Was George Bush right?

[lordtwinkie.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about the awesome craziness happening in the Arabic world, and how its spreading far and fast. Then I realized wasn't this the very thing that ex President George Bush said would happen?

"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?"

"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."

"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."

At the time people laughed at him for being naive. The prevailing belief, this past week, was that while most of the world craved freedom, the Arabic countries were the exception. Was he correct? Obama and company have been totally caught off guard by the events that happened in Tunisia, happening in Egypt and spreading to Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, and others. They initially were backing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak but then were forced to change their tune.

For decades we've supported despotic rulers to benefit our interests. Realpolitiking, selling out our morality and principles. It was the Bush Doctrine that changed it, and a lot of people thought it was idiotic and naive, but I have to beg the question was he right? Are current events, the rising of the people demanding freedom against oppressive governments, vindication for George Bush?

I was curious and did a Google news search on Was George Bush Right? and apparently I'm not the only one who remembered Bush's push for democracy in the Middle East.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/02/egypt-proves-bush-right.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012806833.html

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/blogs/the_angle/2011/02/george_w_bushs.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2011/0201/Democracy-uprising-in-Egypt-Vindication-for-Bush-freedom-agenda

When Bush left office many said he was the worst president in history. I believed that this judgment came too quickly and to easily heaped upon him. I believed some time would have to past before we can truly judge him because we don't know what the true ramifications of his actions would be. I'm wondering if its possible for his stature to rise if these despotic countries fall and are replaced by free and open societies?

Only time will tell, but for now to me at least it looks like Bush was right about this.

Comments

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Right that Arab nations can foster democratic Institutions? Sure.

Right that it can be done well via foreign Invasion? No.

The last time we successfully did that we flattened the countries and rebuilt from the ground up. Bush and history are not on speaking terms.

[verytwistedmind.livejournal.com]

Right that it can be done well via foreign Invasion? No.

The last time we successfully did that we flattened the countries and rebuilt from the ground up.

Those two statements seem to contridict themselves. Clearly we have succeessfully invaided a country and turned it into a Democracy with a constitution through the means of invasion. Why would it not work this time?

6 years of representative Democratic government in Iraq.

How many years does Iraq need to be a Democracy before we consider that part of the campaign a success?

The benchmark is too high.

[verytwistedmind.livejournal.com]

Come on Panookah! We can't do that!

A self-described Massachusetts "political activist" was arrested Monday night and charged with sending a threatening e-mail to Florida Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, an hour after the Arizona shooting that killed six and critically injured U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The unsigned e-mail, sent to Snyder's state House of Representatives address on Jan. 8, told the legislator to "stop that ridiculous law if you value your and your familie's lives."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/man-arrested-in-threat-made-against-stuarts-rep-1226131.html?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d4961c3f587355e%2C0

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Those two statements seem to contridict themselves. Clearly we have succeessfully invaided a country and turned it into a Democracy with a constitution through the means of invasion.

Because we didn't do this to Iraq:



or this:



We didn't just defeat Germany and Japan -- we PULVERIZED them. It makes it a lot easier to impose the new shape of their society from without.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And Japan became a de facto one party state while only the western part of Germany became democratic. The eastern half (what was left of it) exchanged fascist for communist totalitarianism. And all that came from the Germans and Japanese, very much not from the USA.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I'd say 20-50 years.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some indicator like stable enough to have a government last two to three terms and then be voted out without violence in the street (and not requiring paramilitary forces for that to occur).

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Sure, that's probably also a reasonable metric.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

All the US troops need to be out for one.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually it's untrue WRT Germany. We only did that to half of it, and that half was more afraid of the USSR than it was hostile to US democracy. Fear of a superpower that curbstomped your society has the same effects as knowing one will be hung in a fortnight.