World War III

I just read the daily news and I see that World War III continues. For some odd reason, a lot of the people in Iraq are unhappy with our presence in their country. The fact that we seem to bring even more death and destruction with us might be the reason for their dislike for democracy as we have presented it to them. What they want is some one to stop the killing, a strong figure that they can turn to for guidance and one to lead them out of this horror that seems to be engulfing their country.

In our own country, some people have tunnel vision when it comes to a discussion of an alternative to democracy for Iraq. Ask an anthropologist; it’s a fact that democracy is not the preferred method of governance among primitive people. Doesn’t that tell us anything? I think I can safely say that the majority of people in Iraq are primitive. Even more so in Afghanistan. Tribalism has a very strong grip on the people and until you educate them, it always will. Evil hates knowledge. And education is the key to defeating evil. Give them a king, an emperor, a dictator…but give them education as well and democracy can then grow in fertile soil. Until the people have knowledge, you might as well be planting in the sands of the desert.

Does that seem wrong to you? Look at America’s history and imagine a country without the educated leaders and middle class we had at that time. Imagine a country filled with yeoman farmers with a minimal education. Do you really think they would have chosen democracy over the safe relationship they had with a distant king? At the time of our own revolution, education already had a history. Yale University was already 75 years old and had almost that many graduating classes. Harvard had been established in 1636! That is 140 years of education before the events of 1776. Education was already a part of the fabric of American life long before we chose democracy.