I Thought Democracies Didn't Attack Each Other

[Yavin4]

Israel - Democracy
Lebanon - Democracy

According to Bush, they shouldn't be attacking each other.

[Sydnie]

1. Ding Ding Ding

We HAVE a winner!

[slide to the left]

24. That is only

Christian, Right-wing, Bush loving democracies. Iraq was a democracy. Its just that the voting was wrong... oh wait, we have that problem

[htuttle]

2. Well, they don't -- except for the US and Israel

We're different.

[slackmaster]

3. Cute, but I don't recall anyone ever saying that

Please cite your source.

[northernsoul]

6. I think that's been a recurring mantra of the NeoCons

The logic being that if we magically force every country to become a free-market democracy, there will be no more war. I think I've heard Thomas Friedman say something to the effect that no two countries with MacDonalds franchises have ever fought eachother - although I think the Yugoslavian civil wars of the 90's pretty much put that one to rest.

[Orrex]

7. Here's an addressing of the question

The Straight Dope

Anyway, the OP is making the point that Dubya's ludicrous pie-in-the-sky expectations of the magical powers of democracy to bring peace to the Middle East, as long as it's the kind of appointed democracy approved by the Republican sect of the US government, of course.

[skylarmae]

9. I personally have heard georgie porgie state almost verbatim, those

very words...I don't have a quoted link, however, I HAVE heard him (more than once) utter such....

[Jacobin]

11. Here's what I found. Close:

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."—Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003


(forgetting I suppose that the 'free nation of the USofA' has the largest stockpile of wmds the world has ever known)

[magellan]

12. Will the WH website do?

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 20, 2006

President Discusses War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom
Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
Cleveland, Ohio

big snip...

"And again, I repeat to you, the debate -- one of the debates is whether or not certain folks can self-govern. There's kind of a -- maybe there are some in the world that aren't capable, say the skeptics. I strongly disagree with that. I believe there's -- hold on a second -- I believe there's a great desire for people to be free. I believe that. And history has proven that democracies don't war with each other. Again, I kind of glossed over this, but particularly for the students here, look at what happened in Europe over a hundred-year period, from the early 1900s to today. Europe was at war twice that cost Americans thousands of lives. Today, they don't war because the systems of government changed. Democracies are at peace. Europe is whole, free, and at peace. And that's an important history lesson for those of us."

[slackmaster]

14. Wow, maybe I should pay more attention to what the WH says

I make it a point to ignore most of their chatter.

Thanks.

[magellan]

17. De nada

:)

[Yavin4]

21. The Bush Admin Reduced Complex Foreign Poilcy To A Slogan

Knowing that the American attention span is that of a gnat, they reduced the complexity of the Middle East to a brain-dead slogan, "Democracies don't attack each other". By saying this slogan over and over, they can extend the occupation of Iraq indefinitely because in the minds of the American people bringing Democracy to Iraq equals peace.

What's happening in Lebanon dispells that fact completely.

[cantstandbush]

13. Condi for one said it over and over again. Bush said it at least once

that I heard with my on ears.

[slackmaster]

15. Thanks - I rarely listen to them

Point taken.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Francis Fukayama

"And indeed, there is substantial empirical evidence from the past couple of hundred years that liberal democracies do not behave imperialistically toward one another, even if they are perfectly capable of going to war with states that are not democracies and do not share their fundamental values."

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/fukuyama.htm

[Sydnie]

20. Check out the work of our own file83 then

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2696762

He said it. Here he is saying it again.

[PoBoy321]

4. But Lebanon isn't a REAL democracy

because they do what THEY want, not what WE want.

[paparush]

22. DING! DING! DING!! We have a winner!!! nt

[ChickMagic]

5. That's *exactly* what I said to my hubby this morning!

Great minds and all that!

[grytpype]

8. Excellent point.

I also thought democracies did not wage aggressive war, but that went out the window in 2003.

[Jacobin]

10. but but but

The neo-cons PROMISED us they wouldn't do that!!!

(all the while starting a war in IraqNam)

[zippy890]

16. freedom's on the march

Freedom's on the March!

Freedom's on the March

FREEDOM'S ON THE MARCH!

[Swamp Rat]

18. ein... zwei... ein... zwei... ein... zwei... ein... zwei... ein... zwei...

[LostInAnomie]

23. Someone brought this up on a news show yesterday...

... and the Repuke reply was essentially "Well, Lebanon is evil. So they aren't a Democracy."