SODOM & GOMORRAH: Lawrence Auster makes an excellent point about Iraq’s democracy.
Lawrence Auster at “View From The Right” asks us to consider whether neoconservatives have been hypocritical about their criticism of Libya’s recent declaration of Sharia Law. He points out that Iraq’s 2005 constitution makes Sharia Law the basis of that country’s democracy, but now that President Obama has supported intervention in Libya, the Sharia Law development is a sign that democracy has failed.
Auster is dead on. He’s also correct to ask us to look at the Afghani constitution for a similar declaration.
Democracy has not failed; it has done exactly what it promised to do. In essence, it has empowered the majority. When your majority is Muslim and believe that Sharia Law should be the basis of the state structure, any outcome that doesn’t promote Sharia Law would indicate a failure for democracy. The real failure was liberalism: policy makers in the West assumed that liberalism and democracy automatically went hand in hand. They were wrong and as such have empowered anti-Western forces. This is not unique to President Obama, but happened just as tragically under President Bush.