Free Republic

In retrospect, it was an appearance by President George W. Bush before the National Endowment for Democracy, in November 2003, that signaled the birth of a new "diplomacy of freedom" in the Arab world. The American military effort in Iraq was in its early stages then; the euphoria of the military campaign had ended, and a war of attrition had begun. Saddam Hussein was still on the loose, and there was no trace of those vaunted weapons of mass destruction that had taken us to war. At that uncertain hour, Bush proposed nothing less than a break with the ways...

A close read of President Bush's November addresses at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington and at the Whitehall Palace in London leads a traditionalist almost to despair. George Bush did not write this democratist drivel. This is the kind of messianic rhetoric he probably never heard before he became president. Who is putting these words in his mouth? For if George Bush truly intends to lead a "global democratic revolution," and convert not only Iraq but the whole Middle East to democracy, he has ceased to be a conservative and we are headed for endless conflicts, disappointments, disillusionment...

Anyone who has listened to President Bush's recent speeches about the need to promote democracy in the Arab-Muslim world can't but walk away both impressed and dubious — impressed because promoting democracy in the Arab world is something no president before has advocated with Mr. Bush's vigor, and dubious because this sort of nation-building is precisely what Mr. Bush spurned throughout his campaign. Where did Mr. Bush's passion for making the Arab world safe for democracy come from? Though the president mentioned this theme before the war, it was not something he stressed with the public, Congress or the U.N....

The Vision Thing: U.S. War Aims in Iraq Rael Jean Isaac President Bush has identified our aim in Iraq as more than regime change: the U.S. seeks to transform Iraq into a liberal democracy respecting freedom of religion and individual rights that will in turn serve as an example to a region where despotisms are the norm. In a recent speech at the Heritage Foundation, the president went further, indicating that he had the entire region more directly in his sights. "Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accomodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to...

US President George W. Bush’s speech at the National Endowment for Democracy on Nov. 6 was a brilliant and inspiring speech. I was in the audience and found myself nodding in agreement and moved by almost every sentence. The speech could become a major historical development for the Middle East and for relations between the United States and the Muslim world. Finally, US policymakers are convinced that supporting dictators and oppressive regimes is not the way for peace and stability. Even if friendly dictators serve some short-term interests; in the long run, they create desperation and anger that result in...

U.S. President George W. Bush's November 6, 2003 address, [1] in which he called for democratization of the Arab world, elicited a negative response in the Arab press. In Egypt, which along with Iran and Syria was mentioned specifically by Bush, the speech enraged both the government press and the opposition press. While excerpts from the address appeared in various Egyptian papers, the liberal Al-Qahira weekly, published by the Ministry of Culture, was the only one to print the speech in its entirety. [2] The following is a review of Arab reactions to the address: Egypt Government Daily: Saddam's...

Special Dispatch Series - No. 615 November 25, 2003 No.615 Reactions in the Arab Press to President Bush's Address on Democracy in the Middle East U.S. President George W. Bush's November 6, 2003 address, [1] in which he called for democratization of the Arab world, elicited a negative response in the Arab press. In Egypt, which along with Iran and Syria was mentioned specifically by Bush, the speech enraged both the government press and the opposition press. While excerpts from the address appeared in various Egyptian papers, the liberal Al-Qahira weekly, published by the Ministry of Culture, was the...

Politics in the Arab world has long been consumed by two fears. First, the fear of the status quo, maintained by regimes that lack vision yet dominate endlessly. Second, the fear of the alternative: a puritanical opposition and its potential for revolutionary or even nihilistic takeover. Between these two poles, the Arab world has had no middle ground. Choose the present authoritarian governments with all their shortcomings, bad economic policies and limited measures of social and personal freedom. Or choose upheaval and the extremists whose theocracy would be draped in strict codes of behavior governing such things as dress, social...

SALT LAKE CITY – It's a pity that 99 percent of the protesters against President Bush during his British visit this week will not have read his democracy speech of a couple of weeks ago to the National Endowment for Democracy. (I'm fairly confident about that percentage, because not even 99 percent of his own compatriots have read it). It offered remarkable insight into Mr. Bush's thinking about freedom for the world's still unfree, and contained significant clues about the new direction he will take in advancing freedom for them during his presidential tenure. You can protest against the manner...

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe." This sentence, spoken last week by George W. Bush, is about the most jaw-dropping repudiation of an established bipartisan policy ever made by a US president. Not only does it break with a policy the US government has pursued since first becoming a major player in the Middle East, but the speech is audacious in ambition, grounded in history, and programmatically specific. It's the sort of challenge to existing ways one expects to hear from a columnist, essayist,...

