BEIRUT -- Lebanon's prime minister and his entire Cabinet resigned yesterday, satisfying a demand by tens of thousands of protesters, whose ranks swelled in a public push for democracy that is unprecedented in the Arab world.This is wonderful news and an exciting trend in the middle east. Ever since Iraq held successful elections the strong wind of freedom has been blowing through Arab countries. Helped in no small part by the fans of America.
Waving flags and cheering as the resignation was announced, the demonstrators also demanded that Syria end its occupation by withdrawing its troops and agents, who oversee decisions by Lebanese government officials.
A tent city near the tomb of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri continued to expand yesterday, mirroring recent protests that ushered in a democratically elected, pro-Western government in Ukraine.
Egypt, one of the largest Muslim nations in the world, has opened the door for fair and competitive elections as well.
There seems to be a real chance for peace in Israel where the "elected" Prime Minister Abbas has called for attacks in Israel to cease. I realize this has been said before, however this is the first time in many decades that Palestinians haven't been lead by a militant Islamic radical.
Democrats and liberal's can bash Bush's foreign policy all day long. But at the end of the day, the Bush Doctrine of diplomatically and militarily supporting democracy and freedom via is the only legitimate long term strategy for winning the war on terror. The left call Bush a cowboy for actually wanting to win the war(as opposed to reducing it to a nuisance) because to them winning means a lot of violence that could "never solve anything". They don't or didn't believe that spreading democracy was a realistic goal, and they don't think it will help anyway. To them it's just big imperialistic America enforcing it's way of life on the world again. They don't see that dealing with freely elected governments as opposed to radical tyrants who hate everything America stands for as any different.
Fortunately our President has no such problem. In his inaugural address these were his words:
We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.One has to wonder if the Iraqi elections will be seen as the falling of the Berlin Wall in the middle east. Who knows but it is exciting to be an American and watch all of this unfold.
America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.
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We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.
