November 18, 2001

Ambrose Doctrine: Make democracies

Through A Glass Darkly, by John Myers, Internet Photojournalist

My favorite historian and nonfiction author, Stephen Ambrose, came to the area last week to speak at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, and his lecture topic was "The Legacy of World War II."

Ambrose is the author of several history books on WWII, including "Band of Brothers," which was recently produced as a mini-series on HBO. His visit to the area was at the invitation of Carwood Lipton of Southern Pines, a WWII veteran who was a member of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne, which is the subject of Ambrose's book profiling their action from D-Day to Germany.

Ambrose made a persuasive argument that the answer to the terrorist nations we are confronting today is simple - make them into democracies. He cited two post-WWII examples, Japan and South Korea. Both were feudal societies, and both today are flourishing democracies, mainly due to guidance from America.

But I think Ambrose's brush painted a bit too broad when he suggested all we have to do is declare war on Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries with criminal governments and then bring in the diplomats afterward and establish democracies in conquered lands.

Events in Afghanistan have already far outraced the diplomats' plans for that nation. While the United Nations was still arguing about who to send and where to send them, the Northern Alliance and Pashtun rebel groups already sent the Taliban packing, and those who missed the bug-out are being dealt with by Afghans.

It sounds a bit harsh to say, but if a few or even many of the Taliban get some Afghan-style justice, along with Osama bin Laden and his Arab terrorists who hid behind Taliban skirts, then let it be.

The problem with democracies is when you give the people the power to vote, you better be ready to live with the consequences. Let us not forget that the people of Germany elected Hitler.

And that's precisely the problem with the Arab countries of the Middle East. Give the people the power to vote, and guess which group in all of those countries is just about guaranteed to come up with the largest number of votes? If you predict anything but the Islamic militants, then you either haven't been reading the news for the past five or six decades or you're smoking something illegal.

Take the sad case of Algeria. The French were forced out of their former colonial rule there in the 1960s and the only election that has been held in the following four decades of civil war resulted in the Islamic militants winning, kicking off yet another round of war.

I don't know what the answers are when it comes to dealing with the Islamic militants. But I'm afraid democracy ain't it and I'm also sure that trying to dictate local rule with our diplomats ain't either.

I guess the best we can hope for is Osama bin Laden gets what he's got coming and whoever replaces the Taliban won't be worse.