Comments

The number one thing I've learned about business over the past few years is that 80% of the job is just showing up and giving it a try. So whether or not you're a Democrat or a Republican (or even a neo-libertarian like myself), the fact that you're willing to do something even if you make mistakes means that you're more likely to succeed than fail. And making mistakes means you're learning.

So I'd rather try and sometimes fail at ridding the world of tyrrany and despotism than have never tried at all. Making a mistake is human. Not trying is sinful.

Posted by Michael Mealling at February 1, 2005 11:22 AM

Michael, I like that: Neo-Libertarian. That's me! Incidentally, I plan to become an official Independent if Howard Dean wins the DNC job.

Posted by tom peters at February 1, 2005 11:49 AM

Score one for the Iraqis, stepping up big time on election day. President Bush has to be pretty happy too. Now a big goal would be huge. Anyone catch Tom Friedman's Geo-Green column -- I agree with him the big goal should be a new energy policy. Keep oil prices down, help the environment, alternative fuels, foster change in the oil-dependant mid-east, and more. How about 1% year for the next decade?

Posted by Greg Calkins at February 1, 2005 12:54 PM

All this is good and nice, except perhaps that the quality of the whole thing is questionable, because:
1. enforcing democracy with armed intervention that violates international law and practice is a self-defeating endeavour
2. it's bad practice to be spending over 150 billion USD of tax-payers' money to wage a war on a regime established over thirty years ago with our passive acceptance if not with our direct support (does anyone remember how Saddam came to power? how about the Iran gate story and don't you think it is linked to Iraq too?)
3. America has never been more popular in the world but when initiatives were constructive (e.g. the Marshall Plan, the Berlin blocus or indeed the first war on Iraq, an unfinished job is you ask me) not when America decided to go it alone and only ask for help when it became clear that there was no plan to clean up the mess and win the peace
4. it kind of lacks grace to be spending over 150 bn USD on a war when 50-75 MILLION USD per country that has trouble accessing potable water would be sufficient to give proper drinking water to millions of human beings
5. less than 15% of Iraq's population approves of the US intervention and over 90% see coalition forces as occupation forces
6. democracy works well when there is proper education, which is by no means the case in countries that have been torn by war for decades while we in the Wetern World were indifferent to their fate
7. our Western model of democracy is not necessarily compatible with the traditions and cultures of the countries we are arrogantly invading to bring the lights of our civilization in a neocolonial push. That is after we brought them the curse of totalitarian regimes that we sponsored (Anybody remembers Salvador Allende and infamous September 1973? How about Mobutu and Zaïre? was he legitimate? And indeed, does anyone seriously believe Saddam stayed in power for over 30 years "despite our best efforts" to bring democracy to Iraq?)

So all these are the weaknesses and issues facing us in the path we have chosen to take and we need to keep them in mind if we want to make a lasting impact in bringing more freedom to the world.

Still, doing something about the wrongs of the world is better than sitting idle in the pretense that the job cannot be done in the cleanest and most pure fashion as some would want. Perfection is not in our world. Damn' if we do, damn' if we don't. Ultimately, it's great someone had the balls to do something about Saddam.

I believe there is nothing wrong with the world that cannot be fixed with what is right with the world. We just need to help the process a bit. Yes it is the responsibility of today's powerful to help build a more just world for tomorrow... The powerful of today, may be the weak of tomorrow.

So, when do we rid North Korea of "Junior" Kim? How about Iran and its religous extremist dictators? Or Belarus? And so many African countries?

Can it be done without wars and destruction? Do we remember how we won the cold war? Not by invading, jailing and occupying all those who threatened freedom, if I remember correctly...

"Human kind has to get out of violence only through nonviolence. Hatred can be overcome only by love. Counter-hatred only increases the surface as well as the depth of hatred."

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."

- Mahatma Gandhi

Posted by Alex at February 1, 2005 2:47 PM

Yeah, and 83.6 % of all reported statistics are completely fabricated.

(Also by 2015 only the top 8 1/2 percent of earners will have computers fast enough to manage online with all this data pollution.)

I think the US needs a really good ad agency to develop an ultra super new-and-improved meaningfullesque internal/external branding initiative.

Posted by Jason Kerr at February 2, 2005 4:20 AM

Well, Tom, since the news reports make it now seem all but certain that Dr. Dean will be the head of the DNC, may I have the privilege of being one of the first to welcome you into the fold; and to point out that as an “old Democrat” who cares deeply about the genuine suffering of the unfortunate innocents and who clearly believes that all of us should embrace life and live it to the fullest for however many years we inhabit this planet, you did not leave the Democratic party. The Democratic party left you.

I clearly remember the day nearly twenty years ago when a move of a few miles required me to go to the courthouse and update my voter registration. There I sat, across the desk from the county clerk, and when she inquired what party affiliation she should list for me I told her that I was a Pragmatic Humanitarian Libertarian. She scowled at me, but I insisted that she type those exact words on my voter registration card because it was the best descriptor of my political philosophy that I could come up with. It was only gradually, over time, that I came to realize that it was the same thing as being a modern-day Republican; the party of the small business owner, the rancher or farmer, the office worker or factory worker, of working men and women who give of themselves to make their communities and their world a better place, who encourage every individual to strive to dream big and achieve those dreams, and who are the first to lend a helping hand to those in need. One day you too will understand that this is so, and that will be the glorious day when you find your way home. You will be warmly welcomed.

Posted by Doug Smith at February 3, 2005 1:35 AM

Sure it is, Tom .. backed up by guns, rockets, bombs, elections that Bush didn't originally want (people tend to not remember that - Sistani forced his hand there) and FUD.

How will Bush chortle about democracy if the Sistani government turns around and says ... OK, US .. out NOW ! ? Or will there then be another toppling of another Iraqi government, however the means ?

Posted by Jon at February 6, 2005 1:01 PM