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Showing posts with the label Democracy Trap

Four Western Myths about the Ukraine War

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  Myths kill.  Nowhere is this truth more evident than in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been maimed or killed on the battlefield in a war now in its third year and still ongoing.  The Ukraine war could have been averted had politicians in the West not clung to four myths with devastating consequences. Myth 1: Ukraine will defeat Russia. One year into Russia's war in Ukraine, US President Biden proclaimed in Warsaw, Poland that "Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never." Exuding even more confidence, Europe Commission President von der Leyen declared that "I'm deeply convinced that Ukraine will win this war."  Of all the lies about the war in its third year, this one is the hoax of the 21st century. To put it bluntly, Ukraine has no plausible pathway to victory against Russia. Slightly smaller than Texas, utterly dependent on Western aid, it is simply no match for its Russian neighbor with 1,226 miles of shared bord...

The Democracy Trap: Ballot Box vs. Industrialization

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What is more important for a developing country? Is it to assure that citizens can freely cast a ballot and quietly return to their shanties? Or is it to lift millions of citizens out of poverty, create a modern industrial economy, and become competitive in the world economy?  Democracy and Economic Development The US and its allies would have us believe that political freedom trumps all other considerations. Give people the right to vote and establish a democratic system, and they will be well on their way to "modernity."  That ideology has been applied worldwide, with mixed results, however. At one extreme, Iraq's democratic system, imposed by the US after the 2003 invasion and toppling of the dictator Saddam Hussein, is synonymous with failed state and instability. One saying reflects the rampant corruption in in the federal parliamentary republic: "We used to have one Saddam Hussein, now we have a thousand." Similarly, twenty years of airborne democracy and ...