Free Republic

Here is Bill Kristol’s comment on the speech the President gave last night justifying his aggression in the name of humanitarian values against Libya (yah I know Moammar is a bad guy) but not say Iran or Syria, or for that matter the terrorist enclaves of Gaza and the West Bank which are not even sovereign states: “The president was unapologetic, freedom-agenda-embracing and didn’t shrink from defending the use of force [which is undoubtedly why he deferred to the kleptocracies of the UN, surrendered command over American troops to a Canadian general and basically washed his hands of responsibility for...

With the recent departure of long-term dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, former President George W. Bush's so-called Freedom Agenda has been winning grudging praise, even inadvertently by President Obama. However, that agenda of spreading American-style democracy (think Iraq and Afghanistan) may be missing a bigger opportunity to truly transform the Arab Middle East from backwater to advanced beachhead. Remember that nations like Algeria were more prosperous than South Korea 50 years ago. Even energy poor nations like Egypt and Tunisia have a core of educated workers and savvy elites who should be on par with a Brazil. For countries like...

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney looked ahead Tuesday to a three-nation, six-day trip designed to nurture democracy and advance U.S. interests in lands where political change doesn't always come easily. Administration officials said a speech in Lithuania on Thursday to leaders of the Baltic and Black Sea regions would be the centerpiece of the journey, which also includes an unusual high-level visit to Kazakhstan. The final stop was Croatia, where Cheney arranged meetings with leaders of three members of the Adriatic Charter, an organization founded by countries eager for admission to NATO. While officials hoped Cheney's trip would advance...

Extraordinary advances of democracy have occurred in recent months: elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and Palestine; local elections in Saudi Arabia; Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; the opening of the presidential election in Egypt; and upheavals against entrenched authoritarians in Kyrgyzstan. Rarely have conditions seemed so fluid and the environment so malleable. This welcome trend was partly triggered by President Bush's Middle East policy and accelerated by his second inaugural address, which elevated the progress of freedom in the world to the defining objective of American foreign policy. Pundits have interpreted these events as a victory of "idealists" over "realists"...