Posted on 03/04/2005 3:10:56 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON – Something remarkable is happening in the Middle East - a grass-roots movement against autocracy without any significant "Great Satan" anti-American component.
In Beirut, the crowds that massed in the streets and forced the resignation of the Syrian-controlled government were demonstrating for kifaya (change) and freedom from the Syrian military that has occupied their country for more than a quarter of a century.
The passionate protest had apparently been triggered by the assassination of the popular former prime minister, Rafik Hariri - an assassination that the Lebanese assume was engineered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In Egypt, too, the streets have been alive with the sound of kifaya. Apparently seeking to divert the movement for change, President Hosni Mubarak announced last weekend a change in the election law to permit competitive elections. But his likeliest challenger, Ayman Nour, is in jail for allegedly forging election documents. And this week there were demonstrations in the streets of Cairo in his support.
In the past the United States would have avoided criticizing Mr. Mubarak, a key figure in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But now Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has openly rebuked Mubarak and canceled a scheduled visit to Cairo.
In London this week, Secretary Rice said, "Events in Lebanon are moving in a very important direction."
The movements for democratic change in Egypt and Lebanon have happened since the successful Iraqi election on Jan. 30. And one can speculate on whether Iraq has served as a beacon for democratic change in the Middle East.
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush said that "a liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region."
He may have had it right.
While listening to his always comical rants on NPR I have often wished he'd blow his nose and swallow whatever he has in his mouth. Then again, that smarmy, marbly, whine is his trademark - of course that and the fact that he was on Nixon's enemies list....
That's right!
Not to mention how Halliburton is getting rich, and he's messing with Social Security, and then there's that WMD lie, and he won't fire Rumsfeld, and how he wants to stack the courts with those right wingers, and how much like Hitler he is, and ...
LOL!
Schorr ... on The Nixon enemies list?
Say it wasn't so!
Must have been because he was in Vietnam. ;)
It's more like Iran is being surrounded.
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Iraq
Qatar
Then there's:
Israel
Turkey
Jordan
Lebanon
The country which wishes the most that we hadn't gone into Iraq is Saudi Arabia. The specter of Iraqi oil coming fully on line is ominous to them. Iraq's extraction technology yields now about 30% of what it could yield with tech upgrades (coming soon), they have a trillion cubic feet of natural gas...in the long run, and from a purely economic standpoint, this could be a profitable war.
The current runup in crude prices has to do with increased demand from China and the anti-economic freedom shenanigans in Russia and Venezuela, anyway, not Iraq.
I just don't see where you're coming from here. When it's all said and done, the country which will have its hand on the spigot of enough crude to change the whole ballgame will also have statues of George Bush in its streets.
I'm less surprised but equally excited. But, we need to remember where this could go. Remember what almost happened in Algeria? The radical islamic fundamentalists were set to win the government in a free election. The result? The military stepped in and took over.
Springtime in the Middle East will surely be exciting to watch.
Oops.
I saw Iraq and read Iran...
We're on the same page.
you would trade people's liberty for cheap gas? EEK!
Pigs are flying out of Dan's butt!
At $5/ barrel, we go into ANWR and drill the hell out of it.
I read on another thread the other day that all the Syrians would have to do is drive through the crowds with a few tanks, kill a few Lebanese, and this revolution would be over . . . that Arabs don't "really" understand Democracy . . . that the crowds were simpletons who were being used by another power-hungry dictator to get power.
Can you believe such statements in the face of the historical actions taking place all around us?
I replied thusly to the moronic assertions . . .
First of all . . . GW said the U.S. would support any citizens ANYWHERE on Earth if they acted to join the Democratic World. I suspect the Arab bullies have learned not to doubt GW's word. If the Syrian military starts to kill innocent Lebanese civilians, they should expect to see bombs and missiles falling all around them . . . our troops will be through to mop up later.
One had best not play military poker with GW.
What is there to "understand" about Democracy? I think GW's right . . . we're all born yearning for freedom. It's a God-given right and it would take the stupidest culture on Earth about three seconds to comprende what that means.
Lebanese "simpletons?" They're no more simpletons than our own Founding Fathers were. It doesn't take an Albert Einstein to realize the yoke of enslavement becomes far too burdensome when you've had just a sip of freedom.
The Lebanese were glued to their TV's when the Iraqi people voted for Freedom. The Lebanese have watched for over three years as American soldiers have fought and died so that Afghanis and Iraqis could be free . . . and GW hasn't blinked under the strain of the never-ending, world-wide criticism. The common Lebanese people recognize there's a New Sheriff on the World Stage . . . and that GW won't forsake them as past Presidents have done.
The Lebanese are no longer the Democracy students . . . and those who would denounce them and their movement are THEMSELVES the same simpletons who whined and moaned and protested in the streets before the U.S. Military freed TWENTY-FIVE MILLION Iraqis. It is THEY . . . the self-righteous America-haters . . . who should take lessons in Democracy. Democracy is flourishing all around them, yet they still see nothing but doom and gloom. THAT is why most Liberals look like a paper sack that has been left out in the elements for a few years . . . wrinkled, cracked, shriveled-up souls who have never known a day's joy in their lives.
This movement is EVERY BIT as glorious as the Berlin Wall being toppled . . . maybe even more so because Potentates and Dictators are falling like dominoes and the synergy just keeps on building.
Hang on, lawgirl, we're in for a glorious, glorious ride.
PS . . . GREAT HOMEPAGE! Is the walk you advertise this coming September or this past September. If it was September-past, did you reach your goal?
I think I might just get the vapors and faint!
Looking at your map . . . LOL . . . Don't you know the Mullahs of Iran feel like rancid meat in an American sandwich?
Pigs flying ping!
Geedee- great post. I am so excited for the Middle East- I think they KNOW W will help them if they only call on us. I love our president!!
Thanks for the compliment on my page - it's been a labor of love over the past 4 years! And my walk is coming UP this September!!! ACK!!! :)
Can't quite figure out the your comment. We should much rather have Baathist, wahabbi, tyrany/dictatorship in the arab world so we can get cheap gas? Is that what you are saying?
Pompous, sanctimonious blind man.
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