42 Comments

1. FriarsTale:

Same as always; they’ll accentuate the negative and ignore the positive.

Or it’ll just be spoken of as a fait accompli, with no credit given to the 2 Bush II terms.

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:39 am 2. Knucklehead:

Now, now, surely you understand that all of this, and more, would have happened anyway only more quickly and with less bloodshed and chaos, if the US would just put aside its imperialistic arrogance.

Kofi, Jacque, and George Soros (with a little help from their friends Putin and Arafat on his deathbed) are the real heroes here. They set all this in motion despite the hegemonic machinations of the Great Satan.

BTW, is it time to open a pool on when we’ll see some form of “velvet revolution” hit the streets of Iran? Is such a thing even possible there?

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:41 am 3. Knucklehead:

And what about US hypocracy re: Hong Kong and Singapore?!?! What about our support for the non-deomcratic government in Taiwan… oh, wait, never mind.

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:44 am 4. Knucklehead:

Putting my silly sarcasm aside, is there a live feed of this anywhere? Is it really possible that this demonstration has grown from the 10,000 reported just a few hours ago to the estimated 200,000 I just saw somewhere – and allegeldly still growing. That many people could march the Syrians right out of the country. Hope there’s a US aircraft carrier nearby ready to fly in potable water to these people. Go Lebanon!

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:51 am 5. PDS:

How will they react?

Half will move the goalposts and most of the rest will dig deeper into the cocoon. A few souls will admit the obvious and will be feted as “brave souls” for the heroic achievment of admitting they were wrong in the first place.

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:52 am 6. Aitch748:

I agree with FriarsTale — the MSM will spin this in the same way they spun the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union: “It was going to happen anyway.” Of course they also said Gorbachev had more to do with it than Reagan, but there is no real equivalent to Gorbachev this time around.

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:53 am 7. Syl:

Some in the MSM are handling this just fine.

Ignatius (sp?) from the Washington Post was just on Fox. Though he said there are no guarantees, he also said he is very optimistic right now. He was the one who interviewed Jumblatt (sp?..I need my own editor, sigh) and he said that when Jumblatt spoke of the positive changes in the Arab world because of Bush invading Iraq his jaw dropped.

I feel dizzy. Things are happening so fast. And, as Ignatius pointed out, the pictures of the Cedar Revolution are being broadcast all over the Arab world by al Jazeera and it will have a big impact. Wowzers.

The freedom virus is out of the bag. Er, mixed cliche, but you know what I mean. That’s important because now when a leader (like Abbas or Mubarek or Putin even) make a promise in public they’d better as hell deliver. It’s not the same world anymore. They will be held more accountable now.

Do you think the world finally listened to Ledeen? Seems things are happening even faster than expected.

As I mentioned somewhere else, ‘Bush lied, people died’ is soooooo two years ago.

Feb 28, 2005 - 10:09 am 8. Mike_Nargizian:

Knucklehead,

Where did you hear 200,000?

Something like this is momentum oriented?

Its up to the media to increse the momentum.

Where is Fox, CNN and Networks when you need them?

Is anyone getting live feeds or any special reports?

The White House should make a special news conference to report it, would be a nice touch.

Either Condi or just McCllelan. Just a light touch noting the protestors and warning Syria against any violence and hope that the will of the Lebanese people will be heard with noone dying in the spirit of Ghandi… (Like that eh?)

Also would be great pr for us.

Mike

Feb 28, 2005 - 10:17 am 9. TedM:

I am watching the Live shots of Beirut on CNN and FOX.. Notice the difference in the appearance of the crowd from what we are usually used to from other Arab “demonstrations. No foaming at the mouth, no gunshots, no anti American signs. No turbaned mullahs. Signs in Arabic and English. The English ones saying things like United We Stand Divided We Fall.

The rumble you hear is the fall of “stability” in the Middle East. The euros were right, Bush would cause instability. And, like an avalanche, that instabilitly is rolling across the region.

