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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (599689)	2/2/2011 7:20:06 PM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1572369

Blogger Who Mocked Bush's 2003 Pre-War Claim That Democratic Iraq Would Trigger Pro-Democracy Uprisings Across Middle East Now Tweeting Support for Pro-Democracy Uprisings in Yemen, Tunisia, Jordan, and Egypt This will be just like Reagan ending the Cold War. Even though Bush clearly set the stage for it, and it would not have happened without the Iraq War, the Left will never allow credit for it because it isn't what they want to hear. Just as they will not allow Reagan credit for ending the Cold War, even though it is crystal clear that Reagan's action, more than any other single event, is responsible. Dumb ole' Bush knew something the Left didn't know. That is, once you stick a democracy -- or even something that looks a little like democracy -- in the center of that region, it would spread to other countries. I guess we'll never know what motivated the lone Tunisian, but you just cannot ignore the fact that Bush's Freedom Agenda has a role here. None of this may work out. But if it does, this is the kind of thing that history, with a 100-year look back, is likely to see very differently versus the politics of the moment. History will view it as a sort of reverse-domino-theory, and Iraq was the first in the series. It is not inconsequential, either, that these events could well serve to strengthen the outcome in Iraq.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (599689)	2/2/2011 8:30:26 PM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1572369

Morning Bits By Jennifer Rubin J Street goes around the bend and attacks liberal friend of Israel Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.). Perhaps this is some new strategy -- vilify someone from the only group (left-leaning Democrats) who might buy their message. Fareed Zakaria goes neo-con. Now, after vilifying George W. Bush and advocates of the freedom agenda Obama should have championed, Zakaria concedes: "This sort of striving for democracy is what Arab intellectuals have yearned for, speaking of the freedom deficit in their lands, which is quite true. And, of course, George W. Bush set forth to fix the problem with what he called a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. . . . But give President George W. Bush his due. He saw the problem and he believed that Arabs were not genetically incapable of democracy, and he put America's moral might behind the great cause of Arab reform." Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) goes for the Bush freedom agenda, calling for a "free and open democratic process" in Egypt. What goes up, often must come down in politics. As the public realizes Obama isn't showing any leadership on our fiscal mess, his poll numbers slide back below 50 percent. The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee goes where Obama won't: "The U.S. and other responsible nations must work together to support the pursuit of freedom, democracy, and human rights in Egypt and throughout the world." U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner goes to Davos to tell the world, "I know there are people who would like to make very deep cuts that would undermine the recovery." And they know a president who is unwilling to stop spending money. ... Elliott Abrams goes back to the question George W. Bush asked in 2003: "Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are they alone never to know freedom and never even to have a choice in the matter?" Abrams answers that "the revolt in Tunisia, the gigantic wave of demonstrations in Egypt and the more recent marches in Yemen all make clear that Bush had it right - and that the Obama administration's abandonment of this mind-set is nothing short of a tragedy."