President Bush's Mideast Democracy Speech

MonsieurEvil

<div class="IPBDescription">Delivered to NED (really!)</div> <a href='http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=ED1B4BFE-1497-4289-A160B9AC4156C3FF' target='_blank'>http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectI...160B9AC4156C3FF</a>

<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->President Bush has called for democratic reforms in the Middle East, saying governments from Damascus to Tehran should take notice that freedom can be the future of every nation.
In a foreign policy speech to the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington D.C., Mr. Bush warned Iran's leaders that thwarting what he called the strong and broad desire for democracy in that country would cost them their last remaining political legitimacy.

Mr. Bush said the establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democracy movement. He said the failure of democracy in Iraq would embolden terrorists around the world.

President Bush stressed that religion and culture are not to blame for the freedom deficit in the Middle East, but rather the failure of economic and political doctrines. He said the United States and other western nations also share the blame for "excusing and accommodating" the lack of freedom in the Middle East for 60 years.

The president said the Middle East is now at a turning point, and that many of its people had for too long been "victims and subjects." He said many countries in the region are mired in poverty, and in many areas women lack basic freedoms and children are denied proper schooling. Mr. Bush praised positive steps towards democracy in several nations, mentioning Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Mr. Bush spoke to the National Endowment of Democracy, a group that champions democratic causes across the world, on the same day he is signing a $87 billion aid package for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8260-2003Nov6.html' target='_blank'>Full transcript</a>
<a href='http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/06/international1629EST0722.DTL' target='_blank'>Some exposition</a>
<a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7991-2003Nov6.html' target='_blank'>More exposition</a>

Spew away.

TheWizard

Show me the money.

TheWizard

To clarify my previous post, Presidents have been speaking of the need for Mideast democratic reform for years. While I feel that such a statement mirrors my views on the subject I cannot take them seriously until President Bush offers them a carrot. (or the big stick)

MrMojo

Kudos if he actually gets the money, although I doubt he will.

MonsieurEvil

<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->President Bush stressed that religion and culture are not to blame for the freedom deficit in the Middle East, but rather the failure of economic and political doctrines. <b>He said the United States and other western nations also share the blame for "excusing and accommodating" the lack of freedom in the Middle East for 60 years. </b><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I think that right there shows quite a bit of money. I do not recall this or any other US president ever admitting any such thing. Do you? That would be huge right there, especially if Western Europe chimes and agrees (which they will not - looking at you Great Britain, the creator of most of these dictatorships as well as the palestinian warfare).

TheWizard

I actually did not see that part MonsE. Yes, that is a very big change in policy.

I will be interested to see if this is taken up by the media.

MonsieurEvil

I very much doubt that will happen, unfortunately. I'd love to see some actual contrition from the guilty parties in this middleeastern cockup. Britain, Russia, Germany, and France should be running to the podium to agree with statements like these for example, after their bolstering of despots in the region for the past 50-100 years.

Urza

Well, good thing Bush admitted that the US was partly responsible for creating and upholding undemocratic regimes throughout the Middle East. But concentrating on Iran and Syria and leaving out such states as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, or Quwait, or any state which has any degree of oil, makes me kind of sceptic.

MonsieurEvil

Did you read the transcript? He does mention all the nations (including those) in the region in one way or the other as needing to get democracy in gear. There were no exceptions.

dr_d

Couldn't this be seen as an indirect threat against both N. Korea and China?

Urza

<!--QuoteBegin--MonsieurEvil+Nov 6 2003, 06:02 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (MonsieurEvil @ Nov 6 2003, 06:02 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Did you read the transcript? He does mention all the nations (including those) in the region in one way or the other as needing to get democracy in gear. There were no exceptions. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sorry, I just read your text :/.
Reading through the transcript, I cannot agree with Bush's optimistic view of advancing democracy. Although the number of democratic countries have grown, the number of people living in demcrocies is about equal to the number in the sixties. Saying that the rise of democracies is caused by the USA being such a beautiful example, is unfounded and does not explain the declining number of democracies in the twenties and thirties. Furthermore, the US was not a full democracy until blacks gained equal voting rights in all states. Central planning did lead, contrary to what Bush suggests, to gigantic economic growth in the Soviet Union.

" In the trenches of World War I, through a two-front war in the 1940s, the difficult battles of Korea and Vietnam, and in missions of rescue and liberation on nearly every continent, Americans have amply displayed our willingness to sacrifice for liberty. "

A bit onesided. For one thing, the USA was not lead by the ideal of democracy, many other countries contributed to the wars, and the USA supported several non-democratic regimes (remember Allende and the Sandinists, Hussein, and Bin Laden).

You are pointing out that Bush is also adressing Saudi Arabia - and indeed he does. Let's quote him on that. "The Saudi government is taking first steps toward reform, including a plan for gradual introduction of elections. By giving the Saudi people a greater role in their own society, the Saudi government can demonstrate true leadership in the region." As you see, the Saudi governent is praised for its system and not in any way criticized.

Furthermore, I doubt whether all out capitalism is a good thing in a country where the main source of income is controlled by a minority. And creating a wealthy minority and a poor majority has never been good for democracy. ("Successful societies privatize their economies and secure the rights of property.")