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Upping the stakes in Lebanon
A message to Syria March 2, 2005 | 7:22 PM ET
Earlier, I mentioned that Bush's pro-democracy policy seems to be working in Lebanon, as pro-democracy demonstrators -- whose approach is modelled on that of Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" -- have forced the resignation of the pro-Syrian government.
Now Bush is raising the stakes:
President Bush on Wednesday demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now.
He applauded the strong message sent to Syria when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier held a joint news conference on London on Tuesday.
"Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, 'You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish'," Bush said during an appearance at a community college in Maryland to tout his job training programs.
The world, Bush said, "is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."
The French weren't able to protect Saddam, and they aren't even trying to protect the Syrians. And Bush speaks with the authority of a man with lots of troops stationed right along the border, troops that make it unlikely the Syrians will pull a Tiananmen Square in Beirut.
Back in 2003, some people were warning that Bush was more interested in spreading democracy through the Mideast than in simply toppling Saddam. But as we Microsoft employees are fond of saying, "that's not a bug -- it's a <i>feature!</i>"
In fact, it wasn't just a feature, but the plan all along. The Bush Administration has been taking the "root causes" talk seriously, instead of using it as an excuse to do nothing. It's addressing the root causes of terrorism by uprooting the Arab tyrannies that have encouraged terrorism to flourish.
Not everybody likes that, as it threatens "stability" in the region. But a stable tyranny isn't so great. I'm happy to see them coming down. And if you want to know why this is happening, and what may come next, you could do worse than read this strategic overview by Steven Den Beste. It's a bit old, now, but it's held up pretty well.