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe." This sentence, spoken last week by George W. Bush, is about the most jaw-dropping repudiation of an established bipartisan policy ever made by a US president. Not only does it break with a policy the US government has pursued since first becoming a major player in the Middle East, but the speech is audacious in ambition, grounded in history, and programmatically specific. It's the sort of challenge to existing ways one expects to hear from a columnist, essayist,...

<p>President Bush delivered a speech last week to the National Endowment for Democracy. Quoting Ronald Reagan's 1982 address at Westminster Palace in which Mr. Reagan spoke of a turning point in history, Mr. Bush noted Mr. Reagan had argued that Soviet communism had failed "precisely because it did not respect its own people — their creativity, their genius and their rights."</p>

The Age of Liberty By WILLIAM SAFIRE EW ORLEANS With a strong sense of history, George W. Bush last week made the case for "a forward strategy" of idealism in American foreign policy. He dared to place his Big Idea — what has become the central theme and purpose of his presidency — in the direct line of aspirations expressed by three of the past century's most far-seeing and controversial U.S. presidents. He evoked Woodrow Wilson trying to make the world safe for democracy in 1918; then F.D.R. in 1941 giving hope of freedom to peoples enslaved by Nazism; finally,...

The Age of Liberty By WILLIAM SAFIRE November 10, 2003 With a strong sense of history, George W. Bush last week made the case for "a forward strategy" of idealism in American foreign policy. He dared to place his Big Idea — what has become the central theme and purpose of his presidency — in the direct line of aspirations expressed by three of the past century's most far-seeing and controversial U.S. presidents. He evoked Woodrow Wilson trying to make the world safe for democracy in 1918; then F.D.R. in 1941 giving hope of freedom to peoples enslaved by Nazism;...

NEW ORLEANS — With a strong sense of history, George W. Bush last week made the case for "a forward strategy" of idealism in American foreign policy. He dared to place his Big Idea — what has become the central theme and purpose of his presidency — in the direct line of aspirations expressed by three of the past century's most far-seeing and controversial U.S. presidents. He evoked Woodrow Wilson trying to make the world safe for democracy in 1918; then F.D.R. in 1941 giving hope of freedom to peoples enslaved by Naziism; finally, Ronald Reagan telling a skeptical Britain's...

President Bush's re-election hopes got a boost Friday when the Labor Department announced that the U.S. economy gained new jobs for the third consecutive month. But the good economic news was tempered by the loss of another U.S. military helicopter in Iraq and a new poll suggesting growing doubts among the American public about the president's handling of Iraq. Political analysts say the Bush White House should be encouraged by some recent government numbers pointing to surging economic growth and a drop in the unemployment rate. The president's political strategists long ago committed themselves to making sure George W. Bush...

A recent visitor to the Oval Office was struck by how tired President Bush looked in person--the puffy eyes, the pallid complexion. It's a striking contrast to Bush's jaunty, youthful (and cosmetically enhanced) appearance on television. The visitor, a family friend, asked the president how he was doing. "It looks," Bush replied grimly, "like a tough fall." That, it turns out, was quite an understatement. Autumn has brought a season of discontent, spurred by rising casualties, a growing guerrilla war, and spiraling financial costs in Iraq, resulting in an erosion of support for Bush across the board. Only 48 percent...

<p>November 7, 2003 -- '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."</p>

President Bush’s speech about the need for democracy in the Middle East was met with a mixture of rare praise and skepticism here Thursday. While commentators condemned the U.S. leader for again, in their view, ignoring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, some hailed his remarks as “historic.” In fact, analysts and commentators who are usually outraged over the U.S. administration’s policy in the region found themselves in agreement on many points. THE PRESIDENT made a plea for democratic reforms in the Middle East the cornerstone of a speech dealing with democratic values across the globe. And he acknowledged shortcomings in...

<p>In what is likely to be remembered as a central foreign policy address of his presidency, President Bush yesterday delivered a powerful message emphasizing the importance of democratic reform throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds. In a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, the president noted that the stakes are particularly high in Iraq, where failure "would embolden terrorists throughout the world." But success in Iraq, he said, "will send forth the news, from Damascus to Tehran — that freedom can be the future of every nation." Mr. Bush — rightly, we believe — likened the allied efforts to democratize Iraq today to the efforts by President Truman to defend Greece from communism in 1947 and later to mobilize the Berlin Airlift.</p>