Meanwhile, Iraq's experiment in Arab liberty has had ripple effects beyond its borders, pushing the Syrians most of the way out of Lebanon, and in Syria itself significantly weakening Baby Assad's regime. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who's spent years as a beleaguered democracy advocate in Egypt, told the Washington Post's Jim Hoagland the other day that, although he'd opposed the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, he had to admit it had "unfrozen the Middle East, just as Napoleon's 1798 expedition did. Elections in Iraq force the theocrats and autocrats to put democracy on the agenda, even if only to fight against us. Look, neither Napoleon nor President Bush could impregnate the region with political change. But they were able to be the midwives."
Message 21942600
Chin, you'd better read this whole article...read it, don't just scan it because this is exactly what I see as one of our goals, unfreezing the Middle East. The western powers have been trying to do this for years and years through diplomacy to no avail. This is also what we were debating before when you were coming up with your "alternate solutions". Each one I shot down and indicated would only lead back to the status quo and that's no longer acceptable. |
