Do You Remember What Bush Said?

Last November I notified readers of this blog that, for the following reasons, I would not be posting for a while:  first, it seemed that I had nothing new to add - my thoughts concurred with those of many other commentators; and, secondly, I wanted to take some time to think about possibly writing a book or two.  Naturally, I noted that I might occasionally post if it seemed appropriate.  This is one of those times.


It seems the world has completely forgotten one of George Bush's primary motives for invading Iraq.  I confess that I stoutly opposed that intervention, and it does seem that the UN, European, Israeli, and US Intelligence Agencies were all wrong in their unanimous contention that Saddam had WMDs (or, even if they were all correct, the WMDs have not yet been found).   In any case, the WMD issue so enthralled the media and pundits around the world that we all seem to have forgotten that President Bush had another equally compelling motive for his invasion of Iraq.   He believed that the creation of a successful democracy in Iraq would model freedom and capitalism for all the other Muslim nations.  He believed that, given a foothold in Iraq, freedom would capture the hearts of the people and spread throughout the Middle East.  

I know that some of my far-left friends may not remember this goal of Bush's Iraq doctrine, but it is easy to verify:  he spoke about it publicly on more than 30 occasions in America, Europe, and the Middle East, including many televised interviews - just Google it.

Ok, I admit it's too soon to call Iraq a democracy, or anything else for certain, but everthing seems to be pointing in that direction (my heart will be forever touched by the photos and images of all those purple fingered voters).  I suspect that Iraqi freedom will not look like ours or Europe's, and that their democracy will have its own particular twist.  Nonetheless, life in Iraq is sure looking more like democracy than totalitarianism or theocracy.


And, here's the simple point of this short essay:  the people have revolted in Egypt, Libya, and Syria, and uprisings are popping up in several other Middle Eastern countries.  It's still way too early to tell which forms of government will emerge, but freedom is the rallying cry everywhere.  President Bush might just have been right.


But, fear not, you committed Bush haters.  Even if the Middle East does roll over to democracy, the world press and media will do their level best to convince us that it had nothing to do with President Bush - just like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union had nothing to do with President Reagan.