MasterKalif
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quote:
ORIGINAL: thompsonx
quote:
ORIGINAL: MasterKalif
thompsonx....a little update...Chavez has shut down opposition media to his regime, he has packed the national assembly with his supporters, there are daily clashes in the streets, the president just adding fuel to the political violence...he was a former coup leader who tried to take power in 1992 by force and failed.
As I remember my american history George Washington was a coup leader who became president.
..and now his "assembly" of yes men have given him an 18 month mandate to rule by decree (this means without congress or anyone's approval, changings laws and passing laws as he likes)....now tell me how is that not a dictatorship?
Kinda like bush & co. and the republican "rubber stamp" congress and the patriot act?
General Pinochet and his military junta ruled with decrees and yet had less power than this clown and was called a "dictator" at the very least.
What would you guess is the difference in body count between Pinochet and Chavez.
As for Iran, the actual revolutionary regime came to power by force in 1979, killed hundreds of thousands who were in the armed forces and government ministers
My understanding is that the Shah was not exactly shy about executing large numbers of his detractors.
under the Shah and anyone who was opposed to their oppressive theocratic rule (notice under the Shah women were allowed to work and drive cars; now they have to go around with male relatives and their head covered)....now in the 1990's the Iranian people have a limited choice between hardcore hardliners and populists who differ little from each other
I would suggest that that is Iran's problem and not the U.S.
...therefore the whole government in Tehran lacks political legitimacy.
Isn't political legitimacy a defacto function of power?
Iran and Venezuela are doing ok because those regimes are proped up by oil.
I suppose everyone needs something to hold them up. I guess oil is as good as any other comodity.
thompson
George Bush was a president and did not carry out a coup d'etat....he was involved in a revolution, and had he done a coup, he would have just replaced the leadership with himself and he would have been in London, not in the US. No validity of comparison there.
While I extremely dislike Bush and think his government is "authoritarian" (notice not dictatorial) and has complete disregards for due process, habeas corpus and human rights of Americans and others, the republican system is nominally in place, and Congress was not hand picked by him...what you have in the US are opportunistic democrats who jumped in the war bandwagon lest they be thought of as anything but "unpatriotic"...by and large Bush cannot do what he wants nor does he rule by decree....
As for body counts, Chavez is just getting started....and has nominally held real power starting this yearm, before he had to act carefully as he had to deal with an opposition, today silenced and sidelined. The Pinochet government lasted many more years, and was a reaction to a chaotic, out of control government and political system that destroyed itself. My point of comparison was that Pinochet was considered a dictator since he and his ruling junta ruled by decree....at least he did the country some good, what has Chavez done to better the lot of his people?
Because the Shah was "bad" does not make the Ayatollah and his bearded backwards regime "good"....in fact if things were bad under the Shah, they became a nightmare for Iranians after the 1979 revolution....
On my previous point, it is Iran's problem but it shows that a "democracy" in the proper sense of the word, does not exist in Tehran.
Political legitimacy is important for a regime to be considered within the boundaries of acceptable, legal government, and accepted in the eyes of their people.
Again the point of mentioning oil in the case of Venezuela and Iran is not that those regimes are successful economically, but rather are propped up by an expensive commodity such as oil...not because their economies are healthy or doing well....which also makes it harder for the people of those countries to counteract any government propaganda and hold on power, because those governments (Venezuela, Iran) also have access to unlimited resources and therefore money.
< Message edited by MasterKalif -- 2/12/2007 2:49:32 PM >
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RE: From the Administration That Cried Wolf - 
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