[Dean's World] Dean: Back to the Future

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dean:
Back to the Future
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1164735901.shtml


   Quoted:

     The sin of George W. Bush, to hear his critics tell it, is that he
     unleashed the forces of freedom in Arab-Islamic lands only to beget
     a terrible storm. In Iraq and in Lebanon, the furies of
     sectarianism are on the loose; and in that greater Middle East
     stretching from Pakistan to Morocco, the forces of freedom and
     reform appear chastened. Autocracy is fashionable once again, and
     that bet on freedom made in the aftermath of the American venture
     into Iraq now seems, to the skeptics, fatally compromised. For
     decades, we had lived with Arab autocracies, befriended them, taken
     their rule as the age-old dominion in lands unfit for freedom. Then
     came this Wilsonian moment proclaimed in the course of the war on
     Iraq. To the "realists," it had been naive and foolhardy to hold
     out to the Arabs the promise of freedom. We had bet on the Cedar
     Revolution in Lebanon, thrilled to these young people in Beirut's
     plazas reclaiming their country from Syrian tyranny. But that
     promise, too, has been battered, and in the shadows, the old policy
     of ceding Lebanon to the rule of Syria's informers and policemen
     now claims a measure of vindication. On the surface of things, it
     is the moment of the "realists," then: They speak with greater
     confidence. The world had lived down, as it were, to their
     expectations. And now they wish to return history to its old
     rhythm.

     But in truth there can be no return to the bosom of the old order.

   Read the rest [1]right here.

   Via [2]Glenn.

References

   1. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/061126/4fouad.htm
   2. http://instapundit.com/