Well, it's not perfect - it omits Winds of Change.NET, despite our role in making that campaign work by publishing code etc. and the link from your main post. Which means it may have omitted others, too.

We had to enter them all by hand. And by "we" I mostly mean people other than lazy-ass me. %-) Obviously it's possible we missed some. Anyone who notices such a problem should just fill out the registration form to resubmit.

You were hugely helpful, Joe, so I'm going to make sure we credit you with more than just a listing.

Don't anyone blame Dean for my mistakes. If I left anyone out, it was simply an error on my part. :)

I entered most of these between 2 and 4 a.m., so my brain wasn't working at 100%. (Not that it ever does -- but it's even less so at those hours.)

Since the cheap blog I'm using doesn't support me adding photos (nevermind linked photos) so my page, I'm afraid I can't participate. I'm going to add a link to that page and wanted to voice my support for the cause, though.

Here's to you guys for doing all the work.

Cheers.

For those who cannot paste the graphic onto your server, I have code you can use as an alternative, which will pull the code from Joe Katzman's server instead. Just shoot me a note and I'll get it to you.

A campaign for democracy in Iraq -- or for that matter in any other moslem Arab country -- will have about the same result as a snowball fight in Hell.

But good luck. Without believers, there would be no stock market, no Las Vegas, no religions. And no disappointed fools.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

There are an awful lot of Iraqis who disagree with you, Arnold. And a surprising number of Westerners who've spent quite a bit of time there.

A lot of people in Northern Iraq are positive you're wrong.

You may be right. But we will see what we see. Failure to try would be a fatal mistake, methinks.

Quoth Mr. Harris:

Without believers, there would be no stock market, no Las Vegas, no religions.

Don't forget that without believers there would also be no United States of America, no Golden Gate Bridge, no Empire State Building, no homeless shelters or soup kitchens, no teachers, no flights to the moon, etc., etc.

Bunch of damn fools -- the whole lot of them.

Dean,

Ever since the British expelled the Ottoman empire from Mesopotamia in 1918 and created, among other things, Iraq, on a map in the Colonial Office, they and their counterpart dreamers in Washington have been pushing one grand scheme after another to democratize these places.

The Iraqi exiles presently sing a tune designed to warm the hearts equally of George Bush and the League of Women Voters, because that's the way to get the suckers to bankroll them and use the US armed forces to install them in power. As soon as the Monster is killed or driven out. (As always.) As in Afghanistan, the new system will last as long as the foreign bayonets are in place to pin it down.

The Kurdish tribes of northern Iraq want not "democracy" but a government of their own that they can use to stir up trouble among the Kurds of Turkey, Iran and Syria. That, plus the oil revenues of northern Iraq.

The Shia Arabs of southern Iraq do not want to be ruled by the Sunna Arab community of Baghdad.

So before you sing hosannas over the coming of "democracy" in Iraq or its constituent fragments, just wait and see how all this shit hits the fan after the Monster is swept into history's dustbin.

As I have written to you before, I do not believe in "democracy", either here in the United States or anywhere else. I believe solely in constitutional republics and other stable forms of government that encourage accumulation of capital and prudent investments appropriate to national development that fit the needs, markets, circumstances and opportunities of any given society in any given era.

And I judge all these societies by the amount of time the constitution (or monarch, or chief priest, or heavenly revelation, or big shot, or whatever else is supposed to form the basis of any given country) is in fact respected.

So nowadays, I occasionally amuse myself reading about pathetic fools such as:

-- Woodrow Wilson attempting to install and enforce "democracy" in Mexico in 1913-1916;

-- Dwight Eisenhower and the British leaders pretending that the family of Reza Shah (a former Iranian army sergeant) represented a continuation of the ancient Persian monarchy in the early 1950s, or that Fulgencio Batista (a former Cuban army sergeant) represented the popular will of the people of his island;

-- William Jefferson Clinton (between blowjobs in an anteroom of the Oval Office) using American force to replace one ridiculous Emperor Jones with another in Haiti;

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt maintaining Trujillo ("our rat") in the Dominican Republic and ex-warlord Chiang Kai-Shek ("the peanut", as General Joe Stilwell described him) as savior of China.

All this, and much else that I write, undoubtedly strikes you as sarcastic, mean-spirited, selfish, etc, etc. But papa Max Harris, born in Davenport, Iowa in August 1892, taught me to view life through the clear lenses of unsentimentalized fact. And that is exactly what I have done since I learned to speall "unsentimentalized" some 60 years ago.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

Happy April Fools day, "mtpolitics",

The United States of America was built by 18th century rationalists such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Not dreamers.

The Golden Gate bridge and Empire State building were designed by civil engineers and architects, financed by appropriate public and private investment, and constructed by some of the world's best high-steel workers. Not dreamers.

Soup kitchens are not necessary for people who save their money rather than spending it dry in good times. Because freedom also implies the freedom of prudent men to let you starve to death if you live your life as a fool.

Teachers teach for much the same reason that dentists dent, physicians physic, welders weld, politicians politic, dealers deal, etc, etc. Because otherwise they don't get paid.

The boys with the Right Stuff went to the Moon because Kennedy had to have one-up on Krushchev in the years following the orbit of Sputnik.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

Once again, Arnold, while you may be right, there are lots of Iraqis both in and out of Iraq who disagree with your analysis.

But hey, if something was true in 1918 it must still be true now, eh?

I should also point out: they said the same things you're saying now about Eastern Europe, too. And South Africa.

We shall see what we shall see.

