WP: History Is Likely to Link Bush to Mideast Elections

[kskiska]

Sunday, January 9, 2005; Page A01

He fretted about turnout the other day because, as he put it, that is what politicians do. Never mind that his name will not be on the ballot. For President Bush, back-to-back elections in the Middle East starting today represent a milestone that, for better or worse, will help shape the legacy of his presidency.

The vote for a new Palestinian president today and the election of a new National Assembly in Iraq in three weeks add up to the first meaningful test for Bush's vision of spreading democracy to a region ruled almost exclusively by monarchs, despots and theocrats.

In Bush's view, successful elections in two of the world's most volatile places will ignite a chain reaction of reform and public pressure that will shake repressive governments across Arab society. Yet in this region, the term "battleground states" takes on more ominous meaning, and the cycle of violence and terrorism threatens further destabilization that could, skeptics say, undermine Bush's "march of democracy."

The real results, therefore, may not be known when polls close in Gaza City and the West Bank tonight or across Iraq on Jan. 30, 10 days after Bush's inauguration to a second term. It may be months, even years before the ripple effects of the elections become clear. Yet either way, triumph or disaster, analysts and administration officials agree they will indelibly mark the Bush record.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59570-2005Jan8.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Legacy?

Perhaps the greater legacy is the trillions of dlollars in debt our great-grandchildren will be paying.

Iraq is a fiasco, brought on by the most shameful excuse for a US presidency.

[NMDemDist2]

2. LOL that's right up there in the running for the lamest, most obvious

headline ever

good grief

[madrchsod]

3. the wp couldn`t

take it any deeper. crackwhores have more respect for themselves than the wp...

[malaise]

4. Maybe WP should do some research

They'd realize that there were elections in the Middle East before Bush and indeed the democraticlly elected goverment of Iraq was overthrown by British and American interests.

Are these people serious?

Still, history is complex - it is my history, his/her history, their history, etc. and there are usually several different versions of events.

[fshrink]

5. Washington Lost. Ass Licker. nt

[pinniped]

6. Barf, that piece of shit thinks he's gonna be on Mount Rushmore...

or something. Some congress idiot even wanted Reagan to be added. Give me a !@#$%^& break!

If history books tell the truth, they will label dummy* as the most corrupt and evil piece of shit presidunce in the history of the world.

His legacy will be that of an inept, crooked, lame piece of shit killer and election thief.

[goforit]

7. You have got to be joking!!!

[54anickel]

8. Wrong title, doesn't even match most of the article - delusions of Bush

snip>

Others still see that as a romantic illusion hardly grounded in the reality of the region, a view voiced most prominently last week by Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser for Bush's father. Larry Diamond, who served as a senior adviser for Bush's Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq last year, said in an interview that by insisting on holding elections in Iraq this month Bush would "grease the slide to civil war."

"He's a very stubborn man," Diamond said, "and there's a fine line between Churchillian resolve and self-defeating obstinacy, and I think he's going over the line on this."

Bush, who keeps a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office and identifies with the wartime British prime minister, has made democracy in the Middle East a signature goal for his administration, rhetorically at least. In November 2003, echoing the idealism of Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan, he called for a "forward strategy of freedom" that would involve a decades-long effort to promote pluralism in Arab nations. Privately Bush has expressed the belief that success at such an endeavor would be the achievement he would be most remembered for in 50 years.

snip>

The elections in Iraq, said Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, may underscore "the reality that democracy can easily create as many problems as it solves." .... :eyes: Which is why it is no longer allowed here in the US

The article goes on seeming to say Bush is taking credit, or hopes to get credit (depending on how you read it) for other elections as well, such as Palestine and Ukraine.

[leftchick]

9. romantic illusion ??

good gawd, try delusions of grandeur! The man is certifiable.

:puke:

[Historic NY]

10. The only credit * ** will get is if these elections are as phony as his..

[leesa]

11. What did he have to do with the Palestinian vote? Their leader died

and they are putting a new one in place. So what? I despise these Bush ass-lickers.

[Nevernose]

13. The Russian economy collapsed while Reagan was president

And yet Regan is "the man who ended the Cold War."

[TahitiNut]

14. IIRC, Bush41 was President then.

The association with Reagan is even more questionable when we (or just me?) mentally revise history to accommodate the propaganda.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. Not to mention the US elections

History will say about Bush what the foreign media do about him now and our own media refuse to say.

[pdxmom]

15. He may end up being linked to them...

but the way he may be linked is up for grabs. Just heard that the turnout for the Palestinian election is only around 35%. And we know that Iraq elections will probably be seen as less than legitimate. So between those two and our own election problems, he could be linked only by way of leaders coming into power under questions of legitimacy.