The Bush Doctrine Is Working - Will Someone Please Tell Jon Corzine

The entire world is waking up to the fact that the “Bush Doctrine “ is working and Jon Corzine puts out a press release criticizing the President’s foreign policy and his nominee for Ambassador to the UN.

“I am deeply disappointed by the nomination of John Bolton to be Ambassador to the UN. He is responsible as much as any member of the Administration for the needless confrontations with the rest of the world and for the international isolation that plagued President Bush’s first term. Now, when bridge-building and strengthening of alliances are so critical to our national security, he is a poor person to serve as a conciliator at the United Nations."

Senator Corzine’s thinking is stuck in the group think of his party’s left wing and he seems utterly incapable of understanding the transforming effect the Bush Doctrine has had on the world.

When foreign publications such as the U.K.’s Guardian and Germany’s Der Spiegel, neither known for their admiration of President Bush, credit U.S. foreign policy and the Iraq invasion as having intensified pressure for democracy in the Middle East, you know something historic is underway. From Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, the Ukraine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia to Egypt - freedom is on the march.

National Review credits Bush with inspiring the democratic Arab streets; Newsweek proclaims recent events have vindicated the President’s policies; The New York Times admits the Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for heartening surprises - each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing; and Jon Corzine spouts left over lines from the failed Kerry campaign.

“I was going to say, because a lot of foreign policy experts are hailing the Bush Administration's policies, and saying the Bush Doctrine, of spreading democracy throughout the world, there's clear evidence that it's working. You agree with that assessment?” -- Katie Couric, Today Show March 7, 2005.

Yes Katie we agree, now will someone please explain it to Jon Corzine.

From National Review Online - RevolutionFreedom, our most lethal weapon against tyranny
Following 9/11, the revolution was brought violently to the periphery of the Middle East, in Afghanistan. It swept through Iraq, taking time to liberate Ukraine and now threatens Syrian hegemony over Lebanon, if not the Syrian regime itself, and has forced the Egyptian and Saudi regimes to at least a pretense of democratic change.

The Cedar Revolution in Beirut has now toppled Syria's puppets in Lebanon, and I will be surprised and disappointed if we do not start hearing from democratic revolutionaries inside Syria — echoed from their counterparts in Iran — in the near future.

Many of the brave people in the suddenly democratic Arab streets are inspired by America, and by George W. Bush himself.

From the latest issue of Newsweek - What Bush Got Right
Freedom's march: The president has been right on some big questions. Now, if he can get the little stuff right, he'll change the world.

The other noted political scientist who has been vindicated in recent weeks is George W. Bush. Across New York, Los Angeles and Chicago—and probably Europe and Asia as well—people are nervously asking themselves a question: "Could he possibly have been right?" The short answer is yes. Whether or not Bush deserves credit for everything that is happening in the Middle East, he has been fundamentally right about some big things.

Der Spiegel - Could George W. Bush Be Right?
Germany loves to criticize US President George W. Bush's Middle East policies -- just like Germany loved to criticize former President Ronald Reagan. But Reagan, when he demanded that Gorbachev remove the Berlin Wall, turned out to be right. Could history repeat itself?

And maybe history can repeat itself. Maybe the people of Syria, Iran or Jordan will get the idea in their heads to free themselves from their oppressive regimes just as the East Germans did. When the voter turnout in Iraq recently exceeded that of many Western nations, the chorus of critique from Iraq alarmists was, at least for a couple of days, quieted. Just as quiet as the chorus of Germany experts on the night of Nov. 9, 1989 when the Wall fell.

Just a thought for Old Europe to chew on: Bush might be right, just like Reagan was then.

New York Times - Mideast Climate Change
Still, this has so far been a year of heartening surprises - each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing. The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances. It boldly proclaimed the cause of Middle East democracy at a time when few in the West thought it had any realistic chance. And for all the negative consequences that flowed from the American invasion of Iraq, there could have been no democratic elections there this January if Saddam Hussein had still been in power

NBC Today Show, March 7, 2005
NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON (D): on the Today Show – “ I believe the Bush Administration deserves credit for putting pressure, and saying that authoritarian regimes have to go.”

KATIE COURIC: I was going to say, because a lot of foreign policy experts are hailing the Bush Administration's policies, and saying the Bush Doctrine, of spreading democracy throughout the world, there's clear evidence that it's working. You agree with that assessment

BILL RICHARDSON: Well, it is working. The President, in talking about freedom and democracy, is sparking a wave of very positive democratic sentiment that might help us override both Islamic fundamentalism that has formed in that region, and also some of the hatred for our policies of invading Iraq. So, this is not only bringing a good result in the Middle East, potential democracy and full elections, but also it is helping our security, perhaps making us safer, by having less Islamic fundamentalism--

KATIE COURIC: Right.

BILL RICHARDSON: ...because democracy provides an outlet against it. And also, younger Arabs that are fueling this discontent throughout the Arab world, becoming pro-US, which is a good sign for the future.

U.K. Guardian - The war's silver lining
We need to face up to the fact that the Iraq invasion has intensified pressure for democracy in the Middle East

The big prize - the one the prime minister was so keen to show off at his London conference yesterday - is progress in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. After four years of stalemate and worse, the Palestinians are now led by a man who describes those who murder Israeli civilians as "terrorists" and who seems serious about putting the Palestinian house in order. Meanwhile, the Israelis are led by a man who, whatever his past, is now ready to risk his life to pull out of Palestinian land.

The combination of Abu Mazen's embrace of the reform agenda demanded of him yesterday and Ariel Sharon's iron determination to pull out of Gaza - even in the face of a growing and credible threat of assassination - has made the prospects for their two peoples brighter than in years.

The New York Times - Lessons of Libya
Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair are entitled to claim a large share of the credit for Libya's surprising announcement. To an extent that cannot be precisely measured, the fate of Saddam Hussein, who was ousted from power by the American military with British backing after endless prevaricating about Iraqi weapons programs, must have been an important consideration in Libya's decision.