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

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

Who is the "we" you are talking about?

[whoasksfinds.livejournal.com]

well, bush for starters, since he was the topic of the post.

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

Great. So on this reading, if we look at the role of democracy in the ideological basis for, say, the Iraq war, what we will find is an expectation to empower a Shia state. Or if we want to bring it back to the other topic of the OP, when Americans celebrate the promise of a democratic revolution in Egypt, what they are thinking of is the empowering of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We will not find, returning to Iraq, a history of American support of the Baathists enacted on the basis that while they are not an American model of government, they exactly stand in the way of such an albeit democratic--after a fashion--outcome, since such an outcome would be undesirable for American interests and values. Returning to Egypt, we will also not find a comparable history of American support for Mubarak.

Of course all of this is exactly backwards.

[whoasksfinds.livejournal.com]

what we will find is an expectation to empower a Shia state

what we'll find is an expectation to empower the iraqi people.

what they are thinking of is the empowering of the Muslim Brotherhood

no, they are thinking of empowering the egyptian people.

We will not find, returning to Iraq, a history of American support of the Baathists

of course we will. that is the kind of policy bush was referring to when he spoke of the past and it not making us safe. which is why he was suggesting a break from that policy.