Islamsham democracy...

Churchill had it right when he noted that democracy is an imperfect system of government, but it is the best we have. What will become of the world should the Islamic fundamentalists find a strong political voice in a country such as Pakistan, or Yemen, or Saudi Arabia or Iran? The recent assassination of Pakistan's leading Christian politician Shahbaz Bhatti for his efforts to retract his country's blasphemy law vividly illustrates a major weakness in democracy; the assumption that the electorate is enlightened.

I don't believe I am being anti-Muslim or culture-bound when I suggest that the logical conclusion of awarding fundamentalist Muslims their political will shall result in war. Indeed, the climate of opinion in the USA is rapidly moving from anti-Muslim fundamentalist to simply anti-Muslim. Pakistan, Iran and scores of other Islamic countries and political institutions contribute to this trend. Fundamentalist Muslims continue to be hard at work radicalizing the weak of mind here in the US. Islam is a growing institution here.

From a different perspective, it is not the religious beliefs of a nation that are at fault, but rather the people themselves. It could be argued that Bhatti was as fanatic a Christian as Pakistan's majority are fanatic Muslims. Perhaps we should be looking at some sort of social susceptibility index that would scientifically categorize tribes of people, e.g. the Gauls, the Masai, the Gujarati, the Saxons, etc. into levels of gullibility with respect to following religious dictates. I suspect this would result in placing Mr. Bhatti in the same category as the rest of his tribe.

A major domestic issue here is whether or not O should intervene in Libya.

 The Daily Mail claims that both UK civilians and military (Black Watch) are on standby to assist the rebels in ousting Qadaffi. I am tempted to advise Dave and co to not assume the posture of the world's policeman as we have done here in the USA. However, I strongly suspect that the USA is in some sort of alliance with the UK and Italy and other European nations on this score. Whatever the West does by way of intervention in Libya will be viewed by opponents of O and by Muslim extremists and undoubtedly by most Libyans themselves in a negative manner.

Perhaps we should consider allowing the Libyan revolutionaries to win over the country by themselves. Then they would not be beholden to foreigners for gaining power. Assistance to the rebels, however, could well come in the form of political statements, encouragement for Qadaffi to resign, freezing certain bank accounts and even diverting material aid to the rebels.

We should remember, however, that we do not know the rebels, they have no acclaimed leader, and they could, and most probably would, end up very much like Qadaffi after several years in power.