February 27, 2003

First, here's James Taranto's excellent commentary on the implied meaning of President Bush's speech last night: Bush to Arabs: Put Up or Shut Up

In short, Taranto states that the President's thesis is that the "road to peace in the Middle East leads through Baghdad."
And I quite agree, but there are many potholes on this road both for us and for the Arabs, but mainly for the Islamist Arabs.
The President said:

"Success in Iraq could . . . begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace, and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic Palestinian state. The passing of Saddam Hussein's regime will deprive terrorist networks of a wealthy patron that pays for terrorist training, and offers rewards to families of suicide bombers. And other regimes will be given a clear warning that support for terror will not be tolerated.

Without this outside support for terrorism, Palestinians who are working for reform and long for democracy will be in a better position to choose new leaders. True leaders who strive for peace; true leaders who faithfully serve the people. A Palestinian state must be a reformed and peaceful state that abandons forever the use of terror.

Taranto cites this as the most crucial passage: "The Arab states will be expected to meet their responsibilities to oppose terrorism, to support the emergence of a peaceful and democratic Palestine, and [to] state clearly they will live in peace with Israel."
He then puts the speech and the Bush Doctrine in complete perspective of current events thusly:

In the course of their unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to save Saddam Hussein, a bunch of Arab leaders went on the record in support of peace with Israel. And what do you know, President Bush is taking them at their word. Instead of being pulled into the "peace process" quagmire, the president is demanding that the Arabs finally begin behaving responsibly--which is the true precondition for peace in the Middle East.

This is of a piece with Bush's decision, in the face of carping about American "unilateralism," to turn Iraq into a test of the United Nations' seriousness and relevance. The man certainly has a knack for calling the bluff of his adversaries.

Heady stuff all the way around...
I'll be honest, as big a Bushie as I am, the speech bothered me a bit.
President Bush seemed distracted, nervous and "off his game" last night.
I think he's as tired and impatient to get this liberation of Baghdad thing over as I am and a lot of the rest of us are.
It's as if he's "connecting the dots" for the American people and the free world as to what we're "about" with this Iraq action to the point where it almost is "going through the motions" for him.
Of course, I think it's our familiarity for those of us in the (war)blogosphere with these themes that enure us to the radical, yet practical sense of the Bush Doctrine.
Thanks to cogent web pampleteers like Steven Den Beste (who has a terrific piece today on the speech also, as always), we don't need President Bush to spell it all out for us.
But most of the American people do.
And some British and Aussies.
Definitely Old Europeans--but they won't like it.
And certainly the Muslim world, but they won't like it much either, most of them.
I won't jolly my readers by pretending that what President Bush wants to happen will be easy to accomplish, quick or in the end even "do-able" as he envisions it.
That will be up to the Arab world.
When President Bush gives them a "heads up" to eschew (Islamist) terrorism forever, it's like asking an alcoholic to give up booze.
The Islamists, especially those Wahhabists in Saudi who are funding most of the jihadi murder, eat, sleep and drink killing Jews and eradicating Israel from the face of the globe.
If they didn't control their peoples with the "Palestinian" conflict, they'd have to face all of their own internal problems and then do something about it.
They'd have to do something about their archaic economies, their unjust justice systems that employ shari'a as a whip hand, their human rights abuses--particularly the oppression of women--excused by Islamic laws and traditions, their woefully inadequate education systems and their oligarchic systems of unelected governments, by "kings" and Islamic clerics.
This they are no more prepared to do than they are to stop preaching the murder of Jews 24/7 as they would need to do to even begin to join the rest of the world in the 21st Century as even quasi-democratic countries.
If you read the subtext of Bush's speech, it is more of a warning as to what Arabic Middle Eastern countries can expect from the U.S. should they choose not to reform themselves, with Saddam Hussein's Iraq being made the example.
President Bush, then, effectively put leaders like the Sauds, Assad and Arafat on notice.
Rather curious was the President's mention of Israel and his "order" for them to remove themselves from the "Palestinian" settlements on the same day that PM Ariel Sharon put together a "far right" [Reuters, BBC, Haaretz] coalition government that has announced its intention to keep Israelis in the settlements.
Yet, I'm almost certain that Bush had informed Sharon that he was going to say what he said.
Of course, U.S. policy on Israel is NOT congruent with Israeli policy, no matter how much the Islamists may think so.
And President Bush doesn't boss Sharon around, although I do think they are working pretty much "in concert."
If you've been reading my blog all along, you will know that I can't make up my mind whether Bush is the most optomistic "dreamer" of a leader who is trying to call the "Palestinians" to a higher ground with his exhortations for them to move to a democratic, terror-free "Palestinian" state or whether he is truly a cynic who knows in his heart that at this stage of their 50-year jihad against the Israelis that they are incapable of ever doing that.
Maybe it's both. That would be smart and complex and more like reality.
As I said before, a lot of what happens next is up to the Islamists and the Arab world.
More importantly, President Bush gave the Arab world a stern warning last night as to what they can expect should they NOT be unable to eschew terrorism and reform their countries to serve their own peoples democratically, rather than use the millions from oil revenues to kill Jews and their friends, like the U.S.: "We'll come after you just like we're coming for Saddam."
This was one of my favorite lines from the speech [Full text to be found at the White House site] and it sums up the whole message:

And by acting, we will signal to outlaw regimes that in this new century, the boundaries of civilized behavior will be respected.

Amen, President Bush.
Pray God that it will be so.
Now, onward to Baghdad.