The Future of Iraq

Dash_Dot

Trust you to be a most alert reader! More often than not, one gets away without having to provide long-winded explanations. :)

That (yatha raja, tatha praja) is the actual, more traditional Indian form of the idiom. But like all other ancient Indian wisdom, it assumes a specifc cultural framework. To keep it valid outside of the one society for which it was written, IMHO, we must go to the more basic principle of leadership: that (native/organic) leaders mostly carry forward the dharma (the order and the ideals) of their societies. If we notice, that's what ancient teachers repeatedly exhort leaders to do, and the leaders themselves aim for.

So for the most part, the ideals of leaders reflect the ideals of the societies they lead. At a basic level, yatha praja, tatha raja.

Once ideals have been determined, however, in practice, depending upon their own personalities, some leaders succeed well, some go overboard, some fail miserably. That then affects their socities. And in that much, yatha raja, tatha praja is true.
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In the middle East, it's doubtful there would be (or would arise) too many significant native/organic leaders propagating the idea and the ideals of liberal democracies (in the sense you understand the concept). So the argument that the place would be different IF the leaders were different seem a little moot.

Re: # 4

Wheel O Time have you ever wondered why the so-called Islamic Civilisation flourished in

(a) Mesepotamia
(b) anatolia
(c) Persia
(d) India (indian-subcontinent)
(e) egypt
(f) iberia

and did not in the place it started?

wheel o time why not

yatha raja tatha praja

in the case of the arc of cresent this appears to be the case....

Beedy, you pull fewer punches in this article, so it is more realistic.

To an outside casual observer, Iraq seems to be just another society of suicide bombers and potential suicide bombers. The whole fun of being suicide bombers would be lost if people had to make do with liberal democracies.

(You do, again, place too much importance on the presence/absence of 'leaders.' Believe me, that most ancient dicum of "yatha praja, tatha raja" has never been bettered.)

BD nothing new in what you say. Iraq will survive but in 3 parts - federated, co-federated, confederated, unitary or seperate. What is crucial is not what we want, but what they want? Right now Kurds cannot stand the sunnis and shias (first is hated more than the second), the shias - the Sunnis and Kurds (first is hated more than the second), and the sunnis both the shias and kurds in equal measure and would love to see these guys finished off so that they can join their brothers south.

Love is kind of passe here. All the theorising is moot.