Who would have thought?

Feb 28, 2005 - 10:20 am 10. Sandy P:

–An additional thought: special attention is probably being paid to satellite imagery of the Bekaa Valley. WMDs on the move?—

Wouldn’t that just be the cherry on top.

What is it going to take to send the left overboard?

Feb 28, 2005 - 10:20 am 11. Knucklehead:

Mike_N,

Across the Bay is reporting that number now. I saw it somewhere else just before my post but I’ll be darned if I can click back and forward buttons to find it again (no way I’m wading into MY history list!). That’s maybe the only complaint I have with Firefox tabs – I can’t figure out where the heck I’ve been lately

Feb 28, 2005 - 10:29 am 12. Hermie:

The MSM have been caught with their collective pants down, by not keeping tabs on the situation in Lebanon.

Now they struggle to figure out why it is happening.

Hmmm…the liberation by the U.S. of a people that suffered under a brutal dictator; the admonishment of other dictators by the U.S.; and the lack of nuance when stating that freedom is the key to peace.

Maybe they are still chuckling at Rock’s Gap versus Banana Republic ‘joke’.

Feb 28, 2005 - 10:42 am 13. TedM:

Did you see the press briefing? Fox ran some of it and then cut away. I don’t think CNN got to it.

And, to her eternal disgrace, Helen Thomas changed the subject to “torture”. With the Lebanese situation the reason for the press briefing, she cannot stomach what might be construed as “good news”. And there you find the MSM tactic. Always focus on the negative. Never give an inch. Cover the good news because you have to and then add the big BUT. Dowd does this all the time.

But, like the Dutch boy and the cracks in the dike, the changes are happening too frequently for them to stop the tidal wave of positive developments.

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:00 am 14. Ron Wrght:

WMD in Bekaa Valley you must be kidding? What WMD?

Everyone knows WMDs in Iraq were a figment of this Adm’s imagination and used to support an illegal rogue war by the Neocons. This was clearly a run for control of oil and to get Haliburton lucrative wartime contracts.

Anyone who reads the MSM would know this already!

Funny though someone reading posts in the Blogos would see things diferently. Of course this is all in the grand scheme of Karl Rove.

Yeah Right!

See this collection of posts:

raq, Libya, and N. Korea almost built Islamic Nuke

Link Here

Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

Link Here

Maybe for once the MSM can get their collective heads out of where the sun doesn’t shine and get their reporters out of the posh hotels onto the street where they can objectively cover the story.

They’re still whining over the story of, “Where’s the beef! [No WMD found in Iraq]” President Bush LIED to us. Of course Saddam, the Russians, and other black market dealers wanted to get their goods and wares out of Iraq.

The MSM is just so biased and stupid, they can’t see the forest for the trees!

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:05 am 15. mrp:

Helen Thomas? Queen Bee of the White House pressroom? MSM darling? Tortuous subject changing?

Gosh, it’s not like Helen Thomas has an agenda or something.

Her parents were immigrants from what is now Lebanon.

From the linked article, an excerpt from Ms. Thomas’ award acceptance speech:

“I donÔøΩt believe these [Abu Ghraib torture photos] are manifestations of America. But then there is a question before our country: Can anyone justify unprovoked preemptive war? Hardly, considering the innocent livesaken in such a calculated misadventure. And the irony is that all those who dreamed up the ÔøΩwalk in the parkÔøΩor cakewalk into Iraq evaded the Vietnam draft. They had other priorities. But the good news is I believe we have learned the lesson that people will defend their own land…, breathes a man with soul so dead, who never to himself has said, this is my own, my own native land. Any transformation of the Middle East has to be homegrown.

“There is no question, that itÔøΩs all over in Iraq, and weÔøΩre looking for the exit signs.

