“I have wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy — because we’re experienced with it, you know. And, in democracy, after a hundred years, you have to let your slaves go. And, after a hundred and fifty years, you have to let your women vote. And, at the beginning of democracy, is that quite a bit of genocide and ethnic cleansing is quite okay. And that’s what’s going on now.”

Interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=18090&title=kurt-vonnegut/ (13 September 2005)
Various interviews

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I have wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy — because we’re experienced with it, you know. And, in democracy, afte…" by Kurt Vonnegut?
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Kurt Vonnegut 318
American writer 1922–2007

Related quotes

Vladimir Putin photo

“We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

July 17, 2006, during the St. Petersburg Group of Eight summit Putin said in reply to George W. Bush, who said he hopes Russia will follow Iraq in turning to democracy
http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2006/07/bush_says_just_.html http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/15/russia.g8/index.html
2006- 2010

Charles Bukowski photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“What did you expect? I don't know why we're so surprised. When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

Regarding rioting (1968), as quoted in Judgment days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the laws that changed America (2005), by Nick Kotz, Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 417.
1960s

Nicholas Sparks photo
Mick Wallace photo

“What is democracy anyway? Is it having a vote every four or five years? No, it's not. It's your people having a say in the society they live in. And most of the American people have no say in the society they're living in.”

Mick Wallace (1955) Irish politician and football manager

As quoted in a speech on 8 June 2022, "'Couldn't Spell Democracy:' Irish Politician's Rant on America Resurfaces" in Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/couldnt-spell-democracy-irish-politicians-rant-america-resurfaces-viral-reddit-1722739

Roza Otunbayeva photo
Vandana Shiva photo

“I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy — not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you.”

Vandana Shiva (1952) Indian philosopher

As quoted in " In the Footsteps of Gandhi: An Interview with Vandana Shiva http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/shiva.html" by Scott London
Context: I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy — not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you. Democracy begins with freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom from fear, and freedom from hatred. To me, those are the real freedoms on the basis of which good human societies are based.

Janusz Korwin-Mikke photo

Related topics