Changing Minds (Michael Barone On How President Bush Is Winning The Iraq War Gamble Alert)

Townhall.com ^ | 02/28/05 | Michael Barone

[goldstategop]

Nearly two years ago, I wrote that the liberation of Iraq was changing minds in the Middle East. Before March 2003, the authoritarian regimes and media elites of the Middle East focused the discontents of their people on the United States and Israel. I thought the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime was directing their minds to a different question -- how to build a decent government and a decent society.

I think I overestimated how much progress was being made at the time. But the spectacle of 8 million Iraqis braving terrorists to vote on Jan. 30 seems to have moved things up to be changing minds now at breakneck speed.

Evidence abounds. Consider what is happening in Lebanon, long under Syrian control, in response to the assassination, almost certainly by Syrian agents, of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Protesters have taken to the streets day after day, demanding Syrian withdrawal.

The Washington Post's David Ignatius, who covered Lebanon in the 1980s and has kept in touch since, has been skeptical that the Bush administration's policy would change things for the better. But reporting from Beirut last week, he wrote movingly of "the movement for political change that has suddenly coalesced in Lebanon and is slowly gathering force elsewhere in the Arab world."

Ignatius interviewed Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader long a critic of the United States. Jumblatt's words are striking: "It's is strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

As Middle East expert Daniel Pipes writes, "For the first time in three decades, Lebanon now seems within reach of regaining its independence."

Minds are changing in Europe, too. In the left-wing Guardian, Martin Kettle reassures his readers that the Iraq war was "a reckless, provocative, dangerous, lawless piece of unilateral arrogance" -- the usual stuff. "But," he concedes, "it has nevertheless brought forth a desirable outcome which would not have been achieved at all, or so quickly, by the means that the critics advocated, right though they were in most respects."

Or read Claus Christian Malzahn in Der Spiegel. "Maybe the peoples of Syria, Iraq or Jordan will get the idea in their heads to free themselves from their oppressive regimes just as the East Germans did," he writes. "Just a thought for Old Europe to chew on: Bush might be right, just like Reagan was."

And minds are changing in the United States. On "Nightline," The New York Times' Thomas Friedman and, with caveats, The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell agreed that the Iraqi election was a "tipping point" (the title of ) and declined Ted Koppel's invitation to say things could easily tip back the other way.

In the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs, Yale's John Lewis Gaddis credited George W. Bush with "the most sweeping of U.S. grand strategy since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt," criticized Bush's implementation of that strategy in measured tones and called for a "renewed strategic bipartisanship."

One Democrat so inclined is the party's most likely 2008 nominee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. She voted for the Iraq war and has not wavered in her support -- she avoided voting for the $87 billion before voting against it. She has kept clear of the Michael Moore left and its shrill denunciations of Bush and has kept her criticisms well within the bounds of normal partisan discourse.

"Where we stand right now, there can be no doubt that it is not in America's interests for the Iraqi government, the experiment in freedom and democracy, to fail," she said on "Meet the Press" on Feb. 20. "So I hope that Americans understand that and that we will have as united a front as is possible in our country at this time to keep our troops safe, make sure they have everything they need and try to support this new Iraqi government."

Moveon.org may want to keep shrieking about weapons of mass destruction, but Clinton is moving on.

George W. Bush gambled that actions can change minds. So far, he's winning.

[goldstategop]

President Bush gambled the Iraq War would change minds in the Middle East. Michael Barone now says he's winning. Witness the changes everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon to Egypt. Freedom is changing minds - for the better. And even Hillary Clinton who's ignoring the MoveOn screeching about WMD, is totally supportive of the President's course.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[Darkwolf377]

"Evidence abounds. Consider what is happening in Lebanon, long under Syrian control, in response to the assassination, almost certainly by Syrian agents, of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Protesters have taken to the streets day after day, demanding Syrian withdrawal."

The libs are on the wrong side of history because they do not trust human beings. They do not think the "little peoples" of the world they hold in contempt can be heroic and demand good lives for themselves. The libs basically hate humanity, and think only certain individuals are capable of handling freedom.

They don't understand how people like these can see the CHANCE for a better life and push for it, making their tiny voices heard because they are all asking for the same thing. The heroism of an ink-stained finger, a "Syria Out of Lebanon" poster scribbled by hand, is beyond these people who think showing up at a college protest in order to get laid is the height of heroic behavior.

[appeal2]

Freedom is a tsunami of the soul and once the waves begin, there is no force in nature that can repel the force.

[Neanderthal]

Maybe when people see that the liberals were full of $*it about the war they'll start to wonder if the liberals aren't full of $*it about everything else . . .

[Jeff Chandler]

the Iraq war was "a reckless, provocative, dangerous, lawless piece of unilateral arrogance" -- the usual stuff. "But," he concedes, "it has nevertheless brought forth a desirable outcome which would not have been achieved at all, or so quickly, by the means that the critics advocated, right though they were in most respects."

Gotta love it. LOL!

[Cutterjohnmhb]

Barone bump for a later read.....

[frankiep]

History will judge our actions and GWB's policies very favorably. Years, maybe decades, from now, when free and prosperous and peaceful nations are the rule and not the exception in the Middle East, people will look back in history and see that this was the cause of it all. Historians of tomorrow will look back at this time just as historians of today look back at our American Revolution. Historians will look back and see the great things our actions have accomplished, but little will be mentioned of the shrill and hysterical statists who opposed it all happening every step of the way. It is imperative though that we do not let anyone forget.

[nopardons]

bttt

[Southack]

"President Bush gambled the Iraq War would change minds in the Middle East. Michael Barone now says he's winning. Witness the changes everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon to Egypt. Freedom is changing minds - for the better. And even Hillary Clinton who's ignoring the MoveOn screeching about WMD, is totally supportive of the President's course."

The Coastal Elite are only now, two years later, realizing what the Heartland knew all along; that President Bush was and is right.

Now they pretend that they've all made some great new discovery. It's the "tipping point" they opine, as if using a fancy term will distract their audience from their failure to see that it all "tipped" a full 2 years ago.

Suddenly, the Coastal Elite want to be on the right side of history by finally supporting the spreading of freedom in Lebanon, Togo, Liberia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and perhaps even Iran.

No doubt they'll think that they discovered *that*, too!

[CBart95]

Bravo. Those who thought that, for even a moment, Iraq was some sort of gamble on the part of our leadership
simply don't think.