A Changing World

A remarkable era is upon us, the middle east is embracing democracy and demanding rights. It is finally dawning on Democrats and Liberals that Bush just may be right and it is scaring the shit out of them. First we have this exchange between Jon Stewart and Nancy Soderberg on The Daily Show as transcripted by James Taranto:

Soderberg: Well, I think, you know, as a Democrat, you don't want anything nice to happen to the Republicans, and you don't want them to have progress. But as an American, you hope good things would happen. I think the way to look at it is, they can't credit for every good thing that happens, but they need to be able to manage it. I think what's happening in Lebanon is great, but it's not necessarily directly related to the fact that we went into Iraq militarily.

Stewart: Do you think that the people of Lebanon would have had, sort of, the courage of their conviction, having not seen--not only the invasion but the election which followed? It's almost as though that the Iraqi election has emboldened this crazy--something's going on over there. I'm smelling something.

OK Nancy, the entire world knows damn well that it was policies put in place by George W. Bush that have led us to this day. Hell, even Keith Olbermann, hero of the left, knows something is happening.

Even Howard Fineman grudgingly concedes that the dawn of a new democratic Arab world is upon us:

So now Bush has even more reason to focus on some relatively good news from the Middle East. It’s too soon to know whether recent events there represent a real – or false – dawn of peace and democracy in a region that hasn’t known either. The verdict won’t be in for decades. But it won’t take that long to get a sense of whether the assertive Bush Doctrine is affecting our politics. It is – and not to the Democrats’ benefit.
Like backgammon players in a bazaar, Middle East leaders are shuttling pieces around the geopolitical board with cunning dexterity, all in response to Bush’s response to 9/11. Transforming the region wasn’t the stated intent of the American-led invasion of Iraq; it was supposed to be about WMD and Al Qaeda. But it’s difficult to argue that there isn’t a causal connection between the upbeat news and the president’s insistence on what amounted to a military takeover of most of the Arabic-speaking world.

Howard definitely received his talking points from the DNC. He's parroting the Democrats line about the real reason we went to Iraq was because of al-Qaeda (which has proven to be true) and WMD, not democracy. Hey Howie, what did you think the administration was going to do once it ousted Saddam, install another dictator? It kind of goes without saying that we wished to assist the Iraqi's with a democratic government.

The number of Arab nations that have voted or are sceduling a vote is increasing weekly and it appears Bush may be pushing for two more in Lebanon and Syria:

ARNOLD, Md. - President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now.

He applauded the strong message sent to Syria when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier held a joint news conference on London on Tuesday.
"Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, `You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish," Bush said during an appearance at a community college in Maryland to tout his job training programs.
The world, Bush said, "is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."

Bashar Assad is attempting to make nice by turning over Saddam's half-brother but Bush is having none of it. It's amazing what you can accomplish by using both force and talk after the use of force.