THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 61, March 25, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
NO MORE DICTATORSHIPS BY THE YEAR 2025
By Alan Caruba
FULL STORY:
In late February, Parade magazine’s cover article was about the “The World’s Worst Dictator.” We have reached this new
century after a century wracked with wars begun by its dictators, the long “Cold War” sustained against the dictators of the former
Soviet Russia, and the creation of the United Nations, intended to end such wars.
We live in a world where just forty-five men rule the lives of more than two billion people. In his book, Breaking the Real Axis of
Evil: How to Oust the World’s Last Dictatorships by 2025 ($27.95, Rowman and Littlefield), former Ambassador Mark Palmer
lays out the plan by which the entire population of the world could begin to live in constitutional democratic nations. The dictators
include Hu Jintao of Communist China, Kim Jong II of North Korea, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Omar
Al-Bashir of Sudan, Ayatollah Ali Khameni of Iran, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
The greatest concentration of dictators is in the Middle East and Africa. Others are in Southeast Asia. Still others run former Soviet
republics, dictators such as Saparmurat Niyazo of Turkmenistan. Red China stands alone simply for its vast population ruled by a
Communist Party that poses a threat to the stability of everyone on their borders.
The one universal reason for ridding the world of these men is a moral one. They are murderers and thieves on a grand scale.
Another reason is the right of all people to live in freedom, to live where the rule of law exists and the will of the people determines
the decisions made by elected, representative leaders.
Then and only then, could the Universal Declaration of Human Rights become a reality, with everyone enjoying regular and free
elections, a free press, the right to join and participate in free trade unions and other voluntary associations, and an independent
judiciary. This document is the heart of the aspirations set forth with the creation of the United Nations, but the UN accepts as
members states governed by dictatorships and treats the leaders and diplomatic representatives of dictator-run states as equal to
those of free nations.
There is another compelling reason. As Ambassador Palmer notes, “the free nations produce 89% of the world’s economic output;
the dictatorships just 6%.” Imagine how productive the world could be if the remaining captive nations could be set free to tap the
energies of their people? We would see an end to famine everywhere. We would see the great flow of trade and goods that would
enrich everyone. We would see the “hidden hand” of competition that would insure the affordability of those goods.
What some Americans and others around the world have not understood about the invasion of Iraq by the United States of America
and its coalition partners was the absolute need to remove one of the world’s worst dictators, Saddam Hussein. Even now we hear
influential voices saying that we could have continued to accept his rule, that he really didn’t pose an immediate threat to the United
States, that he didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction. All this ignores Saddam’s endless potential as a continuing threat,
willing to threaten war against his neighbors and to hatch grave plots against the U.S.A. with its enemies among the fanatical Islamic
Jihad movement.
In the few short months since the invasion, American and allied military action has significantly transformed the entire region of the
Middle East, North Africa, and South Central Asia. Pakistan, a hotbed of Jihadists, is now an ally in the war on terror. Libya’s
dictator has taken steps to secure American and international acceptance. Syria’s dictator may be contemplating trying to seek peace
with Israel and withdrawing from Lebanon. Iran is contemplating allowing international inspections of its nuclear facilities. Saudi
Arabia’s rulers are contemplating what changes they must make to save themselves from the very Jihadists they have funded and
supported for decades. Other Middle East nations such as Bahrain and Kuwait seek to ally themselves with the United States and
consider movement toward establishing some aspects of democracy.
Ambassador Palmer states that the “removal of dictators is first and foremost a domestic political matter, undertaken by the people
living under tyranny.” That said, he outlines the steps the United States and other free nations can take to support such efforts. Nor
does he rule out military intervention such as that undertaken in Iraq.
The reason for eliminating the remaining dictators is the simple proof of history that “by attempting to base U.S. security in other
parts of the world, the practitioners of foreign policy "common wisdom" not only failed, but also undermined American credibility
worldwide.”
When people ask why do people around the world hate us, the answer is they have seen our great example of constitutional
democracy and wondered why we have accepted to work with and even praise dictators who are utterly corrupt. The last century
demonstrated why this simply does not work and why appeasement only leads to war. An estimated 169,000,000 people died in the
last century due to war and famine that was the direct result of the tyrannies of Nazi Germany, Japan, Red China, and the former
Soviet Union. Others died on the vast African continent and continue to die every day because of the tyrants who rule so many
of its nations.
The notion that Americans should live in a republic governed by the world’s oldest, living Constitution, and that others in the
world do not yearn for the same blessings of liberty is absurd. We saw that in the 1989, when thousands gathered in Tiananmen
Square, the heart of Red China, to protest peacefully for more representative government. Deng Xiaping made it very clear that the
protesters wanted to “overthrow the Party, state and socialist system and to replace it with pro-Western bourgeois republic.” He
was right. That is why the protesters had created their own Statue of Liberty. It was crushed beneath the treads of Communist
tanks.
It is a wonder to me that people still go around mouthing all the lies and nonsense about Communism and Socialism as the answer
to the world’s problems. Communism and Socialism have long been and remain one of the world’s greatest problems. It is why
Communists resist all efforts toward constitutional democracy and freedom. It is why Socialist nations cannot even begin to
compete with those utilizing our Capitalist system. Communist and Socialist systems are inherently corrupt. Both systems
concentrate power in government, rather than allowing the economy to flourish and its benefits to enrich and enhance the lives
of free citizens.
The concentration of power in the hands of forty-five dictators or in governments where citizens have no say in the conduct of
their lives is a tyranny that must end. There is a movement toward that end and it is called the Community of Democracies.
Ambassador Palmer calls it “the best-kept secret in foreign affairs.” It met in 2000 in Warsaw and produced a founding
document. It met again in Seoul in 2002. Ultimately, the CD must replace the UN. The UN is an utterly failed and flawed
international institution. The Ambassador also sees an expanding role for NATO.
It is time to let the world’s remaining dictators know their time is up. It is time for free and democratic nations to join together to
encourage domestic opposition to them. If they don’t, the lethal technologies of the new century can make the millions of deaths
in the past one look puny by comparison.
The good news is that, in 1972, there were only forty-three free countries in the world. Today there are eighty-nine. We are about
to add Iraq to the list, no matter how messy that effort may seem. Americans are dying there for the same reason they died in far
greater numbers to free Europe and Asia in the last century. That’s what free people do. They fight and they die to free others
because it is the right thing to do and because a free world is a safe world.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Constitutional Democracy & Other Political Regimes
British & American Constitutional Democracy
Europe, Europeans, & American Foreign Policy
Africa South of the Sahara
The Far East & U.S. Foreign Policy
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
The Middle East & the Problem of Syria
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
The Threat of Radical Islam
More on the Threat of Radical Islam
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past col- umns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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