Justus For All

Condi’s letter to State Dept. Employees

6:04 pm on Thursday, January 27, 2005

Citizen Smash has posted a letter from Condaleeza Rice to all State Department employees. It is very interesting to read.

This paragraph here has some interesting stuff in it:

In these momentous times, American diplomacy has three great tasks. We will unite the community of democracies in building an international system that is based on our shared values and the rule of law. We will strengthen the community of democracies to fight the threats to our common security and alleviate the hopelessness that feeds terror. And we will spread freedom and democracy throughout the world. That is the mission that President Bush has set for you and me, and the great mission of American diplomacy today.

First off, the mention of a ‘community of democracies’ makes me wonder if the administration isn’t thinking of building a serious alternative to the U.N., something I have mentioned before and strongly support.

Second, the explicit assertion that the mission of American diplomacy is to spread freedom and democracy. This is of course a fundamental change in the mission of the state department. It will be interesting to watch how well she succeeds at making this goal a reality.

2 Comments

2 Comments »

Comment by MacBoar

January 27, 2005 @ 7:27 pm

Dave, I think this will be the defining of the Bush Doctrine. A consolidation of unity with democratic nations will or can be a powerful Alliance as long as we are flexible with our definition of democracy.

I have no problem if the Iraq people vote in a theocratic government as long as it ensures freedom for all citizens, but then the test would come in the transfer of power if they lost… Can you envision a democracy that would be an enemy of the US? I can.

Would Indonesia be included in the Democratic Alliance? They should be since they’ve shown a transfer of power. What about Venezuela? Now that would be ugly!! However, Singapore would have to be excluded along with many current ‘allies’.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I hope we can sustain it into the next administration, be it Republican or Democratic.

Comment by Dave Justus

January 28, 2005 @ 4:48 am

I think we can be flexible with our definition of Democracy, but certain things are necessary for a Democracy and if we are too flexible we make the term meaningless.

As a minimum you have to have regularly scheduled elections, rule of law, and some basic gaurantees of human rights. Freedom of speech and the ability to dissent is one of these rights that has to exist.

With this sort of basic idea of what democracy is, I don’t think any democracy can be an ‘enemy’ of another. Certainly doesn’t mean they will always agree and there will be disputes and competition, but I don’t think they can become enemies as we usually think of the term.

Obviously though a democracy can cease to be a democracy in all but name and such a government could be an enemy of anyone.

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