Is the Bush Doctrine Working?

[wtmusic]

"It's killing them to admit it, said Rich Lowry in National Review Online, but liberals throughout the land can be heard muttering the same sentence through clenched teeth: "Maybe George Bush was right". Democracy has begun popping up like spring flowers in the Middle East, and even Bush bashers are now "grudgingly" giving the president his due. By toppling Saddam Hussein and opening Iraq to democratic elections, the president has set a historic trend in motion. In Egypt, in Lebanon, in the Palestinian territories, and even in medieval Saudi Arabia, people are challenging the old order and clamoring for freedom. On his TV show last week, satirist Jon Stewart moaned that there was now a chance that Bush would go down in history as a "great" president. "Oh my God!" Stewart said. "Pretty soon, Republicans are gonna be saying 'Reagan was nothing compared to this guy.'"

From The Week 3/18/2005

Spring flowers:



(I had to type this out from The Week just because of the sheer ridiculousness of its assumptions)

Two words: Mission Accomplished

[ck4829]

1. So when the Christian Right takes over, it might be a good idea..

to move to the Middle East.

[wtmusic]

If you value "freedom", of course n/t

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. What did you expect from him?

I mean, after all, Rich Lowry is a gibbering idiot.

For more on all this, look at the pro-Syrian demonstration in Damascus this week. Also, see if you can follow the executions that will be taking place in Saudi Arabia, over the next few months.

Anyone who dares to speak out against the Saud/Wahabbi order is going to put their lives in grave and imminent danger.

[wtmusic]

5. Actually Lowry's quote was just the first sentence

The rest was editorializing masquerading as "news". What the hell is my wife doing reading The Week? Where did this rag come from?

[tsuki]

20. We don't look at the pro-Syrian demostration. It is not in our

agenda. Woe be to those that look.

[OrlandoGator]

3. Still pushing the "Bush Was Right" meme.

Wow, Rove's talking points don't usually float around this long.

[The_Mule]

4. Is the political satire

of Jon Stewart lost on this author?

Jon's next line was putting his head in his hands and saying "I just know that my kid is going to a school named after him".

[FloridaPat]

6. We are not going to help people in the ME become democratic.

If they actually did that, they would keep their oil wells and sell their oil to everyone else but us. They hate us in case no one has noticed.

No way Bushco is going to let real people run their own countries.

[jmowreader]

7. Democratic elections, MY ASS!

Let's see...

No one knew the names of the people on the ballot
No one campaigned for fear of getting his ass shot off
And they spread a rumor that if you didn't vote, you weren't going to eat next year.

That's almost as bad as the old Soviet elections: "Put a yes vote in this box or we'll put you in that one."

[jedr]

8. even a blind pig sometimes finds an acorn:

but at what cost and what will theses "democracies" be like? will they be any different than what we see now? ...if "W" wants to start a democracy, let's start at home

[Lisa]

9. you mean, replacing "good cop/bad cop" with "insane cop"?

kind of early to tell ... keep in mind that the region has seen umpteen "new starts" in the past few centuries ... I would personally be thrilled if people do have a chance at peace there (even if it's just because they are clinging together in fear of what Bush will do next). But I know in my heart that a "Gordian Knot" solution (e.g. Alexander the Great slashing it with his sword -- or any single leader performing a "simple" act) is likely not all it appears to be.

On problems in the Middle East -- "God sent Moses and he couldn't fix it -- then He sent Jesus, and he couldn't fix it -- then he sent Mohammed ... and now, you think YOU can fix it?"

[etherealtruth]

15. Your subject line is "perfection"

[spanone]

10. Bush* doctrine = pre-emptive wars. There will be ramifications.

[wtmusic]

11. From later on: "Once again the Left is on the wrong side of history..."

like...the Depression? or...Viet Nam? Man, we have to get our act together! :eyes:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

12. The right has been WRONG time and time again.

We should call the "Right" the "Wrong"!

[ultraist]

13. New poll in my red state of NC shows Bush losing more support on Iraq

People are very wary that he does not have a viable exit plan. It is starting to catch up with him. Many of his own supporters want us out, NOW.

[applegrove]

14. The policy of no longer pulling apart democracy in the Middle East

to replace with a strongman who will give good deal to big oil is working fine. Too bad right wing USA didn't follow it for the longest time.

[Lisa]

17. comment from an Iranian friend (and relative of deposed PM Mossadegh)

"First, they didn't want us to vote. Now, they tell us we'd better be doing it, or else. Can't they make up their minds?"

[applegrove]

22. So true!

[sandnsea]

16. A purple finger is one of ten

If putting a piece of paper in a ballot box is the measure of a democracy, then the whole damned world is already a democracy because almost every country has some form of election.

Maybe the Bushies are confused because phony elections are just as good to them as real ones.

[oblivious]

18. Robert Kuttner is one of the few columnists that rejected this propaganda.

What rise in freedom?

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/09/what_rise_in_freedom/

Says this democracy shit is a fraud.

Summary:
- The new Israel-Palestine reality has nothing to do with Bush.

- Saudi Aradia remains a dictatorship and the idea of genuine democracy breaking out there is laughable.

- Egypt the same - still a good place to send our prisoners to be tortured though.

- If Iran is in a negotiating mood, it is because of Europe, over US objections.

- Many of the grievences in the ME are against the US for supporting tyranny over the decades and today.

- If genuine democracy does break out, Bush probably won't like it.

[dennis4868]

19. not working.....

The Bush doctrine of attack a country for no reason, lie about it, and do not prepare for the war or the post invasion is NOT WORKING. The Democracy doctrine is the media spin to protect Bush....war was never about democracy!

[kentuck]

21. Ten years from now, they may be asking the same question.....

Mission accomplished ? Have we heard that before? The truth is htat nobody knows. The Middle East is as close to civil war as it is to "democracy". So if after ten years of civil war, do we say it was all worth because "democracy" finally won?

Folks like Bill Maher and others that drank the koolaid are indulging in wishful thinking, in my opinion. Is there a number of deaths that we can accept as worth the effort? What if 500,000 Iraqis die before we withdraw? Is that acceptable because Saddam probably would have killed that many anyway. If 5,000 Americans die tens of thousands are permanently injured, will it be worth it because Iraq will have "democracy"? And will "democracy" be whatever we want it to be?

[PROGRESSIVE1]

23. .

[seabeyond]

24. repugs did this during election, democrats are saying

and then they put out their spin til they had dems saying it. media did it too. pissed me off so to listen to matthews tell me, a democrat what i thought about kerry. and always he was wrong