Get your ice skates out, folks, Hell has just frozen over, starting with NPR: In Egypt, More Proof That George W. Bush Was Right
Two weeks of massive street protests have given Egyptians their voice and today Hosni Mubarak has heard them. If the events that led to Mubarak’s resignation after 30 years as president came as a surprise to many longtime observers of the Middle East, there’s one former US policymaker who has some reason to boast that he saw it coming.
President George W. Bush’s Freedom Agenda was based on the notion that around the world all men share the desire for liberty. It was our founding fathers who put forth the idea that this was not merely a human aspiration but a natural right, and it was the many generations of our forefathers who fought for that right, both at home and abroad. The Arabs had not been born with that privilege.
In the wake of Sept. 11, Bush believed that freedom was not only best for the Arabs, but also a vital national interest that would keep Americans, U.S. allies and interests around the world safe from terrorism. The Freedom Agenda became the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s Middle East policy.
OK, OK, the writer, Lee Smith, is Senior Editor at The Weekly Standard, but, who would have believed that NPR and their far left agenda would allow such an article. But then we get to the NY Times, and Peter Baker is no Conservative: The Return of Pushing Democracy
The cheers of Tahrir Square were heard around the world. But if you listened carefully, you might have heard cheering from another quarter 7,000 miles from Cairo as well, in Dallas.
The revolution in Egypt has reopened a long-simmering debate about the “freedom agenda†that animated George W. Bush’s presidency. Was he right after all, as his supporters have argued? Are they claiming credit he does not deserve? And has President Obama picked up the mantle of democracy and made it his own?
Peter attempts to sidestep the issue regarding Bush’s push for democracy and freedom around the world, particularly in the Middle East, yet, the more he performs a soft shoe, the more he shows that Bush was right, and Obama had been wrong, vis a vis Obama’s “smart power” and “nuanced view” (Peter fails to mention that that view included diminishing America as an exceptional country, kowtowing to foreign dictators, and bowing to foreign leaders, among others.) He also calls Obama’s response to the Iranian uprising “muted.” That’s like referring to an aircraft carrier as a dingy.
Of course, Bush wasn’t the only president who pushed freedom and democracy. The article points out that most presidents before him did the same. Not mentioned is that Jimmy Carter was a failure at it, and Clinton was rather tepid. You know, something links those two to Obama, can’t figure out what. Help me out, OK? Anyhow, Peter points out that somehow, pushing democracy and freedom became a “polarizing concept.” In other words, the Left was against it, because Bush was for it.
Not everyone sees it that way, especially in the Obama White House, where the assertion rankles deeply. “Was Bush right?†scoffed one Obama adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Give me a break. How many democratic transformations like this took place when he was in office?â€
Interesting. In Liberal circles, intentions typically rank higher than actual actions and/or outcomes, yet, they have a problem with the concept of pushing freedom around the world. But, then, so many of them have taken the side of dictators and brutal thugs, typically aligned with socialism (and countries like the USSR, communist China, North Vietnam, and Venezuela. Remember, these are the same caring Liberals who looked the other way during the genocide in Rwanda.)
So, too, is Mr. Obama’s destination. Aides said he has been focused on the issue of democracy abroad since the beginning of his tenure. Last fall, they compiled a 17-page, single-spaced compendium of speech excerpts to show it. But he seems to have found more of a voice in the last six months.
Oh, good, he gave speeches. And did next to nothing. Perhaps now, though, Obama has had finally received his on the job training, after failing Iranian Uprising 101, and getting a D+ in Egyptian Uprising 102, and will be on the forefront as other nations see uprisings, and will follow in the footsteps of Bush and other presidents in pushing freedom and democracy.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
