A tradition of democracy

Charley Reese explains that long before the Jeffersonian Democratic Republic took root in the United States the seeds had been planted in England. No such seeds have ever been planted in the middle east which is why it is idealistic at best to think a Democratic Republic can take root there.

Our philosophy of individual rights began centuries ago in what we today call the United Kingdom. Long before it was united and long before America was even discovered by Europeans, the roots of individual liberty were planted in the cold soil of England and Scotland. There it developed through centuries of conflict.

Before the shroud of political correctness descended, it used to be easy to say that our form of free society is Anglo-Saxon. It is distinguished from other forms of democracy chiefly on this basis. In the Anglo-Saxon societies, individual rights trump group rights; in other places, including continental Europe, group rights trump the individual.

Thus, you can see a great similarity among the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The culture of these English-speaking countries differs from the cultures of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and even of continental Europe. The British Empire tried to make "Englishmen" of other people, and they failed. Now we are trying to make "Americans" out of other people, and we, too, will fail.

What makes those evangelicals of democracy think they can establish a government in Baghdad that is strong enough to rule the country but that won't also be strong enough to perpetuate itself in power? What makes them think they can create an army and internal security force strong enough to secure the country but that won't also be strong enough to seize power?

It's tradition that allows the United States to have a military that can defend it but won't try to take it over.

Our own Army has always been strong enough to seize control of the government. What has protected us from military coups is that our soldiers have a tradition of loyalty to the Constitution that would trump loyalty and obedience to a rogue officer. No such tradition of constitutional loyalty is present in the Middle East today. The tradition there is loyalty to a strong leader, a cultural trait shared with the Hispanic world.

A form of government like we have in the US requires a tradition of respect for that form of government, something that is lacking in Iraq and in fact most of the world. It's this fact that the neocon evangelicals of democracy don't realize or simply ignore.
Charley Reese does not bring this up but it relates to this statement above:

"The tradition there is loyalty to a strong leader"

We have seen that with the "brownshirt" support that George W. Bush receives and a blatant disrespect for the institutions of the constitution the United States. This country runs the danger of losing the tradition of a constitutional democracy..