Saturday Responses 4-29-06

"The Best Discovery Since Fire—Pax Democratica"

Mike "Veeshir" Fisher said on Dean's World:

I wonder if we don't really have a long enough time-line to consider the Democratic Peace proven. After all, there aren't many democracies much over 100 years old and most of them are significantly younger.

Look at Japan and South Korea. They are two of our more stable democracies and they're having quite the tiff.

I do feel that democracies war on each other less. But.....
People go to war. It's what we do. What happens when the majority of the Earth is democracies? Who do they war on? Or will it end war? And if it does end war, will it be because the US or somebody else is the most powerful and won't let the others war? Sort of like what happened in the USSR when they reserved the right to kill people to themselves.

RJR. The democratic peace been tested on every democracy that has existed in history most notably by Spencer Weart. See the summary chapter of his book Never At War. Another way of looking at this is that there are 121 democracies today, and there is not a chance of even military action between any of them, much less war. Not even among the European nations, which throughout history have been at each other's throats. What changed this is that all became democracies.

mikeca said:

Of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, 5 were captured by the British and executed, 9 died from wounds or disease while serving in the arm forces, 12 had there homes burned by the British and 2 lost sons. Our freedom was won at a high price. While I agree that we should support democracy and freedom around the world, freedom is not a gift. To be truly free, people must win their freedom. Then it will be something precious to them. Note this comment from Phil Carter Phil Carter), who is now in Iraq: “The Iraqi people clearly became accustomed to an ordered, structured, disciplined police state where individual thought, activity, dissent and initiative were discouraged. The psychology of Saddam's state affected every institution in Iraq, including those I work most closely with: the police, courts, jails, and legal profession. Even today, three years after the fall of the Hussein regime, Iraqi officers and officials continue to behave in the same old patterns. It remains difficult to get an Iraqi officer to take the initiative, or to trust in his fellow public servants, or to take risks. There was a large group of policymakers, academics and pundits in 2002 and 2003 who thought you could immediately graft a functioning civil society and liberal democracy onto Iraq once you had removed Saddam. I'm finding the practical work of building that society to be much more difficult…”

RJR: A culture of fear that has developed over decades will be difficult to change. But, such change to a democratic culture will come if only we are patient and understanding. The existence of such a culture of fear, however, can be no argument against freeing such a people, just as the psychological damage done to a hostage is no argument against freeing her from the thugs that held, tortured, and raped her.

Tom Grey said:

The world needs a World Cop.

I recommend a Human Rights Enforcement Group, of democracies only, with a test on the two most basic human rights: free speech and free religion.

If the USA can get India on board with this, it could really go -- and integrate with the Anglosphere challenge idea, yet contradict it with Japan.

RJR: Agreed. Along similar lines, I've been promoting an Alliance of Democracies.

D.C. said:

Thank you Mr. Rummel for mentioning Arts for Democracy in Democratic Peace. I was quite humbled. It is long lasting contemporary art project which was inspired by your extraordinary work in the Power Kills Website.. The content and presentation of Power Kills is brilliant and insightful like no other website in kind.
Thank you for that. Perhaps when you have a chance, you could look at the Art of Sami Mohammed. A colleague of mine who lives and works in Kuwait. His art is the most power statement on oppression in visual arts I have seen so far, it has parallels with Goya and Francis Bacon's works at times.

RJR: I agree and hope all readers will take a look at his powerful statements regarding how half of the world suffers.

---

"Love, Fear, And Death In Mao's China"

mahathir_fan said:

Actually, China is already a democracy. China is the world’s biggest democracy and a freedom-loving nation (note the first line of its national anthem). See: for photos of people voting. Besides, Article 2 of the constitution states that power belongs to the people. Article 60 states that NPC (legislature body) has a 5-year term.
Article 34 states that anyone above the age of 18 can vote and stand for election. Article 79 states that the President of China is elected by members of NPC (legislature) that imply that if independent candidates get enough seats at the NPC, there can be a non-communist party President. Source: go here. All the words are of no use if it is not put in practice. And it is put in practice. Independent candidates are getting elected into the NPC and people are participating in elections as can be read from the news clipping above.

RJR. Okay, lets see what happens to you if you put up a poster that reads, "Down with the bloody CCP. Mao was another Hitler."

Comet said:

Translated from Chinese
Song of the Statue of Liberty
The people summon the democracy and the freedom
The people pray hoped the dignity and is abundant
Doesn't China need the democracy
For hundred year Chinese people already

Bleeds the sacrifice for the democracy
Oh, the democracy yo people hoped
The people pray hoped
The blood dyes the red square
Dyed the red earth
Democracy yo
That is people's hope.

Is who day and night is looking out the blue day
Is who longed for sincere and is good
Also has the class blood
Or that never can change destiny
Oh, I see the East to pass
Next morning dawn
Boundless area south of Yellow River
Is illuminated
Is illuminated
That is the Statue of Liberty
That is the Statue of Liberty

RJR: In our politician's eagerness to have positive relations with China's CCP, we should not forget those brave unarmed Chinese that stood against the CCP's tanks and guns in Tiananmen Square. I can only say to their souls, "We heard you. RIP"

Comet said:

1) Remember Tiananmen Square! : Executions in the People's Republic of China 

(Warning: some pictures are extremely graphic). China has the death penalty for 68 crimes including murder, drug trafficking, rape, re-selling VAT
receipts, pimping, habitual theft, stealing or dealing in national treasures or cultural relics publishing pornography, selling counterfeit money, economic offences such as graft, speculation and profiteering and even killing a panda. 
During the "Strike hard" campaign against crime in China during the Spring of 2001, Amnesty International recorded a staggering 1,781 executions, including those of at least five women. This figure is greater than the total number of executions carried out in the rest
of the world put together in the last three years.


