Bush says, "Democracies do not attack their neighbors.."

[kentuck]

Is Israel considered a "democracy"? Would Palestine be considered a "democracy" after their recent elections of Hamas? Lebanon has elections and a Parliament style of government - are they considered a "democracy"? Or is George W Bush full of shit up to his eyebrows?

[Ian David]

1. Democracies fly half way around the world 2attack other people's neighbors

Freedom is on the march!

[Warren Stupidity]

2. It is neocon/neoliberal point of faith.

It is Fukayama's assertion from his 'End of History' period that liberal democracies do not go to war with each other. It is bullshit in an era of resource scarcity and arguably we are no longer a liberal democracy.

[alvarezadams]

4. Fukayama is an arse

Historically speaking, "liberal democracies" have been amongst the most warlike.

Something about these RW ideologues that make them reinterpret reality on a consistent basis.

This goes a long way towards explaining them: www.wam.umd.edu/~hannahk/bulletin.pdf

[alvarezadams]

5. Jost on cons

"Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition

Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates theories of personality (authoritarianism, dogmatism–intolerance of ambiguity), epistemic and existential needs (for closure,
regulatory focus, terror management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system justification). A meta-analysis (88 samples, 12 countries, 22,818 cases) confirms that several psychological variables predict political conservatism: death anxiety (weighted mean r
.50); system instability (.47); dogmatism–intolerance of ambiguity (.34); openness to experience (–.32); uncertainty tolerance (–.27); needs for order, structure, and closure (.26); integrative complexity (–.20); fear of threat and loss (.18); and self-esteem (–.09). The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat."

[ixion]

3. the latter

up to eyebrows in his own BS.

[slackmaster]

6. He's wrong, of course

A cursory reading of history is sufficient to prove that.

In some cases attacking one's neighbors makes sense. We should have invaded Canada a long time ago.

[alvarezadams]

8. Actually...

...we did, during the War of 1812.

[INDIA]

10. England was a democracy in 1812?

Coulda fooled me!

[alvarezadams]

12. Kinda

It was selective... only some people could vote.

Kinda like Florida.

Anyways, I was responding to the comment that "we should have invaded Canada long ago" - which, of course, we did.

[INDIA]

14. Actually, it was a bad post

I thought you were claiming that England was a democracy in 1812, when in fact you were correctly stating that we invaded Canada. My bad!

[alvarezadams]

18. lol

I figured as much... no prob!

[havocmom]

7. His handlers need to up his meds

That trip to G8 Land got him stupider than usual

[Recursion]

9. Democracy caused WWI

It's a rarely-spoken, uncomfortable truth. The pressures that pushed the "great" powers towards war in 1914 were not aristocratic or monarchical (the aristocrats and monarchs had the most to lose, after all; and the Hapsburg, Hohenzollern, and Romanov dynasties all fell in the war); they were the result of democratic reforms in all the countries that had given the people more of a say in their governments.

The myth that democracies are somehow inherently peaceful is long-lived and seems to defy all evidence. Athens was a democracy and Sparta was not, but it was Athens that built up the imperialistic hegemony that led to the hell of the Peloponnesian war. Israel is a democracy, but occupies and represses the Palestinians. The Palestinian government was working, slowly and painfully, towards a peace deal with Israel until a more democratic election than had ever previously been held catapulted a maximalist and belligerent Hamas to power. Ditto Hezbollah in Lebanon. The "moderate" regimes in the Middle East that are not Hell-bent on violent confrontation with the west, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc., are very undemocratic and have no qualms about brutally opressing their democratic opposition, who wish to elect radical and maximalist movements who want an immediate and violent resolution to their foreign grievances.

If Europe is any indicator, we have a couple of generations of hell awaiting us before the institutions of democracy establish liberal societies. Let's hope we last that long

[sofa king]

11. Wha? Democracies don't attack their neighbors?

The West Florida rebellion, 1810

Invasion of Canada, 1812

Invasion of Spanish Florida, 1818

Texas Revolution, 1835

Conquest of California, 1846

Invasion of Mexico, 1846

Occupation of Vera Cruz, 1914

Punitive Expedition to Mexico, 1916

Then again, maybe we're not a democracy.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. Deposing the Haitian President?

[sofa king]

24. Oh, if you want to drag the Monroe Doctrine....

...and gunboat diplomacy into it, well, it gets wordy. Here's a snippet from 1901-1929:

S U M M A R Y

During the period from 1901 to May 1, 1929, U.S. Naval Forces landed in Central America, Mexico and the West Indies, twenty-one times as follows:

Colombia and Panama Six times

Cuba Three times

Dominican Republic Three times

Haiti Two times

Honduras Three times

Mexico One time

Nicaragua Three times

[Bandit]

13. Or is George W Bush full of shit up to his eyebrows?

Well Duhhh...

[ComerPerro]

15. Yeah, they attack small countries that did nothing to them, like we do

[rucky]

16. Muslims don't count.

he said so off-mike.

[Igel]

17. In general, true.

But don't take a generality as unexceptionless.

On the other hand, it wasn't Lebanon that attacked Israel, it was Hezbollah. And it wasn't the Palestinian Authority that kidnapped Shalit, it was Hamas.

Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are democracies.

However, democracies, when their populations want war, or can be convinced to accept war, will go to war.

[berni_mccoy]

19. War of 1812. The Democracy called the U.S. Attacked Canada

And don't forget the American-Mexican War or the Spanish American War. All started because of aggressive U.S. expansion into foreign territories.

Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._war

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Democracy in action can be a lynch mob.

With only one dissenting vote.

[Odin2005]

21. The "Democratic Peace Theory" is a load of horseshit.

WWI showed that Democracy and Nationalism are a deadly mixture. Democracy actually increases the risk of stupid conflicts because of public opinion.

[bdamomma]

23. bush better take the word democracy and shove it up his ass

this man knows nothing but death and destruction, and sees only in black and white. What a sick sick man, oh......what else needs to said about him.