Consider the benefits:
1. Fast food franchises create goodwill. In developing countries these businesses offer the opportunity of relatively high paying jobs.
2. Fast food has a pacifying effect. It has been well documented that diets high in sugar, other carbohydrates, and polyunsaturated fats diminish energy levels and lead to obesity. Obese militants are much less effective operationally.
3. Fast food franchises offer an easily accessible symbol of western imperialism. If militants have the opportunity to vent at a repugnant symbol closer to home, they are less likely to travel great distances to vent their anger across oceans--and the difference in cost both in dollars and in lives is incalculable. (See accompanying photo from a Pakistani protest over the offensive Danish cartoons--note the smiling faces and relatively benign destruction of private property).
Other questions to consider:
If given the choice between sacrificing your life for 26 virgins and going to paradise, or spending $4.99 for a Supersized paradise of a Big Mac Extra Value meal--which would you chose?
If you were starving and given the choice between Democracy or the comforting taste of a Whopper with cheese, which would you chose?
Had the U.S. employed an aggressive franchising policy in Iraq in 2003, I have no doubt that over the long-term this would have reduced the power of Sadaam Hussein's vicious totalitarian regime. For a population largely unversed in John Locke's Social Contract Theory, or the Federalist Papers, a fast food menu provides an easily understood and readily accessible demonstration of Democratic free choice at work.
After 10 years, no tyrant could withstand the will of the people so well-practiced in the rudiments of Democratic choice and aware of the benefits of the free-market. It has been said by many that the free-market and Democracy go hand-in-hand--Fast Food Diplomacy is an easily implemented use of this approach.
At a time, when we are confronted with many challenges at home and overseas, unconventional approaches are needed more than ever. Let us bring Democracy to the world. But first, let us bring one billion more Big Macs.
The Economist described Iraq under Bremer as “a capitalist dream,†and a flurry of new consulting firms were launched promising to help companies get access to the Iraqi market, their boards of directors stacked with well-connected Republicans. The most prominent was New Bridge Strategies, started by Joe Allbaugh, former Bush-Cheney campaign manager. “Getting the rights to distribute Procter & Gamble products can be a gold mine,†one of the company’s partners enthused. “One well-stocked 7-Eleven could knock out thirty Iraqi stores; a Wal-Mart could take over the country.â€Soon there were rumors that a McDonald’s would be opening up in downtown Baghdad...