Monday, February 28, 2005
Why Now in South West Asia and Mid-East?
For those that care to pursue the South West Asia & Mid-East issue, Ed Morrissey of the Captain's Quarters blog has a good post, complete with map, on Why Now? at : Captain's Quarters . I'll let him do my ranting for me.
After noting that we went from initial action to free elections in less than 2 years in both Afganistan and Iraq, he continues “On the heels of that surprising success, Bush specifically called Syria out as his next focus during his annual State of the Union speech….(and) demanded a complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon ... Combined with his inaugural speech ealier and the success of Iraq's election, his words have had a powerful effect on Lebanese developments….Nor have we seen the wave of democratization crest yet. “
As to the Why Now question : “The answer lies in the 150,000 troops currently stationed in Iraq and the will to act that put them there. Does anyone think that Syria would have stood still for a spontaneous demonstration against their puppet government if Saddam Hussein was still defying the UN in Baghdad? … Would the people of the region had the undeniable personal courage to stand up to their oppressors as they have in Cairo and Beirut if they had not seen the Iraqis and their purple fingers, freely voting for their own government, with their own eyes?”
And finally: “Make no mistake. This transformation didn't just happen to coincide with the terms of Bush, Blair, and Howard. Expect the mainstream media to sell that meme in the next few weeks -- how George Bush, especially, got lucky to just happen to be President when all of this happened. Don't buy it for a second. He saw how to change the world and eliminate terrorism over the long haul and more importantly had the political courage to act in that regard.”
After noting that we went from initial action to free elections in less than 2 years in both Afganistan and Iraq, he continues “On the heels of that surprising success, Bush specifically called Syria out as his next focus during his annual State of the Union speech….(and) demanded a complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon ... Combined with his inaugural speech ealier and the success of Iraq's election, his words have had a powerful effect on Lebanese developments….Nor have we seen the wave of democratization crest yet. “
As to the Why Now question : “The answer lies in the 150,000 troops currently stationed in Iraq and the will to act that put them there. Does anyone think that Syria would have stood still for a spontaneous demonstration against their puppet government if Saddam Hussein was still defying the UN in Baghdad? … Would the people of the region had the undeniable personal courage to stand up to their oppressors as they have in Cairo and Beirut if they had not seen the Iraqis and their purple fingers, freely voting for their own government, with their own eyes?”
And finally: “Make no mistake. This transformation didn't just happen to coincide with the terms of Bush, Blair, and Howard. Expect the mainstream media to sell that meme in the next few weeks -- how George Bush, especially, got lucky to just happen to be President when all of this happened. Don't buy it for a second. He saw how to change the world and eliminate terrorism over the long haul and more importantly had the political courage to act in that regard.”
