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What’s Love of Democracy Got to Do With It?
by Jacob G. Hornberger, September 29, 2003

Is it possible that the “We’re here to establish democracy” rationale being used to justify the continued occupation of Iraq is just as false and deceptive as the rationale that Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” posed an imminent threat to the United States?

After all, think about it: When was the last time you heard President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, or any of their minions pressure such countries as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, or Egypt about the need to establish democracy? If democracy is supposed to be so important to U.S. officials as to justify an invasion of a country — an invasion that was sure to cost the lives of thousands of innocent people — wouldn’t you think that those federal officials would be fervently promoting democracy elsewhere in the region, especially among friendly regimes?

Yet, hardly a peep on democracy to the nondemocratic regimes in the surrounding area! Not even in Kuwait, where U.S. officials intervened for freedom more than a decade ago in the Persian Gulf War!...

...If U.S. officials had no reservations about supporting Saddam when he was “their man in Baghdad,” doesn’t that make their professed love of democracy in Iraq somewhat suspicious? Indeed, given that they also supported the nondemocratically-elected shah of Iran (the cruel and brutal dictator of that country) — and, for that matter, still ardently embrace the nondemocratic and tyrannical military regime currently ruling in Pakistan (which harbored the Taliban) — why should we believe that U.S. officials have, all of sudden, acquired a born-again fervor for democracy in Iraq?

Indeed, why shouldn't we believe that the newly found U.S. government love for democracy in Iraq is just one more part of the falsehood and deception that infects the entire Iraqi adventure?