Robert Garmong

Following Saddam Hussein’s ousting in 2003, many outside observers called for the creation of democracy in Iraq. In the viewpoint that follows, Robert Garmong questions whether democracy should be pursued in that country. He argues that democracy can be a form of tyranny by majority rule and raises the possibility that the Shiite Muslims that form a majority in Iraq may vote in an Islamic theocracy similar to the one that has ruled Iraq’s neighbor, Iran, since 1979. Permitting the Iraqi majority to choose Islamic leaders may result in a worse threat to American interests than the Saddam Hussein regime, he concludes. Garmong is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in California.

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