Daily my stomach churns as the Dems cast the Iraqi situation as failure and lies for political purposes, providing our enemies hope that we can be chased from Iraq, that killing Americans will enable a Dem to win the White House and a "cut & run" scenario will quickly follow.
Apart from the sheer evil of obtaining power by sacrificing tens of thousands of cooperating Iraqs to the Ba'athist killing fields, we must not botch an opportunity to reconstruct Iraq into a secular Arabic economic powerhouse that will sweep radical Islam from power throughout the Arabic world.
During our internal political scandals and power stuggles in the 70's, we lost the opportunity in Iran, we must not repeat that legacy. A sea change is beginning in the Middle East, one that hinges on our mission in Iraq.
This article by Charles Leveinson, of the Chronicle Foreign Service, illustrates why we must stay the course in Iraq.
Arab governments adopt reforms
Leaders more agreeable to political shifts
Cairo, Egypt -- In the six months since Arab governments warily watched the fall of Baghdad, Arab leaders have opened the door to unprecedented political reforms.
Though still a far cry from the sweeping democratic transformation activists seek, reforms in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Qatar and other Mideast nations, taken together, mark an extraordinary change for Arab governments, observers say.
The report was particularly critical of high illiteracy rates among women and media restrictions, saying journalists "face the illegal harassment, intimidation and even physical threats."
Nevertheless, change is in the air. Among the most significant reforms to emerge in the past six months is Saudi Arabia's announcement in May of its plan to appoint a national human rights commission. Last week, the conservative Persian Gulf monarchy said it would hold local elections for the first time. In Qatar, voters approved a new constitution in April that established the country's first elected parliament.
"Kassem, of the Egyptian human rights organization, believes the future of the reform in the Middle East hinges largely on U.S. success or failure in Iraq."Once it looks like things are under control in Iraq and the project is going to succeed, you're going to see a much faster pace of reform,'' Kassem suggested. "If there's a failure and a pullout from Iraq, the regimes are going to cross their arms and start cracking down on the reformists.''
I fear that the Ba'athist may have it right. That they read the media focus on failure correctly, that our media desparately wants Bush to fail, partially to vindicate their opposition to the war and to revisit 2000. Should Americans be distracted by our internal idealogical wars and allow reform in the Middle East to slip away, we may lose an opportunity much like that presented to us when we opposed the Soviets at Berlin.
Posted by feste at October 21, 2003 05:10 PM | TrackBackIf opponents to what we are attempting over there had their way a better life, through societal, and political advances, would never happen.
According to them we shouldn't interfere. We should let them live in the oppresion, squaler, and ignorance of their pre-20th century societies.
These lands, and cultures, once were the envy of the world, providing the impedus for so much that later evolved and was improved elswhere.
Somehow, over the centuries, they destroyed themselves, and in some cases the west piled on to help, or provide the stimulus.
With help the people of these lands can someday enter the modern age completely, and once again make major, useful contributions to the world.
Posted by: Kiril at October 22, 2003 09:13 AM