Posted on 02/12/2011 5:54:04 PM PST by Wpin
Bush adviser says Obama should have listened to the former president
For decades, the Arab states have seemed exceptions to the laws of politics and human nature. While liberty expanded in many parts of the globe, these nations were left behind, their "freedom deficit" signaling the political underdevelopment that accompanied many other economic and social maladies. In November 2003, President George W. Bush asked these questions:
"Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are they alone never to know freedom and never even to have a choice in the matter?"
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Setting Bush up for the blame.
I too have my fears, but if Democracy breaks out throughout the Middle-east, President Bush deserves the credit.
Growing unrest in the Sinai has led the Israelis to urge their citizens to return home.
The media also seems to have forgotten the tens of thousands of prison inmates that were released.
Setting up Bush to fail when Egypt goes Iran on us.
We’ve seen this movie before. A long time ruler is deposed. The initial outlook is optimistic. Then, they have their voices expressed in an election. The outcome is rarely what you think it will be. Worse yet, the fair and free election happens once. I would be more inclined to be optimistic if it weren’t for the data shown in the Zogby poll of Egyptian views on the role of sharia law and islam in their government.
“I would be more inclined to be optimistic if it weren’t for the data shown in the Zogby poll of Egyptian views on the role of sharia law and islam in their government.”
How does one go about getting a valid public opinion poll about politics in a dictatorship? I have serious doubts about the validity of polls taken anywhere in the Middle East...
I don't believe it can happen. Democracy is too alien a concept to that culture. And very few westerners have any understanding of their culture.
I'll be happy to be proven incorrect. But I won't be.
“Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe - because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty,” Bush said. “As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.”
This spirit did not always animate U.S. diplomacy in the Bush administration; plenty of officials found it unrealistic and had to be prodded or overruled to follow the president’s lead. But the revolt in Tunisia, the gigantic wave of demonstrations in Egypt and the more recent marches in Yemen all make clear that Bush had it right -””
Extremely simplistic analysis. Just because you have revolts says nothing about a people’s ability to govern themselves in a western style democracy. There is a reason Islam has never seen anything approaching western style liberal democracy and that’s because the two are incompatible. In Turkey it worked for decades because the Ataturk military kept the Islamists out of power, but that bulwark in now failing with Erdogan.
With over 80% of Egyptians believing those that apostacize from Islam should be killed it’s difficult to see how this revolt is going to end any way but badly.
There was no reason for the people being polled to hold back on their views...It is basically an Islamic dominated country so these views would not be in contradiction to the Mubarak administration.
Actually, the Egyptians are very Proud of their Sharia viewpoint! the demonstrators were myabe 200,000 or 250,000 people..most of whom were college students, middle class, many have been outside of the country..they are NOT representative of all Egypt, hardly.
I’m afraid that as long as the great majority of the people in any country are Muslim, there will never be freedom. Islam simply doesn’t allow it, either as a concept or as a reality.
I don’t think most people understand how much we owe to Christianity for freedom in the West, and in this country.
I supported Bush at that time, when he gave that speech, but I’m afraid that the prospects are doubtful in any country where Islam is dominant.
“There was no reason for the people being polled to hold back on their views...It is basically an Islamic dominated country so these views would not be in contradiction to the Mubarak administration.”
Not while Mubarak is in power eh? That is the point, they were safe as long as they gave answers that would be in agreement with the dictator...how valid can that be? It cannot be a valid poll, simply impossible using normal methods for polling. Just the fact that the individuals being polled could not know for certain that they were actually being polled or investigated would taint the poll.
You're messing up the narrative. Knock it off.
:)
“I’m afraid that as long as the great majority of the people in any country are Muslim, there will never be freedom. Islam simply doesn’t allow it, either as a concept or as a reality.
I don’t think most people understand how much we owe to Christianity for freedom in the West, and in this country.
I supported Bush at that time, when he gave that speech, but I’m afraid that the prospects are doubtful in any country where Islam is dominant.”
I am sorry you lost your faith in the power of freedom and indeed God’s gift to man...think about it, wait and watch what goes on in the Middle East and keep your prayers for these people to achieve their stated goals of liberty and representative form of government.
The only revolution that turned out for the better was the American Revolution. But we weren’t infested with Muslims. I have serious doubts about a Democratic middle east.
Funny, isn't it, how all along the neo's basically agreed with Al Qaida - that all the middle eastern dictators were the problem....or rather, the ones who side with the U.S.
Because of Eliot Abrams and his buddies, the Islamic Republic of Iraq will soon ethnically cleanse the last Christians out of their country, and the competition for who's the Shariaest of the them all will begin in earnest. And now the same is starting for Egypt!
I'm sure Netanyahu is just thrilled: 80 million mad jihadists on his southern border, no longer restrained.
Fears? No, realism. Bush's push for "freedom" in a region of the world that has no concept of it (in the Western sense) was as naive as Obama's rush to kick Mubarak in the @ss on the way out the door.
Bush’s middle east policy is bi-polar at best and plain stupid. In fact, Bush’s presidency over-all was very lib-tarded and we are defending the likes of Bush (such as McCain, et al) to this day. I hope never to have another Bush mid-east policy in place (although superior to Obama’s).
The American revolution was a result of divine providence. Men with such radically diverse ideals and political views could have never held together without the hand of God directing the show. And they did it all while defeating the most powerful military machine the world had known to that point.
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