G
gilliam
Guest
Hat-tip to Classical Values for this column by the anti-Bush Dick Polman from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
It may be too early for a victory lap. But President Bush, who has spent most of his tenure under fire for his bold foreign policy, is now winning praise for the nascent outburst of democratic sentiment in the Middle East.
It’s not often that Bush-bashing TV host Jon Stewart will quip, as he did the other night, “My kid’s going to go to a high school named after him.” Or that Democrat-friendly columnist Joe Klein will contend in Time magazine that Bush’s critics were “embarrassingly, scandalously, blessedly wrong.” Or that, in London, the left-leaning Independent newspaper will run a banner headline that asks, “Was Bush right after all?”
After spending two years waging a difficult, polarizing war, at a cost thus far of $300 billion and 1,500 American deaths, Bush is now seeing some daylight, thanks to a confluence of historic events: the Iraq elections, the Palestinian election of a leader who wants to end the armed struggle against Israel, municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, the announcement of a multiparty presidential election in Egypt, the unprecedented challenge to a pro-Syrian autocratic regime in Lebanon.
In America, the potential domestic impact is clear. If these rumblings ultimately bring peace to the region (and reduce the threat of terrorism), voters are likely to reward the Republican Party and reinforce their long-standing preference for the GOP over the Democrats on national security issues.
It may be too early for a victory lap. But President Bush, who has spent most of his tenure under fire for his bold foreign policy, is now winning praise for the nascent outburst of democratic sentiment in the Middle East.
It’s not often that Bush-bashing TV host Jon Stewart will quip, as he did the other night, “My kid’s going to go to a high school named after him.” Or that Democrat-friendly columnist Joe Klein will contend in Time magazine that Bush’s critics were “embarrassingly, scandalously, blessedly wrong.” Or that, in London, the left-leaning Independent newspaper will run a banner headline that asks, “Was Bush right after all?”
After spending two years waging a difficult, polarizing war, at a cost thus far of $300 billion and 1,500 American deaths, Bush is now seeing some daylight, thanks to a confluence of historic events: the Iraq elections, the Palestinian election of a leader who wants to end the armed struggle against Israel, municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, the announcement of a multiparty presidential election in Egypt, the unprecedented challenge to a pro-Syrian autocratic regime in Lebanon.
In America, the potential domestic impact is clear. If these rumblings ultimately bring peace to the region (and reduce the threat of terrorism), voters are likely to reward the Republican Party and reinforce their long-standing preference for the GOP over the Democrats on national security issues.