Free Country

Topic: Mailer 2

Mailer says that Bush has pushed for the war in Iraq for the purpose of building an empire, with Iraq being the stepping stone. I would prefer not to believe that as truth; however, Mailer’s arguments make sense and in my daily life I see what he means. To support his argument of an empire trying to be built, he goes into much depth about democracy. America is trying to build a democracy in Iraq today, and trying is the key word here.

Mailer says, “Real democracy comes out of many… battles that succeed in building traditions… but you can’t play with it" (70). He goes on to say that we cannot go over to Iraq and anticipate showing them how to have a democracy because of the way our system was built. Expecting for a democracy, like that of America, to be built within a matter of 10 years is absurd, and it will not happen.

When I look at the war today, I wonder why Bush is trying so hard to keep this war going. It does not make sense because we are not fighting terrorism. What are we really fighting for? To say that Bush is trying to save the world would be very farfetched. Now I have to agree with Mailer’s belief that this war is to get America on the road to becoming an Empire. Every day I see Bush trying to impose democracy on a country that is far different from ours. Let the Iraqi people decide how they want their own country run. It is like when America became free America. Britain tried to keep us under their same government style, but we fought back because we did not want that. I see this same fight happening in Iraq since this war started.

America has a great nation, but to be an empire we would be giving up all the rights that we have. Even our sexual freedoms would be considered “too much of a luxury”, as Mailer puts it (52). Bush even is trying very hard not to let gays have rights to marry, so what does that tell us? He seems to be pushing for an empire. Democracy is not meant to be an imperial government; it is meant for a country who wants freedom and who is willing to work hard for that freedom. So if Bush really is trying to use Iraq as a stepping stone for a global empire, then shame on him. We are a free country, not a free global empire; we should stay a free country.