George Bush Talks Big, And He Delievers

[NATO AIR]

Max Boot celebrating the most important moment of Pres. Bush's presidency thus far (not counting 9/11)

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-boot3feb03,1,7704654.column

MAX BOOT
George Bush Talks Big, and He Delivers
Max Boot

February 3, 2005

No, the insurgency isn't over. No, U.S. troops can't come home yet. No, one election does not a democracy make. No, paradise has not dawned in Mesopotamia. Every caveat offered by the cautious is true. Yet even days later, all I can say is … wow!

For those of us who supported President Bush's decision to liberate Iraq — and who, unlike some fair-weather friends, never wavered in our conviction that it was the right thing to do — there hasn't been a lot of good news to celebrate since the capture of Saddam Hussein. And that was more than a year ago.

So you will forgive me if I savor Monday's headlines: "Iraqi Turnout Trumps Violence"; "Security Effort Holds Insurgents Mostly at Bay"; "President Hails Election as a Success and a Signal." Even more eloquent were the ubiquitous pictures of Iraqis giving terrorists the finger — literally — as they exhibited ink-stained index fingers showing they had voted.

I am not a weeper, but as I watched television coverage of the voting I found myself on the verge of tears. Tears of relief and jubilation and astonishment. The spectacle of millions of Iraqis braving bombs and bullets to cast ballots was awe-inspiring and humbling. It made me feel slightly ashamed about my own attitude toward voting. I, like many other citizens of well- established democracies, tend to view it as a chore, like taking out the garbage. Iraqis do not have the luxury of taking democracy for granted. They were dying to vote — and some in fact died in the act. But others stepped up into the voting booth anyway.

It was almost enough to make a hardened cynic think that indeed "the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul." Those words are from President Bush's much-mocked inaugural address, which struck even some of the president's supporters as too preachy and too utopian. Yet Bush doesn't simply talk big. He delivers, notwithstanding the nonstop naysaying of most of the nation's allies and our own foreign policy establishment.

Who, four years ago, would have dreamed that Afghans and Iraqis by the millions would take part in free and fair elections? That it has happened is primarily because of the men and women of those countries who have made clear their desire to cast off despotism, and because of the men and women of the coalition armed forces who have paid a heavy price to defeat terrorists and tyrants. But it's also a tribute to Bush, who has never wavered from his belief that the forces of civilization will prevail.

The president's critics have counseled him to scale back his ambitious goals, to postpone elections, to make a deal with the enemies of freedom. They have sneered at his "mindless determination" and claimed that he had embroiled the United States in a "quagmire" and a "catastrophic failure" — as Ted Kennedy did just three days before the Iraq election. They have wondered why he didn't give a speech calling his foreign policy one big miscalculation. Above all, they have scoffed at his unshakeable conviction that Afghans and Arabs could live as freely as Iowans or Italians.

His vision, admittedly, is a long way from being fully realized, but it has taken a giant step closer to reality with the successful elections in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To a lesser degree, the recent Palestinian Authority election also redounds to his credit. In 2002, Bush broke with foreign policy orthodoxy by announcing he would not negotiate with the Palestinians until they had taken firm steps toward democracy. All the experts predicted disaster. What we got instead was a pledge from the Israeli prime minister to pull out of the Gaza Strip and a pledge from the new Palestinian president to crack down on terrorism.

Much can still go wrong in the broader Middle East. Indeed, much has gone wrong already. There is no doubt that Bush has made plenty of mistakes.

The mistake he has not made, however, is the most important of all: He has not lost his nerve.

History shows that a mighty nation can recover from wartime miscalculations. It can bounce back from defeats at Bull Run or Bataan, Chancellorsville or the Choisin Reservoir, as long as it possesses a leader who never acknowledges that he is beaten.

In George W. Bush we have such a man. His stubbornness and certitude can annoy even his friends, but they are precisely the qualities needed in a wartime leader. They are the qualities that have made possible the edifying spectacle of Iraqis rising up to rule themselves.