# The American Domino Effect **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 16, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319 "2004-04-16T05:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/1 "2004-04-16T05:36:44Z")
As I understand it, a significant basis of installing democracy in Iraq is the theory that, should Iraq take to democracy like a fish to water and come along swimmingly, that other nations in the Middle East would nod sagely in approval and erupt into an unanimous and peaceful conversion to the flowers and honey world of democracy. Pardon me if I don’t sound overly convinced of this happening. This makes sense, for a country (or more specifically, a political sect) that sacrificed millions of lives on a similar theory (on a dissimilar situation) not so long ago. My question here is twofold (or two questions onefold. Or something.) One, what basis does this theory have, specifically in the Middle East? This is a region that already has a reasonably successful democracy, a theocracy, a monarchy, several dictatorships, and all number of political ideologies. The theories have been that either democracy will spread, as in Turkey, or that Muslims will unite to install theocracies. However, in most cases, the surrounding nations have proved to be rather well insulated to neighboring regimes. Two, Blowback. With an American-installed regime handicapping Iraq in regional diplomacy already, what prevents a blowback _against_ democracy? Specifically, take the recent unrest in Iran. Given the threat of rising unrest (say, if the domino effect works), what prevents the established neighbors from cracking down on local movements? Examples of this are Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, all three of which forcefully put down various movements. From what I know, I simply can’t see a spread of democratic revolution - or, at least, not successful democratic revolution. In fact, I can see an American-installed democracy in a place where it sets back reformist movement in the region. The situation in the region is quite different than that in southeast Asia where this theory was fought for extensively earlier, in that we have well-established governments in place, and industrial nations, as opposed to rather chaotic and unorganized post-colonial countries with an open future and rural basis. I just don’t see how this theory can play out - it is like suggesting that a conservative branch taking power in America will cause the governments of Canada, Mexico and Cuba to suddenly conform. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/2 "2004-04-16T07:03:48Z")
> [@Zagadka](#): > > As I understand it, a significant basis of installing democracy in Iraq is the theory that, should Iraq take to democracy like a fish to water and come along swimmingly, that other nations in the Middle East would nod sagely in approval and erupt into an unanimous and peaceful conversion to the flowers and honey wI just don’t see how this theory can play out - it is like suggesting that a conservative branch taking power in America will cause the governments of Canada, Mexico and Cuba to suddenly conform. Your painful confusion arises from your misconstruction of the word ``` DEMOCRACY ``` As it appears in the argument you attempt o analyze. Democracy, is after all, by shorthand, a system where the authority of the state is exercised with the consent of the governed. And, of course, it depends on what you mean by “consent”. There is “apparent consent”, which may or not be the stuff of disingenuous press briefings by Paul Bremer, And then there is “manufactured consent”. So Democracy is not the objective–it is the stage on which the Neo Shakespeares will trot out their scripts. But the consent will be about as genuine as when an actor repeats his lines. What we are after is a system in which the people APPEAR to consent. We give not a shit whether the consent is genuine, much less in Berkeley than Baghdad. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/3 "2004-04-16T14:21:52Z")
We had sometime ago a nice thread discussing the Domino Theory… check it out: [Defending the Domino Theory](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=235228) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/4 "2004-04-16T17:01:11Z")
This is eerily reminiscent of Vietnam. The same Domino Theory was the prevailing justification for Johnson’s massive escalation of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Johnny\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_G)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/5 "2004-04-16T18:27:40Z")
Mexico will never submit to the will of the US. The US will submit to Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/6 "2004-04-16T19:00:42Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > This is eerily reminiscent of Vietnam. The same Domino Theory was the prevailing justification for Johnson’s massive escalation of the war. Except in reverse. In this case, we hope a successful Iraqi democracy will help spread democracy to the rest of the region, and in Vietnam, we were afraid a Communist South Vietnam would spread Communism throughout the region. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/7 "2004-04-17T21:47:04Z")
And a united vietnam did indeed invade neighboring countries, However, they were the first Communist country, indeed the first one ever, to overthrow the government of another Communist country, how about that? ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-domino-effect/240319/8 "2004-04-17T22:17:57Z")
> [@Zagadka](#): > > As I understand it, a significant basis of installing democracy in Iraq is the theory that, should Iraq take to democracy like a fish to water and come along swimmingly, that other nations in the Middle East would nod sagely in approval and erupt into an unanimous and peaceful conversion to the flowers and honey world of democracy. Cite?