The foreign secretary speaks as part of a political generation with no experience of war and little sense of history
By Simon Jenkins
The Guardian, Wednesday February 13 2008
"......Few would quarrel with the platitude that democracy is the least worst way of governing a freedom-loving state. But history shows that democracy takes centuries to bed down in any culture (including Europe's). This generation of western politicians has no experience of war and little sense of history. The new interventionism may differ from the old imperialism in not seeking to settle or rule countries. But it is the same in believing that western values can (and should) be imposed on often reluctant states through military occupation.
I regard the way I am governed as superior to most. But I am not so arrogant or naive as to believe I can change other states by persuasion or war. The latter is an infringement of self-determination and has proved starkly counterproductive. The greatest boost to the overrated Islamist threat is from just the power projection Miliband supports.
In the non-interventionist 1990s, the thinktank Freedom House charted a steady growth in democracy worldwide. With the advent of the democracy crusaders Blair and George Bush this trend has probably gone into reverse. The cynical appeasement of China and aggressive treatment of Russia and the Muslim world has done no service to democracy. Indeed the cause has fared better in south-east Asia and Latin America, where outside pressure has been least in evidence......."
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There we go again with another round of the "White Man's Burden."
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