yrrlscibi uieuuhvim qqnhldimi ujcqwbslcve

imminent that a first-strike is the only reasonable military response. heavens! I’ll do whatsoever pleases me to do, but U can’t, is it?

OK, YOU’RE the ‘philosopher’ – let’s analyze the above statement.

I see a non sequitur. That is, I don’t see any relationship between whether to invade another country and whether we trust them to choose their own government.

PLENTY of nations are unable to widely choose leaders. But that’s not a reason to invade them. There is absolutely NO evidence that the Iraqis (or the Pakistanis or the Afghans or most places in Africa) can choose their own governments without choosing brutal, corrupt, inept and tyrannical ones. That’s too bad for them, but it doesn’t justify an invasion.

The only justification for invading another country is if that other country has attacked you or where such an attack is so obviously and overwhelmingly imminent that a first-strike is the only reasonable military response. Those conditions were not extant in Iraq and the question of trusting the Iraqis to choose their own government has no relevance to the situation.

American voters are too stupid for STV-PR. I know they already use it in some places outside the US (Scotland and Ireland maybe?) but their voters have higher political IQs and they are already used to the concept of multiple political parties.

Have you ever been to an American polling site? They have specially-trained guides to direct voters to the actual voting machines because otherwise voters just walk into walls, breaking their noses, or try to stuff ballots into urinals or coat closets. They also count the crayons after the voter has exited the booth to make sure they don’t eat them. And the ballots are weighted so they only orient one way so the voter doesn’t hold them upside down when they vote. And on the ballot they don’t just have the name printed, but they show a little picture of the candidate in a box shaped like a TV screen so the voter can recognize him or her. And they play soothing music on a PA system because American voters are often in a high state of agitation on election day and are apt to have loud outbursts or start crying or laughing hysterically or rip their clothes off run around naked disturbing the other voters.

Ok, OK, I’m exaggerating a LITTLE, but honestly, the reason why we don’t have a Monster Raving Loony Party on this side of the pond is because it would be redundant. Don’t oversestimate the intellectual capacity of the American voter.

I didn’t say ANYTHING about what I expected.

I DO blame it on the average American voter. But that doesn’t mean I EXPECT him to do any better. The average American voter is intellectually lazy and slothful in his civic habits. He CHOOSES to do those things the same way people CHOOSE to buy new flat panel TV’s and vacations instead of saving for retirement, or to drive too fast and not wear their seatbelts, etc. Those things often have bad consequences, too.

I fully expect things to get a lot worse before they get better, but there’s not much I can do about it. It’s like having a bunch of juvenile delinquents, doing drugs, skipping school, back-alley-sex, and getting involved in petty crime. You KNOW where it will lead with some of them – major crime, detox centers, dead-end jobs, AIDS/STDs, etc. And you know that a few of them might straighten up and fly right after some horrific experiences, but many of them will NEVER face up to the results of their life choices.

Likewise, when all the chickens come home to roost WRT our Iraq stretegy, SOME Americans will see the light but many of them will still fail to see how US strategy took a bad situation and made it worse.

There is always a trade-off between overall proportionality (large electoral districts) and local representation (small electoral districts), but the STV system of proportional representation allows you to strike a reasonable compromise between the two AND gives the real power to the voters, not to the party machines.

With STV-PR it would be the voters who decided whether any third (or fourth) party would rise or whether representation should be confined to just two parties. But even then the voters would decide the balance among the various “wings” within those two parties.

STV-PR puts the voters first – that’s why many politicians don’t like it. But it does offer a practical solution to many of the problems electors are encountering

My friend is there because he is Iraqi and was born there. He has tried to get permission to go to another country, but no luck so far. 3 of his best friends have been assassinated and he fears for his life, which is not irrational at all.

By complex I believe he means that there are so many militia now operating and everyone is just trying to survive, so any easy American fast-food style solution won’t work.

You seem to want to blame it all on the average American voter but I think you expect too much. Like you suggest, they would rather “get lost in that hopeless little screen” (Leonard Cohen, Democracy).

What I fail to understand is that the educated elite from across the spectrum are so lacking in historical knowledge. Vietnam, Afghanistan, even Somalia: when have occupations worked? When is there ever a simple solution to nation-building, especially when a power vacuum is created? How could the US elite allow this to happen? Or the real question, why did they allow/want this to happen? Are there really two parties? Or just a group of officials bought off by corporate interests?

plnelson: the American voters have asked for it, and they’re getting it good and hard.

I would say that the Iraqi people are getting it good and hard and they never asked for it. That is the saddest part of this most recent chapter of America the Nation Once Again Tries and Fails to Come of Age.

Old Nick is right, time to go back to the founding fathers and wake them from their slumber. There is a new world out here that needs an America with a constitution that gives democracy a chance. The lesson of imperialistic nation-building abroad should be the need for democratic nation-building at home.