Thursday, January 26, 2006
Hamas & democracy
To paraphrase Nietzsche's comment that liberal institutions are not liberal: terrorist organizations that join in mainstream democratic processes such as elections, are on the road to being non-terrorist organizations.
For instance, the Irish Repupublican Army (IRA) political arm, Sein Fein was co-opted by the political process, and has shed its terrorist ways--in fact it was only late last year that the IRA disarmed itself.
I think the President of the USA is undermining democracy when he refuses to recognize the winners of the first Palestinian democratic elections. We should be modeling peace, not keeping groups' proverbial backs to the wall.
Democracy is messy.