“When I call the Pentagon the officers will give me the American fatality and wounded figures. When I ask for the Iraqi toll, I am told ÔøΩwe donÔøΩt track them. They donÔøΩt count.ÔøΩ These are the people we are liberating. The grateful dead. ManÔøΩs inhumanity to man. We are shocked that we stoop so low as to humiliate, but not when we wantonly kill the innocent. Cry the beloved country and ask why we are there and why we continue to kill and be killed. The only way for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing. Now I think I should lighten up and tell you no one should go into journalism if they want to be loved.

From: Arab-American Affairs magazine, VOL 32 Issue No. 212, August-September 2004

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:23 am 16. Morgan:

Syria is at the center of the whirlwind right now. Plug “Syria” into google news:

Anti-Syria Protests in Lebanon (of course)

Syria blamed for Tel Aviv bombing

Syria hands land back to Jordan

Jack Straw accuses Syria of harboring Palestinian terrorists

Syria hands over Saddam’s half-brother and others

Syria cited for human rights abuses (along with Egypt and Sudan)

Secret peace talks between Israel and Syria in Jordan

US Officials urge Syria to cooperate in the war on terror and in Iraq

Quite a list, and that’s just from pages one and two.

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:25 am 17. kynna:

I hope this is as positive as it seems. Some over at LGF fear that the resignation is a Syrian trick to destabilize Lebanon enough that Assad’s boys will have to stay.

Like I said, I hope and pray that’s not true. In fact, I feel certain that GWB is smarter than Assad and he’s already ahead of that game.

I guess this is the “Arab Street” we’ve been hearing about. Somehow it doesn’t look quite the way the MSM described.

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:28 am 18. Ron Wrght:

Gee I thought I was outspoken about the MSM rooting for the enemy.

See this post in Frontpage today by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch (www.jihadwatch.org):

.Needed more than ever after 9/11 is solid, probing, intelligent, honest reporting about Muslims and Islam. But not only has this not materialized; if anything, reporting has gotten worse. From the New York Times to the smallest local papers, with remarkably few exceptions, the mainstream media continues to publish misleading, incomplete, distorted material that leaves Americans ignorant of the true nature and dimensions of the terrorist threat. If the stakes werenÔøΩt so high, this would be just another instance of the media bias that has been exhaustively documented for decades; but in light of the continuing activity of the global jihadist movement, it becomes something much more urgent.

[...]

Read More Here

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:33 am 19. Rick Ballard:

I have not seen, as yet, any ability on the part of the MSM to change the narrative template. Last week they reported that the President was in Europe to “mend fences” when, in all likelihood he was giving personal and direct assurances that he intended to continue on his course without reference to any of them. Chirac, Schroder and Putin have had ample time to reflect on the dossiers documenting just how firmly jammed into Saddam’s pocket they were. I wonder how much practice they put into learning how to say Yessirhowhigh smoothly.

I believe that time will show that last week’s trip was the reason Powell wanted to stick around. In some respects I wish that he had been given the opportunity present the President’s ‘requests’ to the phonies who cost the Iraqis and the US so much blood.

Don’t worry about the MSM catching on. They don’t have the tools to get there. Not even retrospectively.

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:42 am 20. Joseph (formerly Samuel):

To All

It was going to happen anyway.” Of course they also said Gorbachev had more to do with it than Reagan, but there is no real equivalent to Gorbachev this time around.

Well that is like predicting snow while it is already snowing outside isn’t it? (As I look outside and see snow falling to the ground.

I has been a while since I have been as long winded as I am about to be so bear with me…

–

Now as I have said before I never voted for Reagan but honest hindsight 20/20 requires me to say I was wrong, he was right. But the further silliness of people saying “it was going to happen anyway” is that this is like saying “They would have eventually died of cancer anyway”, all while overlooking how any diagnosis, proper or improper, on the part of those with means to effect the outcome would/could have influenced the outcome, especially if rendered before the critical onset of the disease.

