Daniel Schorr reconsidered
Click the title to read Daniel Schorr taking his first tentative bite of crow after two years of treating the Bush administration like a political piñata. Here's an excerpt:
Thanks for the frankness, Mr. Schorr. Perhaps the Left will save itself after all, if another hundred million people or so admit that Bush, Rumsfield, Rove, and Wolfowitz are not so misguided or evil after all. Democracy does bring positive change, even (or perhaps especially) when imposed by force. Afghanistan is free and functioning, Libya has come in out of the cold, the mullahs in Iran are finding that even its old lapdogs won't come when called, Pakistan's peddling of nuclear technology has been exposed and ended, voters in Egypt are looking forward to the novelty of a ballot offering a choice of candidates, and now Syria's long-ignored invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation (and UN member state) is finally coming to an end. (Incidentally, how much howling would there be if Bush were to announce he plans to keep US forces and the CIA in Iraq and influencing elections until 2030? Chirac and the rest of the cynical European gun merchants don't seem to care so much about occupation when the occupiers are making deals with them.)
Thank you, Mr. Schorr, for having the nerve to reconsider your take on the situation when so many others on the Left clench their eyes shut at each positive development in the Middle East. And thank you, also, for finally admitting that the Bush administration did offer another (more sensible) rationale for the invasion than weapons of mass destruction. As with the elimination of the Hussein regime in Iraq, better late than never.
The movements for democratic change in Egypt and Lebanon have happened since the successful Iraqi election on Jan. 30. And one can speculate on whether Iraq has served as a beacon for democratic change in the Middle East.
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush said that "a liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region."
He may have had it right.
Thanks for the frankness, Mr. Schorr. Perhaps the Left will save itself after all, if another hundred million people or so admit that Bush, Rumsfield, Rove, and Wolfowitz are not so misguided or evil after all. Democracy does bring positive change, even (or perhaps especially) when imposed by force. Afghanistan is free and functioning, Libya has come in out of the cold, the mullahs in Iran are finding that even its old lapdogs won't come when called, Pakistan's peddling of nuclear technology has been exposed and ended, voters in Egypt are looking forward to the novelty of a ballot offering a choice of candidates, and now Syria's long-ignored invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation (and UN member state) is finally coming to an end. (Incidentally, how much howling would there be if Bush were to announce he plans to keep US forces and the CIA in Iraq and influencing elections until 2030? Chirac and the rest of the cynical European gun merchants don't seem to care so much about occupation when the occupiers are making deals with them.)
Thank you, Mr. Schorr, for having the nerve to reconsider your take on the situation when so many others on the Left clench their eyes shut at each positive development in the Middle East. And thank you, also, for finally admitting that the Bush administration did offer another (more sensible) rationale for the invasion than weapons of mass destruction. As with the elimination of the Hussein regime in Iraq, better late than never.
posted by tompain at 9:18 PM
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