Hopping around the blogs, I see that the usual suspects just can't seem to swoon enough over Bush's recent speech on the subject of Middle Eastern democracy. Gregg "big fat rich powerful Jews" Easterbrook and Andrew Sullivanus Laughibalis both have disgustingly sycophantic paeans to Bush's beautiful vision up on their blogs.
Well, let me tell you something. I live here in Britain, and I read the European press. Everybody, EVERYBODY, is laughing in Bush's face right now. Sure, suddenly the US is going to embrace democracy in Saudi Arabia, just like they've prevented Israel from perpetrating gross acts of terror. Oh, and this speech is supposed to give heart to pro-democracy dissidents in the region? Uh huh. That's why all the pro-democracy dissidents work in European and American universities. Because they have been persecuted for the last fifty years, and they have been persecuted with the tacit consent of the USA.
All of this would be well and good, of course, if there were any possibility at all of reversing decades of American policy. But there's nothing behind Bush's speech. Nothing. Iraq, far from the first stop on the road to universal love and happiness, is teetering on the edge of collapse. We are hardly in a position to bring democracy to the other countries in the region. No, those totalitarian despots are kicking back in their oil-funded villas, awaiting the day when American policy in Iraq self-destructs for good and we resume the status quo of supporting dictatorship.
George W. Bush has zero credibility in Europe or the Middle East. I would laugh at the ridiculousness of the speech he just gave if it weren't so sad that we, the mightiest country in the history of the world and the first and foremost democracy, are so impotent in the face of that which threatens us most. If we want Middle Eastern democracy, we're going to have to do a heck of a lot better than hire excellent speechwriters.