Posted on 03/04/2005 8:07:54 AM PST by Zivasmate
Commentary > Daniel Schorr from the March 04, 2005 edition
The Iraq effect? Bush may have had it right
By Daniel Schorr
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.
• Daniel Schorr is the senior news analyst at National Public Radio.
Maybe people like this are finally figuring out that LEADERSHIP means more than any cabal of college professors wringing hands over the past.
Daniel Schorr is, to my mind, the stupidest and most annoying voice on NPR, the "aged expert" who is always so full of his own self-importance and always wrong.
If HE says Bush may be doing something right, then pigs are flying all over America.
"The Left" as a whole will not sign up to this point of view...otherwise their totalitarian agenda is undermined.
Never thought I'd see the day that Daniel Schorr would write something even remotely supportive of President Bush. Apparently, things are changing back in this country as well.
I just fell off my chair. I don't think I've ever read or heard anything Danial Schorr that was complementary of the any republicans or conservatives...
Must've taken a lot of will power to type that short sentence.
But don't expect the Kennedys, Byrds, and Pelosis of the world to do so anytime soon. In fact, they wouldn't admit Bush was right even if every last regional dicatorship was peacefully eradicated.
We need somebody to post that graphic of a flying pig.
Wow. Another one? Daniel Schorr, Thomas Friedman and a host of other lefties are coming out of the woodwork to now support the decisions our President and Congress made to keep us safe.
I don't trust them...
Personally, I'd like to see the Hell-frozen-over graphic.
The Kennedys, Byrds, and Pelosis will of course keep their eyes wide open(who does that better than Pelosi) for any slip-ups or bad news from Iraq. But I think their strategy is to change the subject to social security and give Bin Laden the credit for developments in the Middle East.
GEEEEE............I THOUGHT BUSH WAS A FLAMING IDIOT.
The Libs are in a tough spot. When the Berlin wall fell Reagan was no longer in office. It was easier to spin the story as they willed. To Bush's fortune the people of the M.E. have chosen Democracy Now, rather than Democracy 6 years from now. When the man in the W.H. remains consistent in his message and repeatedly calls for free people to rise up noteably in his Inaugural and SOU, and recently even in speeches in Europe, when Arabs attribute this revolution to our presence in Iraq, every American mind connects the revolution in the M.E. rightly with Bush.
They are being forced to confront the idea Bush "may have had it right" because events are occuring within his own term. Otherwise admittance would have only occured at his death.
Now they are already spinning this was inevitable, as they did with Reagan, even attributed it to Osama! but events will continue to unfold at a rate that will make it difficult to spin in the Dems' favor.
Bush is quite blessed actually. For many reasons, but one being that we are seeing a momentary glimpse of the praise that will await him years from now when this revolution has resulted in a stable democratic M.E. Most people of significance are dead before they even receive a small measure of praise.
I think it's more like elephants are flying all over America, and donkies are stuck in the grass and chewing very depressedly.
Does that mean the last 3.5 years of "reporting" on National Liberal Radio have been wrong?
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