In that clash Iran will lead the Muslim world against the "Crusader-Zionist camp" led by America. Mr. Bush might have led the U.S. into "a brief moment of triumph." But the U.S. is a "sunset" (ofuli) power while Iran is a sunrise (tolu'ee) one and, once Mr. Bush is gone, a future president would admit defeat and order a retreat as all of Mr. Bush's predecessors have done since Jimmy Carter.
The President of Syria, for example,
had pondered the option of "doing a Gadhafi" by toning down his regime's anti-American posture. Since last February, however, he has revived Syria's militant rhetoric and dismissed those who advocated a rapprochement with Washington. Iran has rewarded him with a set of cut-price oil, soft loans and grants totaling $1.2 billion. In response Syria has increased its support for terrorists going to fight in Iraq and revived its network of agents in Lebanon, in a bid to frustrate that country's democratic ambitions.
And on and on with examples:
There are more signs that the initial excitement created by Mr. Bush's democratization project may be on the wane. Saudi Arabia has put its national dialogue program on hold and has decided to focus on economic rather than political reform. In Bahrain, too, the political reform machine has been put into rear-gear, while in Qatar all talk of a new democratic constitution to set up a constitutional monarchy has subsided. In Jordan the security services are making a spectacular comeback, putting an end to a brief moment of hopes for reform. As for Egypt, Hosni Mubarak has decided to indefinitely postpone local elections, a clear sign that the Bush-inspired scenario is in trouble. Tunisia and Morocco, too, have joined the game by stopping much-advertised reform projects while Islamist radicals are regrouping and testing the waters at all levels.
So, pick your future: The Bush Doctrine works, because we stick to it. Or: we blow our only shot at a just and lasting peace in the Middle East because of the likes of David Gregory. Once again I say: love what you're doing with your journalistic freedom, guys.
For some reason this brings to mind the famous motivational speech in Patton, in which the General tells his men that when their grandchildren ask, "What did you do in the great World War II?"
You won't have to say, "Well, I shovelled sh-- in Louisiana.
How would you like to have this be your legacy: More than 100 million people could have been set free from the slavery of the world's most brutal and corrupt regimes, and my own children could have lived without the threat of Islamofascist terror. And this could have been achieved relatively peacefully via the domino effect, as it evidently was had I but opened my eyes to see it. But I stayed in my hotel room in the Green Zone issuing ignorant dispatches that made the project seem hopeless, giving hope to the tyrants and terrorists and keeping everyone enslaved. Speaking of shovelling it. . . .
UPDATE: Piling it higher and deeper is Michael Ware of Time, who doesn't even have the excuse of being stuck in a hotel room, he's been an embed. He just gave the most incredible interview to Hugh Hewitt, embodying everything that is wrong with Iraq reporting. Go here for a link to the entire transcript, plus links to everyone writing about the brouhaha stirred up by his remarks.
