Hoekstra - Democracy Was "A Stretch" In Iraq

By Cernig

You can bet this will fuel further speculation that the White House is planning an actual, for real, military coup in Iraq to install a puppet strongman - but for now the news is that Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, has seriously wandered off the reservation.

Speaking during a taping of Michigan Public Television’s “Off the Record,” Hoekstra said in a Muslim country dominated by rival tribal factions, western-style democracy is not workable.

“You’ve got a culture where democracy is not part of, ‘Let’s go there,’ ” Hoekstra said. ”It was a stretch.”

He said he met with Sunni tribal chiefs who hold politically sway in Iraq, and concluded, ‘They are not looking for a county commission to tell them what to do.”

But Hoekstra said he opposes setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. He said Congress and President George W. Bush must decide on a unified course of action that will stabilize Iraq, based on new intelligence reports and a much-anticipated September status report by the U.S. top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

To reach that consensus, Hoekstra said Bush should drop the notion of a democratic Iraq.

It's always been the case that the hardline American Right wanted a puppet to advance their neocon ideology-based plans in the Middle east. But for a Senator to say he doesn't think another nation should have democracy? WTF?