Now I will say the in the 1980’s I not only remember the Democratic rants against Reagan, I took active part in those rants, but I also vividly remember a personal conversation here in McLean Virginia I had with one Edward Kennedy. He expressed to me strong belief that we should give aid to help keep an ailing Soviet Union viable. He then, in his own words with supposed cleverness and quite full of himself, drew comparison between the Soviet Union and a “wounded bear” and how much more dangerous a “wounded bear” is, all while he denounced the reckless and dangerous Ronald Reagan and how he was making enemies of our allies and our current enemies more dangerous. If I need to explain to anyone the bankruptcy of such thinking forget it. Now I hear rhetoric about how we are creating terrorists and angering allies and as declared by Led Zeppelin, “The Song Remains the Same”. Same type rhetoric, different analogies and lyrics yet they speak to the same ends. Yes “The Song Remains the Same”.

Now for me today I understand and forgive myself, though I still struggle with some things and I’m sure Roger and others do too, but we don’t have time for too much of that do we? Further we aren’t perfect and we all have much to learn. What is becoming less unforgivable to a middle age liberal Jew like myself is to hear these same songs over and over again! Do they really think if we close our eyes and chant silly things over and over they will become reality? Would Jacque Chirac really have been with us? What allies would have been? Here we have frames of references by the elite media that does not allow for much introspect and learning, in the end when they finally are forced to acknowledge things it is more by being “shamed” to such a position. Being shamed is not the best way to arrive to a position, and if shameful pride still stands as a major weakness along with an obvious lack of humility (a lacking they claim Bush suffers from)then the MSM is doomed to continued enslavement to such pride. In a sense the MSM has lost control of itself because it is too proud to fully admit what it must fully admit. They are left in their shameful pride to only half admit because they like many decide “sticking to their story” is better than losing face.

The above does have an “Ostrich Head in the Sand” outcome doesn’t it? As I have said before, they think they are protecting themeselves as they do this how does this appear to those that gaze on as we see their ass pointed in our direction towards the sky? Worse the more aggresive continue to follow blood in the water not realizing it is their own blood or the blood of Iraqis and/or other innocents. When they do they blame Bush, Rumsfeld of someone else, not accounting for what effect they might have had on the process. These arrogant bastards are in a sense trying to play G-d and as they endeavor to shape reality rather then report it which begs to question. As they endeavors to play G-d, what if in their arrogance they find themselves wittingly or unwittingly playing a counter role? What does that mean? Let me put it this way, they aren’t in neutral so does that make the implied role evil and is it even a necessary evil? NO WAY! Of course that is Bush’s fault, right?

–

There are really two ways to approach debate. One focuses on winning and is willing to skew or prejudice evidence as justifiable to meet desired ends. Opponents positions are painted in the worse light, their motives are questioned and accusations hurled. An example of this is found in the defense of O.J. Simpson in his murder trial. These means seek not the truth, in fact truth is purposefully confused and compromised. Mark Furman like straw-men are brought up as a means to change points of focus, subjects are purposefully changed until even the purpose of the debate has been compromised. THERE IS NO HONOR IN THIS TYPE OF DEBATE! These are the means that have been deployed by the MSM and Democrats, it all seems fair to them, but where is the honor in it? There is none!

The second is when one genuinely tries to understand the position of their opponent, in fact they prove not only to understand the mind of their opponent but show respect in their positions. These types of arguments are easy to recognize because they always lead to clarification of the differences. This type of argument is based upon winning on he merits and not emotional grandstanding and obfuscation. The MSM has served what purpose? They have sought to scare, confuse and take away peoples confidence. They do it in the WOT, Social Security, No Child Left Behind. They are like trouble making mischievous children up to no good, they don’t trust others because they know they can’t be trusted and they assume this horrible trait to be in Bush and others. They truly knock off 10 points from Bush’s approvals by such efforts, and they give comfort to his enemies and no doubt please Old Europe, but they also harden his (Bush’s) support here at home. I have never felt in my heart a desire to more fiercely defend a President as I have this one and I am not alone.

When we argue or debate with others it is important we characterize our opposition’s perspectives accurately and fairly. The MSM and Democrats have not accorded Bush such honor and as such proven they have no honor.

