And Carolyn Parrish Called George Bush a Moron

Democracy goes global with Bush Robin Shepherd

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, March 7 (UPI) -- We could well be living through the second great wave of democratization in living memory. And this time it may be going global.

Last week's display of "people power" in Lebanon, which brought down the country's pro-Syrian government, comes just weeks after mass street protests in Ukraine brought pro-democracy campaigners to power against seemingly overwhelming odds. That revolution, in its turn, self-consciously modeled itself on previous peaceful revolutions in Georgia, Serbia and Slovakia.

Globalized images through 24-hour-a-day television news channels like CNN and BBC World are transmitting democratic best practice across the world. Those images are being accompanied by the relentless rhetoric of a U.S. president who has made the spread of democracy the centerpiece of his second term agenda. Triumphalism on the Right is back. But can the administration really take credit for what is now going on? And is freedom really on the march, as the White House says it is? [. . . . ]

Search: Walid Jumblatt, unlikely convert, Hosni Mubarak, key events, Ronald Reagan




Precisely

The Road to Peace James Taranto, Wall Street Opinion Journal, Mar. 8, 05

In an op-ed for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, author Frida Ghitis makes an excellent point:

Pay close attention to what is taking place just below the major headlines in the Middle East, because something extraordinary has just happened--or, more precisely, not happened.

For possibly the first time since 1948, since the creation of the state of Israel, an Arab government's principal--indispensable--method for manipulating and controlling its people has stopped working. [. . . . ]

A lesson for our government? Even seemingly pliant citizens can't be lied to forever. Eventually, they turn.




Pater Mansbridge: Maybe Bush was right -- Even U.S. critics agree that the Iraq invasion may have sparked democracy Macleans, Mar. 11, 05

There I was, standing near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, or West Berlin as it was then called. It was November 1989 [. . . . ]

The next week I was in Moscow, and while there was a whiff of official despair in the air with other East Bloc countries also facing freedom marches, no one seriously suggested that the Russia we'd all grown up with, the heart of Communist power, was about to crater into oblivion. Sometimes when you're in the middle of change, it's difficult to judge just how extensive the movement is and what the impact will be.

Which brings us to the Middle East today . . . . [. . . . ]