Bush and Democracy Around the World

Recently, many people have been trying to give credit to President Bush for the events that have been taking place around the world. One of the people that probably surprised many people was Jon Stewart. I do not see why he jumped on the band wagon. Taking a look at what has happened proves that Bush is not responsible for this. In Lebanon a popular leader was assassinated. In Palestine, Arafat die and someone else took power. In Saudi Arabia, the elections were local and did very little if anything to change the balance of power. In Egypt the only difference with the elections now than before is that there will be an opposition party allowed to participate. There were elections before.

. . . the voters repudiated US occupation. They had an opportunity to endorse it by voting for a slate headed by Bush's water boy, Iyad Allawi, but gave it only 14% of the vote. Instead, they chose a slate headed by Islamic fundies that calls for the US to set a timetable for withdrawal and repeal Bremer's decrees.

I wouldn't call the Iraqi elections a victory for democracy. The kind of Islamic republic that will result from a transitional government dominated by the United Iraqi Alliance is not, in my opinion, one based on democratic principles. Of course, a colonial puppet doesn't represent democratic principles, either. There was no strong democratic choice on the table for the Iraqi people.

Rather, this was an endorsement of nationalism. The Iraqi voters would like to have Iraq's destiny determined by Iraqis for the benefit of the Iraqi people, not by neoconservatives in Washington for the benefit of wealthy Americans.

He launched an illegal invasion that cost the lives of 1500+ of our soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. And let's not forget the close to 30,000 maimed and wounded soldiers who NEVER get mentioned. The invasion was sold to the American public as being necessary because Iraq supposedly represented an imminent threat. In reality, Iraq was a toothless paper tiger. Once that fact started to creep into the public consciousness, the war suddenly turned into an altruistic quest to spread peace, love and democracy the world over. Bullshit. But the media has played the fool and now even our beloved John Stewart and Bill Maher have jumped on the bandwagon to praise Chimpy for something he has nothing to do with. It makes me sick.

was that different Arab states tried to start democracies and people like Rumsfield tried to undo them.