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A friend of mine brought to my attention the striking coincidence between the burgeoning movement for Democracy in the Mid-East, and GWB’s call for exactly that in the recent State of the Union address.
Here’s a review of relevant excerpts from that speech:
In the long-term, the peace we seek will only be achieved by eliminating the conditions that feed radicalism and ideologies of murder. If whole regions of the world remain in despair and grow in hatred, they will be the recruiting grounds for terror, and that terror will stalk America and other free nations for decades. The only force powerful enough to stop the rise of tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, is the force of human freedom. (Applause.) Our enemies know this, and that is why the terrorist Zarqawi recently declared war on what he called the “evil principle” of democracy. And we’ve declared our own intention: America will stand with the allies of freedom to support democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world. (Applause.)
The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else. That is one of the main differences between us and our enemies. They seek to impose and expand an empire of oppression, in which a tiny group of brutal, self-appointed rulers control every aspect of every life. Our aim is to build and preserve a community of free and independent nations, with governments that answer to their citizens, and reflect their own cultures. And because democracies respect their own people and their neighbors, the advance of freedom will lead to peace. (Applause.)
That advance has great momentum in our time—shown by women voting in Afghanistan, and Palestinians choosing a new direction, and the people of Ukraine asserting their democratic rights and electing a president. We are witnessing landmark events in the history of liberty. And in the coming years, we will add to that story. (Applause.)
The beginnings of reform and democracy in the Palestinian territories are now showing the power of freedom to break old patterns of violence and failure.
...To promote peace and stability in the broader Middle East, the United States will work with our friends in the region to fight the common threat of terror, while we encourage a higher standard of freedom. Hopeful reform is already taking hold in an arc from Morocco to Jordan to Bahrain. The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future. And the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East. (Applause.)
To promote peace in the broader Middle East, we must confront regimes that continue to harbor terrorists and pursue weapons of mass murder. Syria still allows its territory, and parts of Lebanon, to be used by terrorists who seek to destroy every chance of peace in the region. You have passed, and we are applying, the Syrian Accountability Act—and we expect the Syrian government to end all support for terror and open the door to freedom. (Applause.) Today, Iran remains the world’s primary state sponsor of terror—pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve. We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing, and end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you. (Applause.)
GWB rocks.
Yesterday I found the excellent Egyptian weblog, Big Pharaoh. A sample post:
I was so delighted when I heard the news that a Muslim school girl in Britain won a case against her school that prevented her from wearing a jilbab, a long gown that covers the entire body, from head to toe. The school sent her home because the jiljab is not an official school uniform. Now she can go to school with the jiljab which exceeds the normal head cover that millions of Muslim women wear.
The girl’s win proves that “religious rights” should be placed above all other rules and laws in Britain. The British court’s ruling is so encouraging to me because I am thinking about suing the British education authorities when I go to the London school I enrolled in.
See, yesterday I converted to a religion called Nudadism. It is a very peaceful religion that rejects any form of clothing. In our holy book Nudaible, our god Nudenus orders us to go to school naked because clothing is an evil human invention that man made in order to cover Nudenus’ creation. We have a verse in our Holy Nudaible that says “Oh Humans, We have created thou naked, thou go to school naked”
It would be a huge infringement of my religious rights if my London school prevented me from going to class naked.
...To all my European friends, your beautiful culture and history are being eroded by this lie that is called “multiculturalism” while you are standing idly like an iceman in a desert. You cannot please everyone. First it was the head veil, then it is the jilbab, in the future it will be the Taliban Burqa (not to mention my nudism!!). Ohhhh, Praise Nudenus!
He “gets it” about Jihad, and opposes Jihad, clearly seeking a moderate Islam.
Okay, so now, about the new browser feature. I was telling a friend about Big Pharaoh, and the friend asked me where I’d found the site. I have no idea. I click many links at a time and then go to read the sites. I have no idea how I got to this one.
What’s needed is a way to see the chain of links that got you to any open web site. It could be a pop-up menu, a dialog box, anything. I know bloggers would like it, and probably blog-readers as well.
