Freedom. March.
Yes, yes, head male cheerleader, David Brooks, and others are crowing triumphant at events in the middle east. Was Bush -- shudder -- right in the moves he's made in the region? Meanwhile, from all appearances, lefty bloggers want to change the subject -- "Look, Social Security!" -- or take the Kissingerian stance that these events will lead to civil wars and anarchy or Islamic fundamentalist regimes.
Maybe they will, but I have to agree with Marshall Whitman that Progressives should be more vocal in supporting fledgling democracy movements, whether they've come about through George W. Bush's good offices or not.
That is not to say that we should relinquish our opposition to the truncheon that poses for policy in the Bush administration. We can be encouraged by voting in Iraq without giving up our duty to point out that the Bush administration and their enablers in the Pentagon screwed up the planning for the post-war occupation of Iraq in ways that may haunt us -- and the entire region -- for decades to come. That as long as we occupy the country, and the more that occupation appears to be a brutal one, Iraq will serve as recruitment headquarters for Muslim terrorist movements. Or that the Bush administration brought us into this war based on, at best, false assumptions, or at worst, outright lies, that have undermined our credibility amongst our allies and emboldened our potential enemies.
Moreover, we can continue to question Bush's seriousness and intention to see through the events his supporters now take such gleeful credit for. Bush's second-term obsession with selling privatization is not a good sign that he will not suffer ADD regarding the middle east. And his choice of UN Ambassador is not a good sign for those who realize that increased turmoil in the middle east will require more support from the UN -- not less -- and multilaterist negotion is required to keep factionalism in the region from spiraling into a renewal of Lebanese-style civil war.
And damnit, we can hold on to our sense of irony as it serves as a secret code indecipherable by our opponents.
But Progressives should not fall into the trap the Right is trying to set in making us look anti-democracy. We should get on the freedom train even if George W. Bush is the engineer. Being contemptuous or silent will not win us any points and as much as anything will weaken one of the core values that make us Progressives in the first place -- the insistence on the right to self-determination.
Besides, freedom's looking pretty hot these days.
Maybe they will, but I have to agree with Marshall Whitman that Progressives should be more vocal in supporting fledgling democracy movements, whether they've come about through George W. Bush's good offices or not.
That is not to say that we should relinquish our opposition to the truncheon that poses for policy in the Bush administration. We can be encouraged by voting in Iraq without giving up our duty to point out that the Bush administration and their enablers in the Pentagon screwed up the planning for the post-war occupation of Iraq in ways that may haunt us -- and the entire region -- for decades to come. That as long as we occupy the country, and the more that occupation appears to be a brutal one, Iraq will serve as recruitment headquarters for Muslim terrorist movements. Or that the Bush administration brought us into this war based on, at best, false assumptions, or at worst, outright lies, that have undermined our credibility amongst our allies and emboldened our potential enemies.
Moreover, we can continue to question Bush's seriousness and intention to see through the events his supporters now take such gleeful credit for. Bush's second-term obsession with selling privatization is not a good sign that he will not suffer ADD regarding the middle east. And his choice of UN Ambassador is not a good sign for those who realize that increased turmoil in the middle east will require more support from the UN -- not less -- and multilaterist negotion is required to keep factionalism in the region from spiraling into a renewal of Lebanese-style civil war.
And damnit, we can hold on to our sense of irony as it serves as a secret code indecipherable by our opponents.
But Progressives should not fall into the trap the Right is trying to set in making us look anti-democracy. We should get on the freedom train even if George W. Bush is the engineer. Being contemptuous or silent will not win us any points and as much as anything will weaken one of the core values that make us Progressives in the first place -- the insistence on the right to self-determination.
Besides, freedom's looking pretty hot these days.
posted by John at 9:32 AM
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