For Bush, No Boasts, but a Taste of Vindication

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/international/middleeast/09assess.html?th

March 9, 2005
NEWS ANALYSIS
For Bush, No Boasts, but a Taste of Vindication
By TODD S. PURDUM

WASHINGTON, March 8 - He has gone out of his way not to crow, or even to take direct credit. But not quite two years after he began the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and not quite two months after a second Inaugural Address in which he spoke of "ending tyranny," President Bush seems entitled to claim as he did on Tuesday that a "thaw has begun" in the broader Middle East.

At the very least, Mr. Bush is feeling the glow of the recent flurry of impulses toward democracy in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and even Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where events have put him on a bit of a roll and some of his sharpest critics on the defensive. It now seems just possible that Mr. Bush and aides like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz were not wrong to argue that the "status quo of despotism cannot be ignored or appeased, kept in a box or cut off," as the president put it in a speech at the National Defense University here.

The failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq, his administration's shifting rationales for the war, the lingering insurgency and steady American casualties there were a drag on Mr. Bush's political fortunes for most of last year. But a wave of developments since the better-than-expected Iraqi elections in January - some perhaps related and others probably not - have brought Mr. Bush a measure of vindication, which may or may not be sustained by events and his own actions in the months to come........

But full and genuine democratic elections in either country might well result in strongly anti-American governments.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. The last sentence of the article kicks your front teeth out:

Saudi Arabia's recent limited municipal elections and President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he will permit multiparty presidential elections in Egypt this fall are indisputably encouraging to would-be reformers here and there.

But full and genuine democratic elections in either country might well result in strongly anti-American governments.

[mhr]

2. Freeper Propaganda - No More - No Less

eom

[liberal N proud]

3. a "thaw has begun" ?

More like a nuclear MELT DOWN!
What is happening in the Mid-East right now is a very dangerous vision of thing that could come.
bu$h may be responsible for lighting the firecracker that ignited a nuclear war between centuries old waring factions.
The neo-cons may get their Armageddon after all and bu$h may as they wished be responsible

[Vladimir]

4. In Lebanon at least

I think he underestimated - we all underestimated - Hezbollah. But after yesterday's demonstrations it is clear that a Lebanon sans Syria will not equate to a pro-Bush Lebanon. A thaw may be occuring, but what exactly is thawing is unclear at best...

[Goldeneye]

5. Screw them and there better than expected bs.

Everytime I hear that line I want to scream. What the hell is better than expected? It means it wasn't really great, but they downplayed the whole thing because it wasn't going to be good at all, and then everything had to be "better than expected." Better than expected, better than expected, better than expected. Bush mandate. Screw that. Where's that article that says many Iraqi voters wish they hadn't risked their lives to vote?

[Frederik]

11. Exactly

How often do you hear about the Iraqis who voted because of a rumour that you wouldn't get food rations if you didn't? Wonder where that rumour came from... And Scott Ritter, who usually has good reasons for saying what he says, has stated that the results of the election have been manipulated. Some success. Better than expected if you expected a full-scale civil war to break out, perhaps.

[Bob3]

6. So is he going to land on the aircraft carrier again?

Nothing to see here folks just another case of Premature Exaltation. (not my term - wish it was but no)

God these stories remind me of the stories of the happy mobs surrounding fresh cheeked American Youth as they sped toward Baghdad.

[Richardo]

8. My thought, too...they're dusting off the 'Mission Accomplished' banner

Premature exaltation, indeed.

[Botany]

7. Bush is Nutz!

This dance with the devil has disaster written all over it.

1. Lebanon has many different sides and is a quagmire. Remember
the Dead Marines in the 1980's?
2. Telling Syria to get out of Lebanon as we have 130,000 troops in
Iraq is more than strange.
3. Wolfiwitz and his PNAC crowd should be loaded onto a plane
flown to Iraq ..... given M-16s ...... and told to go meet the locals
they have done enough damage.

Stephanie :loveya: Miller

[Demeter]

9. There Is No Vindication!

Bush hasn't done anything he said he wanted, including the democracy given as the latest in a series of fraudulent and flubbed goals. To call this vindication, to think that there is actually anything except death and distruction, despair and hate coming out of Bush policy, is to buy the sizzle and forget to pick up the steak.

It isn't real, it never will be, and no amount of press papering over reality will alter the facts.

[Bob3]

10. psst. Don't Tell * but the Pro-Syrian Prime Minister is back in charge

in Lebanon.

Has anyone asked the talking heads about that?

No. We're covering the Jackson trial.

[Frederik]

12. Must not disturb

the pre-scripted story...

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KoKo]

14. Purdum got this off the GOP Fax Machine. It's laughable. eom