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:43 am 21. Joseph (formerly Samuel):

Excuse my above post. I did no spell checking and have a very bad keyboard on my laptop. Oh well, hopefully you will translate the errors.

:0)

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:48 am 22. Fausta:

WMDs on the move?

Nah, it’s a shipment of tanktops for Beirut’s Banana Republic branch.

Feb 28, 2005 - 11:56 am 23. Cynic:

Well the Lebanese govt., resigned and according to Israel’s channel 10 the massive turnout in opposition to the ban on the protest proved to be the last straw.

Feb 28, 2005 - 12:00 pm 24. Ron Wrght:

Freedom is on the March!

I’m sorry for being repititious. I can’t stop this song from playing in my head!

We may be witnessing a “tipping point” in the GWOT.

Cue the Queen Music:

We Will, We Will Rock You . . .!

We Will, We Will Rock You . . .!

Only louder and faster now if you please.

All together now, stomp your feet to the beat of the drums.

The women hating Mad Mullahs of Iran will implode shortly.

LET’S RUMBLE!

Read More

Feb 28, 2005 - 12:14 pm 25. Terrye:

Joseph aka Samuel:

I know what you are saying.

We need a free press and two viable parties with clearly defined philosphies.

What we have are a bunch of propagandists with bogus documents and dubious sources ignoring a reality they find inconvenient and a political opposition that specializes in demagoguery and intolerance.

I had a conversation with an old Democrat the other day who told me in all seriousness that the Social Security reform was part of a long thought and deliberate plan to destroy SS. I ask her why would any politician desirous of political success want to do such a thing?

Needless to say it was a question she had not bothered asking herself. The brainwashing has been profound.

But reality has a way of asserting itself and someday the Dems will have to come face to face with it.

Feb 28, 2005 - 1:28 pm 26. Keith_Indy:

“The MSM have been caught with their collective pants down, by not keeping tabs on the situation in Lebanon.”

****

I have to wonder if the CIA predicted this at all, or were they as clueless as most people about todays happening??

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:03 pm 27. Knucklehead:

Well, while we wait for more news from Lebanon and some idea how the esteemed MSM will cover it, I found This MSM story quite amusing – you might also.

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:17 pm 28. thibaud:

Remember the Four Stages of MSM Denial as applied to stories that disrupt or fail to fit the prevailing MSM memes:

1) Ignore the story

2) Report story but cast doubt on the facts

3) Admit facts but deny their significance (aka move the goalposts)

4) Change the subject

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:57 pm 29. octo59:

My God, it’s like the Berlin Wall is falling all over again! So much irony to handle all at once, too, as the liberal MSM bellyaches on against the very Administration that is bringing democracy out of hiding in the Mideast(and supporting the construction of the “Wall Of Peace” in Israel).

The mad mullahs are worried in Iran, you better believe.

Feb 28, 2005 - 4:03 pm 30. Keith_Indy:

The real tipping point in the Middle East is going to be Iran. What happens there in the next 6-8 months is going to be what determines the near future of the region. And it could go either way, deeper into authorianism, or closer to democracy.

Even with all this hopefull news, it wouldn’t take much to go back a few steps in any area of the Middle East. A few to many suicide bombers in Israel. Syria stamping down on the current protests. Or a pretext made so Syria would stay in Lebanon “for the sake of the Lebanese people.”

May you live in interesting times, indeed…

If the Middle East becomes more stable, in less time, and with difinitive results then ever before, President Bush deserves the lions share of credit. For pushing, and pushing, that cause along. Of course, we can only get them crawling on the way to democracy. It is up to the people in these countries to stand up and take control of the political process.

Yeah, you can have your smarmy, educated, high-class, smart talking, quick talking “man of the people.”

I’ll take my honest, forethright, “cowboy” in times like this.

