with the League? And the answer is: A lot. The League has elections, and it appears that everyone benefiting economically from the way the League is run, is happy with their outcome - despite there being virtually no real choice of candidates.
And, that's not a true democracy. Although inbreeding for humans can sometimes have beneficial results, both physical and mental - in no time the detrimental effects will outweigh any beneficial ones. And the same holds true for any democratic organization.
Therefore, for the good of the League and the vitality of its democratic base, it is imperative that the present administration talk to at least a few dissidents - and assist them in running for office. It's understandable that the current staff of instructors and employees (much like Bush-little and his supporters) would rather maintain the status quo (and at the League, negate the importance of the membership). But unless you have an active membership at the League, it will be impossible to gather its support - in event the stability, that so benefits them, and perhaps even the welfare of the League, is again being jeopardized.
SKUNK would like to state that it was most disappointed when certain former Board members: those responsible for the maintaining of the League's non-academic credentials ceased participating in the election process (while others sought positions within the administration).
As approved by the League's director, virtually no choice is being offered on the absentee ballot. This not only makes a farce of the League's elections, but causes the League to be subject to a lawsuit by any member disenfranchised for not participating in two such virtually uncontested elections in a row. SKUNK wishes to remind the director that he is being paid by the League to see to it that the League is run democratically and lawfully.
SKUNK recalls a former director being quite puzzled that, although the writer (when long ago a League treasurer) had nothing to gain - either monetarily or career-wise (and much to lose) - he worked to block the attempt by the administration to grade student's work.
In summary, SKUNK would like to laud that blundering, brilliant, old racist bastard, Churchill for having stated that: Democracy was the worst possible form of government - except for all the others.
