Tunisia – Democracy requires a strong army … And the army needs a strong democracy too!

It has always been said: A democracy requires a strong army, to protect and defend it. However what many people don’t know is that the military, too, necessitates a deep-rooted democracy. The current situation in Tunisia is the perfect chance to see and try to understand it. While it is apparent that any democracy which is taking its first steps, as is the case in Tunisia, requires a strong army to defend it and to cut short any tries to supplant it or to avoid any foreign interference, which may use one of the parties in presence, to insinuate itself. The fact that the army requires an anchored democracy, needs to be explained and detailed.

If we take, for example, the case of Tunisia, we notice, although, since 2011, the Tunisian army has earned in power, and above all, equipment of all kinds. All these “improvements” was made possible thanks to international aid. Certainly, the world powers agree to back the armies of democratic countries, giving them all kinds of aid, logistics and training for their troops. And this is precisely because these are democratic nations. Because this is the central condition required by the partners to unwrap military aid and we understand that no political power can manage to support, at least openly, the army of a non-democratic country.

So, and to stick to the example of Tunisia, and in the current state of affairs, with the halt of parliament, the main institution that symbolizes democracy, if this situation continues, our valiant army may pay the price, since the parliaments of other countries will do everything to bar the military cooperation programs in progress, on the pretext that we are not helping an army in the hands of a president qualified as a “dictator”.