Charles Krauthammer: Three Cheers for the Bush Doctrine

Time ^ | March 6, 2005 | Charles Krauthammer

[quidnunc]

Jon Stewart, the sage of Comedy Central, is one of the few to be honest about it. "What if Bush … has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may … implode." Daniel Schorr, another critic of the Bush foreign policy, ventured, a bit more grudgingly, that Bush "may have had it right."

Right on what? That America, using power harnessed to democratic ideals, could begin a transformation of the Arab world from endless tyranny and intolerance to decent governance and democratization. Two years ago, shortly before the invasion of Iraq, I argued in these pages that forcefully deposing Saddam Hussein was, more than anything, about America "coming ashore" to effect a "pan-Arab reformation" — a dangerous, "risky and, yes, arrogant" but necessary attempt to change the very culture of the Middle East, to open its doors to democracy and modernity.

The Administration went ahead with this great project knowing it would be hostage to history. History has begun to speak. Elections in Afghanistan, a historic first. Elections in Iraq, a historic first. Free Palestinian elections producing a moderate leadership, two historic firsts. Municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, men only, but still a first. In Egypt, demonstrations for democracy — unheard of in decades — prompting the dictator to announce free contested presidential elections, a historic first.

-snip-

[FreeKeys]

When Charles Krauthammer speaks, I listen. He is one of the few with depth. My day is made when he is on with Brit Hume.

Mine too. BTW, I have written Brit at Special@FoxNews.com to let him know. The more who can do the same, the more we might see of Charles.

[FreeKeys]

Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid. Ronald Wilson Reagan 1982

"I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants ... Today, there's no voice louder than that of freedom." --Mohammad at iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[FreeKeys]

If Hermann had doubts--I would not have blamed him: no one with my injury had ever gone through medical school--he never showed it. He told me he would do everything possible to make it happen. ... He did.

... Hermann did all this quietly, without fanfare. At graduation, he took not only pride but a kind of mischievous delight in our unspoken conspiracy. We broke no rules, but we bent a few, especially the stupid ones. I'm sure he liked that.

Wow! What a fabulous story. Thank you so much for posting it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Not good enough. I want to hear the lamentations of his women.

ROFL!!

Some of us are never satisfied!

[RottiBiz]

Kudos to Krauthammer -- this is one of his best.

Thanks for the ping, nutmeg.

[PGalt]

A cheer for Charles Krauthammer! OUTSTANDING! Thanks for posting.

[Aquinasfan]

"What if Bush … has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may … implode."

Why? Because Bush's unilateral actions were the antithesis of "celebrating diversity." Could it be that some cultures are superior to others?

[Aquinasfan]

Charles Krauthammer, gets my vote for News Person of the Year

Unfortunately, he's pro-abortion.

[shield]

These are the actual facts..truth spelled out quite clearly...thanks Charles for this column.

[AFPhys]

Brilliant article about how President Bush has proven right in pursuing his Liberty Doctrine.

Being printed right now to show around to a few folks I know...


President Bush saw it coming, and has been working for it for a very long time.

Witness: President Bush has been expounding upon this same theme since 9/11, and to a lesser extent even before that time.

The most detailed look at it was first given on June 1, 2002 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html
President Bush Delivers Graduation Speech at West Point

Not long after that, in "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America", http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html , the administration laid out the whole deal, with reasoning and detail. Many only saw "preemption" in this, but they were simply being myopic, intentionally or not. The first paragraph of that is:

"The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom—and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise. In the twenty-first century, only nations that share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom will be able to unleash the potential of their people and assure their future prosperity. People everywhere want to be able to speak freely; choose who will govern them; worship as they please; educate their children—male and female; own property; and enjoy the benefits of their labor. These values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society—and the duty of protecting these values against their enemies is the common calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages."

I highly recommend that all FReepers, all who wish to catch up on what has been going on behind the scenes and why, all who still can't understand the reason our Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, and our Bill of Rights are so powerful, and all who simply wish to educate themselves as to the most probable direction of the Twenty-First century take a look at these documents - more than once.


Bush's Liberty Doctrine is to this century what the Monroe Doctrine was to the 19th. President Bush's administration has invited us all to understand what is happening, if we wish to understand. This team and president are far more intelligent and farseeing than most others in the whole world. Present events demonstrate the truth in these documents.
/

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[js1138]

... but they forget he is a MANAGER, trained in his profession to weigh and take the advice of hired experts.

