More vindication for Mr. Bush

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | February 28, 2011 | Editorial

[Graybeard58]

In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush frequently spoke of the desire of all people, regardless of their corner of the world, to live in freedom. Mr. Bush became a supporter of efforts to spread freedom and democracy around the world, arguing that the more free people feel, the less likely they are to fall under the spell of terrorist ideologies.

In his second inaugural address, Mr. Bush said "the force of human freedom" is the only "force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant."

Many liberal Democrats reacted to Mr. Bush's pronouncements with ridicule, arguing that people in some parts of the world just do not want democracy, and would resent the United States for trying to impose it. These liberals cited Mr. Bush's pro-democracy views as proof of how shallow, unsophisticated, unworldly and, well, stupid, he was.

With recent events in the Middle East and Africa in mind, liberals might want to think twice about who has a flawed world view.

In December and January, protests in Tunisia led to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali leaving the country after 23 years in power. Among the protesters' grievances was the lack of political freedom and free speech. In fact, in its most recent annual report "Freedom in the World," Freedom House, a nonpartisan group that advocates for worldwide political freedom, gave Tunisia a grade of 7 — the lowest degree of freedom —on the political-rights dimension and 5 for civil liberties.

Do American liberals really believe people this repressed are happy?

Following the Tunisian example, protesters with similar complaints helped force the ouster of longtime Egyptian "President" Hosni Mubarak. Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, one of the world's truly deranged leaders, faces the most serious challenge to his 41-year reign, as Libyan dissidents have seized control of most of Libya, save for its capital of Tripoli. (Freedom House gave Gadhafi a 7 for political-rights and civil liberties.)

Say what you want about Mr. Bush, but it is becoming more and more clear he was right about the natural human desire for freedom. That means those brilliant liberal Democrats were actually wrong.

And for the record, Gadhafi gave up his weapons of mass destruction program just days after Iraq's Saddam Hussein was pulled from his spiderhole.

[samtheman]

The only honest and ultimately useful “Crusade of Ideas” is to spread the truth about Islam.

That can’t be done in the ME, of course. Not practical. Can’t even be done in Europe or Canada. At least not now.

But it can, and should be done here. Has to start somewhere.

[SunkenCiv]

The Demwit partisan shills on CNN were smearing and spinning tonight — was Bush too easy on Gaddafi?

Thanks Graybeard58.