Dean,
These days I read in media and also American blogs that US is going to establish a democratic state in Iraq. But nobody talk How . I have not yet found any article about US strategy to do this job. I still think that these are slogans to convince people in the west. Of course, Democracy is a good thing and best option but it can be establish in a country with proper background. I think Islam as a religion is not necessarily a barrier. Cultural matter is much more important particularly in a country with tribal structure.I suggest you read these articles( one of them is a bit old but I think it has some important facts).
A tale of 70 factions and 400 suits and 'Liberation' is not freedom Also I have written something about it in my weblog: Democracy in Iraq
I look forward to reading your post about the structure of democracy in Iraq.

Iman: if you read the documents that our campaign points to, you would see that there are quite a few different plans. Mostly written by Iraqis.

I suggest that you go to this page and start reading.

It is in American national interest to establish democracy in Iraq. Because democracies generally are not the threat that dictatorships are. Many said this could never be done in Japan, or Germany, or Italy, or Eastern Europe, or South Africa. They were wrong in all cases. Will they be wrong about Iraq? We will see.

Morally, however, we have no choice but to try. For to simply take out Saddam and allow another brutal tyrant to take his place would make the sacrifice we are making now seem much more futile.

Being a student of Slavic (and East European history) studies I'm quite preplexed by this Eastern European democracy talk. I imagine you excluding Byelorus, Ukraine, Slovakia, for starters right? Sure it's fun to call them democracies, but that doesn't mean anything.

Sometimes I stay up late at night and wonder if Iraq will have democracy like Turkey (liqudates Kurds with US weapons on a whim), Indonesia (also fond of butchering their own people with our weapons), or other historical examples of democracies we installed (or better countries we "liberated" like Chile, Gutemala, Iran, Syria, Iraq (first time around!). Sometimes I hope they'll have a democracy like the US (40 percent of the population votes) and the majority of people I encounter everyday haven't had an orginal thought since they were thirteen (they like to repeat things they hear on TV or from Mom and Dad - sometimes it's fun to make their arguements for them before they start talking - freaks 'em out) and call me names because I ask questions about what government is doing in our names. Some many different kinds of democracy to choose from - I can't wait though - this time around it's gonna be fantastic!

You obviously have a lot more to learn, Jared.

You also are evincing the sort of hatred that's been talked about here--with a horribly distorted view of America's history in that region.

Hatred of America and a horribly warped and twisted and hate-based view of her history seems to be the main thing that most opponents of this war have in common.

Hey, "J",

Just because I don't think the United States will be able to implant stable and long-lasting civil government in Iraq, or that I don't admire the concept of "democracy" as it is always talked about, does not mean that I question they right of our government to protect the vital interests of this country by sqashing Saddam Hussein like a vile bug and installing something a little easier for most of us and his own people to live with.

Sure, most Americans do not bother going to the polls. And there are lot of people who mouth what they hear on the television.

But that does not mean that the typical American is anything less than the kind of person who thinks for himself or herself, goes to work, pays taxes, stays out of trouble, helps raise a family and in general, conducts his or her part in life with dignity, honor, and occasionally, rises to a level of honor that surpasses all expectations.

Right now, there is a 19-year-old slip of a girl lying in a military hospital, who had to engage in a gunfight with military caliber firepower in order to save her own life and help protect her buddies. In a rear-echelon maintenance unit, no less, that made a wrong turn on an obscure dirt track on the road to Baghdad. You can bet your ass her mom and dad are proud of her, back in Palestine, West Virginia. And so are the overwhelming majority of us who make up the population of this greatest and most-free society in human history.

Okay, I don't think "democracy" will stick in a place like Iraq. And maybe it hasn't taken hold too well in former communist eastern Europe. But that doesn't mean that scores of millions of Americans will do everything possible to try to do the best for the populations of all these countries. Unlike a lot of other countries which would invade a place like Iraq just to steal their resources or treat the population there as slaves.

So if you don't like George Bush making war there in your name, fine. Most of the rest of us will loyally sign on, even if people like you will not and even if we don't agree with all the details. It's called basic patriotism, pal, and you ought to study it and the freedom it bought you to talk nasty about your own country.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

I really think the people in Poland are happy to have Democracy. The Czech Republic too. And they are not the only example.

My argument for you, Arnold, is that a democratic Iraq is in our best interests because history continues to show that democracies are less bellicose, less truculent, less treacherous, and more reasonable to deal with. The common people, when they really have a choice, generally have no interest in going off to war with some big great enemy. Which is why, for all the insults we've suffered between each other, the French and the Americans aren't shooting at each other, they're just calling each other names.

You can advocate democracy in that region from multiple perspectives. Yes, as a starry-eyed idealist if you want. As a Wilsonian reform-the-world-for-good point of view if you want.

Or you can look at it from a flinty-eyed, ruthless, pure self-interest perspective: a democracy gives us a safer, stable nation (or nations--Iraq could be split into multiple nations) that could instead become trading partners. A better choice all the way around if you ask me.

Is it possible? A lot of Iraqis think it is. Are they wrong? Perhaps. I simply think we're fools not to try. Letting another bully-boy take over in that poor land is exactly the worst option, wouldn't you say? Even if we say "he's our thug," that's just stupid. Men who are our thugs can later turn treacherous--or often are overthrown or succeeded by people who aren't.

And I'd rather have Turkish-style democracy than what they have now. I daresay most Iraqis would too. Especially given how many of them flee to Turkey.

Please point to document of our founthing fathers where "basic patriotism" is predicated on supporting the wars our government decides to fight. My idea of patriotism involves host of other activities and actions by which I show my care and love for my country - voting for starters (something missing from so many of America's patriots resumes).
ps Just because you don't agree with your country's foreign policy does not mean you're talking "nasty" about it.

A little late in the game, but now have the graphics and link up and running in the template at Cold Spring Shops. Teaching a fortysomething html is probably simpler than installing a constitutional republic!