At 3:52 PM -0500 3/9/05, OpinionJournal wrote: >Freedom's Fair-Weather Friends >The recent spate of good news from the Middle East has prompted a wave of >second thoughts from erstwhile supporters of the tyrannical status quo. >The Washington Post >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14590-2005Mar7.html , the >Washington Times >http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050309-121616-7554r.htm and blogger >Bill Rice >http://dawnsearlylight.blogs.com/del/2005/03/could_bush_be_r.html all >have roundups of the recent "By George, Maybe George Was Right" articles >and comments. One of the most notable was a front-page story in Britain's >far-left newspaper the Independent >http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=617840 >titled "Was Bush Right After All?": > >*** QUOTE *** > >How much Mr Bush is responsible for these development [sic] is debatable. >The peaceful uprising in Lebanon was provoked by outrage at the >assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, in which a Syrian >hand is suspected, although not proven. Then the man who insisted on >elections in Iraq when the US wanted to postpone or dilute them was >Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leader of Iraq's majority Shia community. And >the death from old age of Yasser Arafat, not machinations in Washington, >led to the election that might break the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock. > >Indubitably, however, even his most grudging domestic opponents and his >harshest critics in the region admit that Mr Bush is also in part >responsible. The 2003 invasion of Iraq may have been justified by a giant >fraud, but that, and above all the January election to which it led, >transfixing the Arab world, has proved a catalyst. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >Well, not all of them. As the Post notes, the Independent's own >America-hating polemicist Robert Fisk "begged to differ" and "predicted >that Bush's call for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon would only hurt the >Lebanese." > >We never thought Fisk was redeemable, but then again, we didn't think Ted >Kennedy was either. Yet there he was Sunday on "This Week With George >Stephanopoulos"--admittedly, a show no one watches--saying: "What's taken >place in a number of those countries is enormously constructive. It's a >reflection the president has been involved." > >One suspects these are fair-weather friends of freedom--that in case of >future adversity, they will revert to their accustomed role of delivering >unconstructive criticism. And Fisk isn't alone in his ideological >rigidity. "What Rise in Freedom?" asks the headline of an especially sour >Boston Globe column by Robert Kuttner >http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/09/what_rise_in_freedom/ >, who offers a litany of excuses to withhold any credit for President >Bush. Here's our favorite: > >*** QUOTE *** > >The new Israel-Palestine reality reflects the death of Yasser Arafat and >Ariel Sharon's decision to seize the moment, defy his party, and do a >''Nixon to China" by dismantling some Israeli settlements in Arab lands. >This shift has nothing to do with Bush or Iraq. Indeed, the Bush >administration has been less active in promoting a Palestine settlement >than any in memory. (Watch out, when Fidel Castro finally dies and >democracy comes to Cuba, Bush will take credit for that, too.) > >*** END QUOTE *** > >Some of us would argue that the administration's being "less active in >promoting a Palestine settlement" has been extraordinarily helpful. >Whereas President Clinton gambled his legacy on negotiations with Arafat >and lost, President Bush made democracy a precondition for a Palestinian >state and obliterated the regime in Baghdad that was one of the biggest >sponsors of anti-Israel terrorism. > >Kuttner also warns that the results of Arab democracy may not be to >America's liking, but here he seems to be engaging in projection. The >closing line of his column makes clear that the results of American >democracy aren't to his liking: "If democracy is good enough for Iraqis, >let's defend what Bush has not yet wrecked of democracy at home." > >Another hilariously strained effort to deny credit to President Bush >appears in this week's Time >http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1034735,00.html magazine: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Across the Middle East last week, a tide of good news suggested that >another corner might be near. Amid the flush of springlike exuberance, >though, it was hard to know which events history would immortalize. Was it >President Hosni Mubarak's startling announcement that Egypt would hold its >first-ever secret ballot, multiparty presidential elections? Was it the >popular demonstrations in Beirut two days later that finally forced the >resignation of the Syrian-backed Prime Minister and his Cabinet? Or did >the start of something momentous come on Thursday, when Saudi Arabia's >Crown Prince Abdullah welcomed Syria's President Bashar Assad to Riyadh >and not only told Assad to get Syria's 14,000 troops out of Lebanon but >also announced to the world that he had said so? > >*** END QUOTE *** > >What's missing from the list of possible turning points? The Iraqi >election, of course.
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