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Originally Posted by ArtificialBrandon
It's still not "dictating the terms," it's merely making sure that the government Iraq intends to set up is the government we went to war to see created.
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How is that not dictating the terms of the democracy? Bush apologists are oh-so-ready to fall back on the argument that the 2003 military invasion was an act to liberate the Iraqi people. Well, here is the Oxford Dictionary definition of liberate:
To set free, as from oppression, confinement, or
foreign control
The Bush Administration seems to be imposing its vision of the political structure of post-Saddam Iraq, without consulting the international community, let alone the country's populace. Whether this structure is the correct one or not is irrelevant. They are perceived by large portions of Iraq's citizens as a foreign power which has taken away the right to self-determination. They can't avoid emnity that is being directed at them if they continue in this manner. One of the fundamental narratives of the American character, the War of Revolution, holds lessons about the galvanizing effect on the disparate elements of a society, when a foreign power unilaterally imposes its will on a people yearning for freedom and independence.