Beyond Idealism

From TPM Muckraker, an exerpt of a transcript of an answer by President Bush regarding the situation in the Middle East.

Q: Mr. President, both of you, I'd like to ask you about the big picture that you're discussing.
Mr. President, three years ago, you argued that an invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace. And yet today there is an Iraqi prime minister who has been sharply critical of Israel.
Arab governments, despite your arguments, who first criticized Hezbollah, have now changed their tune. Now they're sharply critical of Israel.
And despite from both of you warnings to Syria and Iran to back off support from Hezbollah, effectively, Mr. President, your words are being ignored.
So what has happened to America's clout in this region that you've committed yourself to transform?

Bush: David [Gregory], it's an interesting period because, instead of having foreign policies based upon trying to create a sense of stability, we have a foreign policy that addresses the root causes of violence and instability.
For a while, American foreign policy was just, Let's hope everything is calm - kind of, managed calm. But beneath the surface brewed a lot of resentment and anger that was manifested on September the 11th.
And so we have, we've taken a foreign policy that says: On the one hand, we will protect ourselves from further attack in the short run by being aggressive in chasing down the killers and bringing them to justice.
And make no mistake: They're still out there, and they would like to harm our respective peoples because of what we stand for.
In the long term, to defeat this ideology - and they're bound by an ideology - you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom.
And, look, I fully understand some people don't believe it's possible for freedom and democracy to overcome this ideology of hatred. I understand that. I just happen to believe it is possible.
And I believe it will happen.
And so what you're seeing is, you know, a clash of governing styles.
For example, you know, the notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision. It just frightens them.

This is the same talking point that Sec. of State Rice was using when describing the conflict in Lebanon and "birth pangs of a new [presumably democratic] Middle East."

This is ridiculous. We will never be able to formulate an effective policy for the Middle East, nor to deal with terrorism, until our government gives up this "they hate us because of our freedom" canard. One could sustain the argument that 'freedom' is a part- small part- of the issue as many in the Muslim world are concerned about Western values (or lack thereof) which do grow from freedom of commerce and speech. That said, there are much larger issues- some real, some preceived.

Plain and simple, Hezbollah did not attack Israel because they are afraid of Iraqi democracy.

Time to get real.

GP