Word: totalitarianisms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gulag” in Elkins’ mind appears to mean any camp system where detainees are thrust into a system of forced labor. This usage of “gulag” divorces the term from its uniquely Soviet context, where the police state’s totalitarian power was inexorably linked to that government’s policy of detention and murder...
...Iraqi election of a 275-member National Assembly was neither a bloodbath nor a farce: It was widely participated in and is about as legitimate an election as one can expect in a country that was, until recently, a brutal totalitarian dictatorship. The turnout, which was expected by many pessimists to come in under 30 percent, was ultimately comparable to the turnout in our most recent election. That so many of these recently suppressed citizens flocked to the polls with such enthusiasm is a powerful reminder of the value of the elective franchise...
...additional American casualties, we should not despair. We can, and I believe will, prevail in Iraq but only if we fortify ourselves and realize that next week might very likely be the most destabilized time seen since the end of major combat operations. Changing a country from a totalitarian dictatorship to a democracy is a radical step, and the first election will be the most difficult. Over 1,300 Americans have given their lives in Iraq; over the coming weeks we will be given the opportunity to make their sacrifice meaningful...
Mark Adomanis’ Nov. 15 comment (“Did Bush Get It Right?”) is replete with distortion and logical fallacy. First, Adomanis cites an academic report that claims that a totalitarian system like that of North Korea’s is as effective as a completely democratic one in curtailing terrorism, and draws the conclusion that Bush’s attempts at democratization in the Middle East are therefore justified. The report as Adomanis presents it appears to suggest that political stability, not political freedom, better curbs terrorism. Second, he creates a liberal straw...
Instead of poverty, however, Abadie discovered a distinct relationship between “the levels of political freedom a nation affords and the severity of terrorism.” Those nations at either extreme—North Korean on the totalitarian side and the United States on the democratic side—had very few instances of terrorism, whereas those nations in the middle, nations that were neither totally free nor totally state-run, had the highest rates of occurrence. It should come as little surprise that the Middle East falls into the middle category of nations where terrorist activity...