It's both insightful and ironic that Dems, in the spirit that there is nothing a Republican administration can do that deserves credit, now criticize Bush for nation-building when clearly in the nation's self-interest as in Iraq (as distinguished from Clinton's use of the military for social-assistance programs), and for calling for the advance of Freedom and Democracy in this unsafe world. Thus Bush's initiatives relegate the Dems, desperate for survival, to take wholly untenable positions that are directly contrary to those of Wilson, FDR and JFK, while proceeding to the electoral polls in a hand basket.
Stability gave us North Korea. Stability gave us Castro. Stability gave us Saddam. Stability gave us Assad's Syria. Stability gave us the Taliban. Stability gave us the West Bank and Gaza strip. Stability gave us 9/11.
Settling for stability means tolerating our enemies' existance.
Status quo, you know, that is Latin for "the mess we're in."
- Ronald Reagan, U.S. president. Address, 16 March 1981 to Associated General Contractors of America.