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So democracy is good or democracy is bad, Mr. Bush?
11 May, 2006 :: 4:06 p.m.

I just don't fucking get the U.S.

We are "generously" going to send medical supplies to the Palestinians. Woo. That doesn't really make up for the fact that we led the charge to get countries to stop helping them after Hamas won power.

What I don't get is what message does this send to the world...to Iraq especially. Bush for months has been talking about how democracy in Iraq is going to be a huge key in changing the Middle East. Democracy, democracy, democracy...it's the key to peace, prosperity, happiness and will make the Middle East a land of cotton candy, gumdrops and rainbows.

At the same time, the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas because they were sick of Fatah's corruption and ineffectiveness and the U.S. immediately says Hamas is a terror group and everyone in the world needs to stop giving money to the Palestinians. I thought the West shared Israel's view that a Palestinian, by nature and regardless of political affiliation or age, is a terrorist...but rather than give Hamas even 5 minutes to see what their intentions were once winning, it was just, "No, they're terrorists, let's starve the Palestinians to punish them for electing these people."

So the message to those in Iraq is, "We, the United States, strongly encourage you to be a free and democratic society...as long as you play by our rules and elect the people we want to see elected...fuck up and we will sanction you again and, after that, occupy you again," nice. [this is assuming that the U.S. has actually managed to get out of there by this hypothetical point]

In other news, Israel is now claiming that it will release the $50+ million a month they've been keeping from the Palestinians for the last few months which would be a huge help. But this report is coming literally the day after I watched an interview with an Israeli official who said that there were no plans to give the Palestinians this money any time soon...so we shall see.

But back to the U.S., we're throwing around two totally conflicting views on democracy in the Middle East and we wonder why other countries don't take us seriously?

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