Feb 28, 2005 - 4:42 pm 31. Kevin P:

Roger:

I think that the news from Lebanon is fantastic but if Syria does what I think they will do I fear they will make their way back to control the very way they got there in the first place. They will pull their troops out and then use Hizzbolah and the thousands of ex-pat syrians to suicide bomb Lebanon back into chaos. I am not saying the Lebanese should stop what they are doing because that is still the only solution. I just fear this will get very messy before it gets better.

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:07 pm 32. octo59:

Guess I’m not the only one who feels like the “Berlin Wall” is cracking, again…I’m in very excellent company, with Mr. Steyn. Just saw this new piece:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;sessionid=LUFMIH5Z1FHEPQFIQMGCM5OAVCBQUJVC?xml=/opinion/2005/03/01/do0102.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/03/01/ixopinion.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=20282

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:09 pm 33. Charlie (Colorado):

Knuck, this is sort of a side issue, but I think you’re mistaken to put Singapore into the “non-deemocratic” category. There’s no question that they’ve got a pwoerful machine working the levers of government, but Singapore is one of the most economically free countries in the world, more than the USA, it has free elections in which anti-government parties can run and win seats, and the people are pretty open about complaints abou the government.

Even really strenuous government critics only get economically ruined; in Chicago or other “machine” cities in the US, not so long ago, you got your legs broken. With luck.

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:14 pm 34. Morgan:

Keith_Indy

Even with all this hopefull news, it wouldn’t take much to go back a few steps in any area of the Middle East. A few too many suicide bombers in Israel. Syria stamping down on the current protests. Or a pretext made so Syria would stay in Lebanon “for the sake of the Lebanese people.”

Through luck or good planning, the US is in a position to make all of these things much less likely.

“A few too many suicide bombers in Israel”: Syria is under all kinds of pressure – Syria supports the Palestinian terrorists, Israel is blaming Syria for suicide bombers, and the US is on the border, blaming Syria for contributing to the terrorists in Iraq. The net – Syria is likely to put a lot of pressure on its Pali terrorist friends to cool it.

“Syria stamping down on the current protests”: Unlikely, because Bush has publicly committed the US to furthering democratic reform, and the US military is on Syria’s doorstep. And, again, the US has made plenty of “make my day” comments regarding Syria. Is Assad going to take drastic action against the protesters? Only if Assad thinks Bush is bluffing. So, is Assad going to take drastic action against the protesters? I think not.

“a pretext made so Syria would stay in Lebanon ‘for the sake of the Lebanese people.’”: The people who need to buy this line won’t buy. The Lebanese are not going to stay quiet, expecting aid, and no one is inclined to take the Syrian’s word over anyone else’s.

All the US needs to do is make it clear at the first sign of any such actions that it will not be tolerated – move troops in the general direction of the Syrian border, for example, and Assad will cave. He’ll cave if he knows what’s good for him, anyway.

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:51 pm 35. Knucklehead:

Charlie,

That was a bit tongue-in-cheek. We’ve had the “the US (aka Bush) is a hypocrite for not going 100% all our for against every regime anyone doesn’t like” meme going on here at Roger’s Place from a few commenters recently. IIRC Hong Kong and Singapore were on some folks “if you aren’t trying to fix this then you’re just a scumbag hypocrite” lists.

The art of the possible, the art of the possible. As Kieth_Indy said above…

If the Middle East becomes more stable, in less time, and with difinitive results then ever before, President Bush deserves the lions share of credit. For pushing, and pushing, that cause along.

Indeed! And the naysaying MSM and leftist moroonic moonbats will deserve all the scorn we can heap upon them for throwing no end of bricks on the load.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:00 pm 36. richard mcenroe:

Knucklehead ó Be patient, a few more weeks and we’ll be back to the Angry Woman of the Left (like there’s any other kind) who demanded to know why we weren’t using the US military to end female circumcision in Africa.

