Is The Happy Talk A Little Premature?

by Steve

Bush, the GOP, and the rightwing blogosphere brag about how prescient and smart Bush is in spreading democracy throughout the Islamic world. Otherwise smart people like Fareed Zakaria are already slobbering over Bush’s “successes” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, with the Palestinians, and apparently Syria. To be fair to Zakaria, he wrote his love letter to Bush in Newsweek yesterday before Hezbollah made him look premature today.

Before the celebration gets too far out of hand, someone should point out that the benefits of democracy in Afghanistan were supposed to be felt by more than those in Kabul. I’m sure the warlords, drug dealers, and the resurging Taliban love democracy Bush-style as well.

As for Iraq, the bravery of the Iraqi people is not to be dismissed, but still it may be a little premature to tell the Iraqis they should be appreciative of what George W. Bush has brought them.

As for Egypt and Saudi Arabia, do Bush and the cabal really think that toppling Saddam has led to improvements in those countries?

Regarding the Palestinians, unless Bush is claiming credit for the death of Yassir Arafat, he has done nothing in four years to push along the cause of peace for the Palestinians.

And lastly, before we take any credit for a sudden swing towards democracy in Lebanon and pretend to tell Syria that they must get out, perhaps we should talk with the 40% of the country that is Shiite that wants the Syrians to stay. 500,000 of them showed up today in a show of support for Syria, which dwarfs the anti-Syria protests of late.

I'm sure that we're witnessing another example of GOP spinning here of a bit of good news into "Bush as Wilson". But it may be a little premature, a great deal presumptuous, and overtaken by events on the ground.