Are we going to have to admit that Harvard has a good business school?

[FreedomNeocon]

Krauthammer is great. He says so much when he speaks, and his logic is flawless.

[FreedomNeocon]

Krauthammer QUOTE

---

When Ronald Reagan declared that the unfreedom imposed by communism was simply unsustainable and that it should be not appeased or accommodated, but instead forced--by the power and will of free peoples--into the ash heap of history, he was ridiculed and patronized as a simpleton. Clark Clifford famously called him an amiable dunce. The amiable dunce went on to win the cold war.

Two decades later, another patronized President. Our intellectuals and Middle East "experts" have been telling us that Bush's grand project to democratize the region is the fantasy of a historical illiterate. Faced with the stunning Iraqi election, they went to great lengths to attribute this inconvenient yet undeniable success to the courage of the Iraqi people.

This is all very nice. But this courage was rather dormant before the American invasion. It was America's overthrow of Saddam's republic of fear that gave to the Iraqi people space and air and the very possibility of expressing courage.

Those now waxing rhapsodic about the courage of the natives and the beauty of people power need to ask themselves the obvious question: Why now? It is easy to get sentimental about people power. But people power does not always prevail. Indeed, it rarely prevails. It was crushed in Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Tiananmen Square 1989--and Iraq 1991. Matched against tyranny at its point of maximum cruelty, people power is useless.

In the 1991 uprising, tens of thousands of Shi'ites and Kurds were killed by the raw power of Saddam's helicopters and tanks and secret police. What was different this time? No Saddam. The American army had come ashore to disarm and depose him. After the sword, it provided the shield to allow 8 million Iraqis to revel in their first exercise of democratic self-governance.

Why now? Because until now the forces of decency in the region were alone and naked, cynically ignored by an outside world content to deal with their oppressors. Then comes America, not just proclaiming democratic liberation as its overriding foreign policy principle but sacrificing blood and treasure in the service of precisely that principle.

It was not people power that set this in motion. It was American power. People power followed. Which is why the critics of the Bush doctrine take refuge in a second Bush-free explanation. They locate the reason for this astonishing Arab spring, if not in people power from below, then in rot from above. These superannuated dictatorships, we are now told, were fossilized and frail, already wobbly and ready to fall, just waiting to be undone by the slightest challenge.

Interesting. If the rot was always there, why is it that these critics never said so before? They never suggested that we challenge these wobbly despots? In fact, they bitterly denounced the Bush doctrine for presuming to destabilize the region in pursuit of some democratic chimera? They opposed the Bush doctrine precisely because they preferred stability. They warned us darkly that the alternative to the status quo was the seething Arab street--an unruly mob, anarchic, anti-American, pan-Arabist or perhaps Islamist, ignorant of all liberal traditions and ready to rise up against America should it disturb the perfect order of things by "imposing democracy."

---

[Barset]

Thanks, YaYa. b.

[Axeslinger]

Oh, you're right. We should probably just take him out back and shoot him instead! < /sarcasm>

You single issue folks just slay me.

[Monti Cello]

Nice closing line:

But it has yielded one unmistakable verdict thus far: the idea that Arabs are not fit for or inclined toward freedom--the underlying assumption of those who denounced, ridiculed and otherwise opposed the democracy project--is wrong. Embarrassingly, scandalously, blessedly wrong.

Kraut walks the liberal reader through with magnanimity and circumspection, then abruptly deals the deserved kick to the trousers as a parting shot...nice stuff!

[Aquinasfan]

You single issue folks just slay me.

40+ million slain since 1973.

[SE Mom]

An extraordinary man, Dr Krauthammer.

[Servant of the 9]

Are we going to have to admit that Harvard has a good business school?

I'm dubious about a lot of things they do today, but in the 60s and early 70s they were the best in the world.

So9

[longtermmemmory]

So called experts or intelectualls always used the "not ready" or "never will want" a democratic system of government.

I think it is histerical that members of the democrat party always abuse the english language by using democratIC as a noun.

When Pelosi, leader of the Socialist Caucus of the house in addition to the democrat party minority leader, speaks of democratIC votes, it is with tinge of observable insincerity. Much like Hitler when he said "we only want room to grow."

MK just naided it. There must be something in the air of late because conservative commentators have been nailing it. Now if only we could get the comentators to stop this BS of DemocratIC party.