China does not publish statistics about the death penalty, saying these are a state secret. Executions are often carried out immediately after a public sentencing rally and the criminal's family is made to pay for the bullet.
The prisoner's arms are shackled behind them and they are made to kneel down before receiving a single bullet fired at close range into the back of the head or neck by a soldier or policeman or by a bullet fired into the heart from behind using an automatic rifle. 
Chinese laws do not specifically state the site of execution grounds and shootings are carried out at
military target ranges and along river banks and on remote hill sides, the prisoners being transported in open lorries from the sports stadiums where they were
sentenced.
Condemned criminals are not executed inside prisons because it is regarded as inhumane for other inmates to hear the sound of gunfire.
In a typical mass public execution in December 1995 13
men and women convicted of murder and highway robbery were shot after the Court dismissed their appeals. Chinese television showed the nine men and four women being paraded at a sports stadium in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 before being taken to the execution ground on a nearby hillside.
Frequently the kidneys, hearts and corneas are removed from the dead prisoners and used in transplants at local hospitals.
"Execution is one of the indispensable means of education," China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, once said.

RJR: Yes, communism at work.

---

"Saturday Responses 4-21-06"

mikeca said:

Why is it acceptable for you, from the safety of America, to calmly talk about killing people you dislike and overthrowing governments on the other side of the world? Do you think that you will ever make America safe by killing people you don’t like or trust? Do you think you can kill all the people that might attack America? Do you think you can kill enough of them, that the others will fear America? Our leaders talk about ‘regime change’. What gives America the right to veto the governments of other countries? 

Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gained popularity by turning around and threatening the West back. While the countries of the Middle East cannot militarily defeat the West or even Israel, they can frighten people in western countries with terrorism. It is a way of getting even with the West for centuries of conquest and interference in their internal affairs. I can tell from reading your writings that they have succeeded in frightening you.

We should have put all our resources into hunting down Osama bin Laden and killing or capturing him. That would have shown terrorists that the US would never stand for terrorism on American soil, but alas, our leaders had other ideas. There is nothing theoretical about bin Laden attacking America. He did attack America. Before we start attacking other countries that might, maybe, based on rumors from questionable sources, be a threat to the US, we should deal with the people who did actually attack America.

Now we will be dealing with terrorism for the next 50 to 100 years while frighten men like you talk about more ‘regime change’ that will just create more terrorists and make us less safe.

Have you ever looked into your odds of being killed in a automobile accident? Are you afraid to get in a car?

RJR: Talking about ending the thug regimes that enslave their own people and support terrorism against freedom is not the same as talking about killing people. Quite the reverse. It is talking about saving people from those who massacre them by the hundreds of thousands. Do you really mean to argue that we should not have waged war against the Taliban who gave Osama support and a home base? And are you arguing that we should not have tried to protect ourselves against what virtually all the intelligence services of the democracies were saying was a terrorist supporting Saddam Hussein developing nukes?

At 2:14 PM, Thomas Lassi said:

RJR wrote: "Because of the horrors that Europe suffered during World War II, and its leftward bias, Europeans tend to be pacifistic."

I can't really get this linked together. We experienced dictatorship and slaughter very close under World War 2 and still we can't really seem to value it as high as we should. I would assume that it should be the other way around, that we more strongly would support democracy all over the world. 

I think the same thing is happening in USA after the WTC attack when democrats, more than republicans, now is trying to isolate America from the rest of the world. Do you know why this phenomena appear?


[As to the comment by] Mikeca: I can see from your post that [you] haven't read much of Rummel´s blog earlier. So, I urge you to read it, and especially the principles of the democratic peace theory.

And if you don't believe what Rummel writes, or for some reason [you] don't want to believe it, you should ask yourself two questions:

1. Am I satisfied/happy/overjoyed to live in a democracy with freedom of speech and personal freedom.

If the answer is yes on the first question you should answer this:

2. Do I want other people as well to experience democracy and freedom?

If you answer no to the second you must be a man with a very cold heart.

RJR: As to the Democrats and American foreign policy, there is a strong division in their Party There is the left wing, which is strongly anti-capitalist and anti-American. They tend to be for any group that is Marxist and an enemy of the U.S. Then there are the more moderate Democrats who tend to be patriotic, pro-American, but isolationist, a perfectly respectable position, except in a time of war. Then there are the traditional Democrats who are strong on defense and promoting democracy. What confuses this lineup are the politicians among them who sense from public opinion polls and the major media that they can make political points by opposing Bush and his foreign and defense policies, regardless of what they have said or supported previously. Above all, this phenomena appears because of what the Democrats are, which is out of power.

Anonymous said:

From what sources can you conclude the democide of more than 74 million people under CCP/Mao period? If Mao was directly/indirectly related to so many deaths, how is he still considered highly by modern China?

RJR: Not more than, but about 74 million. I did a systematic accounting of the democide under the Chinese CCP, and provided the historical context for the hundreds of estimates and sourceshere. Then, I was impressed enough by the research and writing of Jung Chang to reconsider the Great Famine 1958-1962 as democide, and thus to increase my democide total for China to 74 million. Why is Mao still considered highly? Because it is in the interest of the CCP to honor him. Decades of brain washing propaganda have made the link between the CCP and Mao indissoluble. Why do ordinary people still think so highly of him? It is not only what has been pounded into their minds through music, dance, posters, speeches, TV, movies, and all their years of schooling, but to think otherwise—were their minds even to hint at such an incredible, evil thought—would be dangerous.



Get your own audio CDs
of Rummel's The Blue Book of Freedom
and get on board the freedom train