U.S. to Iraq: Do As We Say, Not As We Do

You know your own Democracy is in trouble when officials from the Middle East cite it as being "too religious."

Tom Friedman, a man who wipes more Middle Eastern knowledge on his napkin than the entire Bush cabinet poseses collectively, wrote a very interesting column recently that I suggest you drop everything to read immediately.

In order to learn more about the Democracy we're "facilitating" over in Mess-o-potamia, a group of Iraqi members of the media and judiciary took a little field trip to our fair land, with the initial intention of learning from our own Democracy.

How did it go? They abruptly left early.

The leader of the delegation and Sunni judge Muhammad Mithaqi was shocked when he heard President Bush telling Republicans that part of why they should support Harriet Miers' nomination is because of her religion.

Mathaqi said that he also hypothetically fell out of his chair when he learned that your friend and mine, Kenneth Starr, said that Miers deserved support because she "is a very, very strong Christian, [who] should be a source of great comfort and assistance to people in the households of faith around the country."

Right. With gems like this you can see how Kenneth Star was really investigating White House blow jobs from a totally objective, legally unbiased point of view.

And what did Mr. Mathaqi think of our "Democracy?"

"Now let me get this straight. You are lecturing us about keeping religion out of politics, and then your own president and conservative legal scholars go and tell your public to endorse Miers as a Supreme Court justice because she is an evangelical Christian.

How would you feel if you picked up your newspapers next week and read that the president of Iraq justified the appointment of an Iraqi Supreme Court justice by telling Iraqis: 'Don't pay attention to his lack of legal expertise. Pay attention to the fact that he is a Muslim fundamentalist and prays at a Saudi-funded Wahhabi mosque.' Is that the Iraq you sent your sons to build and die for? I don't think so. We can't have our people exposed to such talk."

(Again, I encourage the "They hate us for our freedom" crowd to read the entire article here.)

Another delegation member Sahaf al-Sahafi said he "wanted to go home after watching a [staged] televised videoconference last Thursday between soldiers in Iraq and Bush." al-Sahafi added, "it was right from the Saddam playbook."

He was also amazed "to see the US Government Accountability Office declare that a Bush administration contract that paid Armstrong Williams, a supposedly independent commentator, to promote Bush's 'No Child Left Behind' policy constituted illegal propaganda - and attempt by the government to buy good press."

Of this he said, "Saddam bought and paid journalists all over the Arab world. It makes me sick even to see a drop of that in America."

Another member, Abdul Wahab al-Unfi, a Shiite lawyer who walks with a limp as a result of torture from the old Iraqi regime, was beside himself when he heard that Bush may veto a bill the senate voted on 90-9, to ban the US torture of military prisoners.

Let's recap. A delegation from Iraq comes to the U.S. to learn about Democracy. They find:

• The Bush administration encouraging support of a secular Judge because of her fundamentalism Christian beliefs
• The Bush Administration considering the veto of an anti-torture bill and continuing to duck responsibility for Abu Garib, of which more pictures are on their way
• The Bush administration getting scolded for propaganda, such paid journalists and fake news stories
  

So in order to halt further contamination found within our Democracy lesson, the delegation packed up and left.

Yay America.. I'm so proud.