Because, you know, nothing contributes more to world peace than sending the Marines into a foreign country to yank up the women’s skirts…

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:08 pm 37. Knucklehead:

Richard,

Watch for the “the seminal inspiration for Hitler’s mad ideas was the American slaughter of the Indians” meme.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:24 pm 38. Terrye:

knucklehead:

As if Hitler or any other European needed Americans to give them lessons in killing people.

I understand that the word bezerk is derived from a the Vikings.

Besides most of the natives of the hemisphere were either dead or enslaved or assimilated by the time there was a United States. Europeans forget who we are. All the white people who crossed the ocean and pillaged and plundered the hemisphere for centuries became Americans the second they set foot on the continent as far as they are concerned.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:47 pm 39. Glenmore:

Freedom is kind of like reproduction. Once conceived it tends to grow to a natural conclusion.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:50 pm 40. TmjUtah:

Joeseph (formerly Samuel) -

I can be very long winded; everyone knows it, too. I’ll try to keep the lid on.

My support for the Reagan strategy was political and personal. I was a part of the military for most of the eighties. During the years since I have participated in many a debate and sometimes outright argument on issues.

My political support for Reagan, and conservative leaning governance in general, is not about winning. I just figured that out after reading your post. Free people – citizens – should always remember that it’s not about getting your way.

It’s finding the best solution.

Your post crystalized the feeling that I have been trying to tie down all day long. I want a nation that works best for the greatest number of people. I believe that our founding principles and documents are not perfect but are the best tools available, bar none, of all the different flavors, styles, and colors tried by people thus far. It has turned out that this leader of ours has committed to making a WORLD that works best for the greatest number… and may just turn out to be right.

I think the Lebanese might just understand why we are bleeding for Iraq, and for Afghanistan.

They get it. Two hundred thousand (nominal – I’ve only got two blogs that may have same- sourced the number) Arabs – Shiite, Sunni, Druse, Orthodox Christian, even some Palestinians – are standing downtown and demanding to be heard. No bombs, no guns, no burning American flags.

Not in anger. Not enough anger to drown out the hope, at any rate.

They GET it. Elections in the spring in Lebanon. Spring is now. I looked at the faces of the (I assume) Lebanese troops that were mixed in among the edges of the crowd. THEY get it.

I bet the Syrians do, too.

Our best and brightest (the self appointed contingent) DON’T. They have the world at their fingertips even quicker than any of us here do but they refuse to see what doesn’t fit in their version of that world. It is about winning for them. That’s just (expletive)ing sad, too. We are an amazingly wealthy, blessed, fortunate, and robust democracy. Enough so that even our most powerful political fads or hacks cannot (has not – knock on wood) derail the true power that makes us all work as well as we have and continue to do.

It’s not about ME being right. Nor winning any prize. Not even close. It’s about finding a way in the real world of real people to make things work. I could give a rat’s rear end about winning. Please just let freedom work for these folks. Even if they have judged “not ready” by the Elaine’s crowd.

Keith_Indy -

“The real tipping point in the Middle East is going to be Iran. What happens there in the next 6-8 months is going to be what determines the near future of the region. And it could go either way, deeper into authorianism, or closer to democracy.”

If this is in fact 1989 redux, I don’t think that Iran has six or eight months. Read the MEMRI translations of journals from the mideast, especially the Emirates and Gulf States.

I feel like I did the night I watched Germans tearing apart the Berlin Wall with screwdrivers and carpenters’ hammers. Or when that man in Peking stood in front of the tank column on its way to Tiananmen Square.

And I haven’t won a thing. There is no triumph here in Utah. Just a lot more unforseen hope than I am able to process right at the moment.

What a beautiful day this has been.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:53 pm 41. rastajenk:

I guess we’ll need to reinstate a draft if we’re going to invade Syria, then Iran, then whatever else is on the list to get democracy by gunpoint, as they say.

Or, well, er….maybe not. Nevermind, Mr. Rangel, et al. Wrong again.

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:23 pm 42. richard mcenroe:

Knucklehead ó But I thought we learned that from the British, French and Spaniards?

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:39 pm

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