John Stuart Mill told us that as countries became democratic the people tended to believe too much importance had previously been attached to limitations of government power.

Freedom to an Afghan is the freedom to execute infidels and apostates. The freedom to follow the law, Sharia as interpreted by hadith. If we have installed in Afghanistan a democraticly formed government, it is ruled by rulers whose interests are the same as those of the people.

What the Bush administration has failed to do was introduce the concept of constitutional liberalism, which is about the limitation of power. Democracy is about the accumulation of power and its use. There is an obvious tension between the two concerning the scope of governmental authority.

Publius the Federalist, wrote about the tyranny of the majority coming from the soverignty of the majority. The legitimitation of the mob. Thus, the insistence of a liberal rule of law to reign in the excesses of the democratic state.

We have delivered to (at least parts of) Afghanistan democracy, but we left out the liberal constitutionality part. Doing half the job is producing some unintended consequences.

If the man is found to be sane, he has blasphemed and should be executed according to hadith.

Afghanistan is our creation---what have we done?

Publius