Bush advocates democracy on an as-needed basis:
First, President Bush hailed the political handover in Iraq as a giant step toward democracy for the entire Middle East.Then, his administration announced it was resuming direct diplomatic ties with Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi has ruled for 35 years.
Democracy may be the administration's future hope for the region. But for now, as the warming of relations with Libya makes clear, it still gets trumped by security concerns in the fight against terrorism.
Oil-rich and terrorism-laden Saudi Arabia is not democratic, either, nor is Egypt. But both are U.S. friends.
The United States has not cut ties with Syria, though it considers Syria a sponsor of terrorism.
[...]
"I believe that freedom is the future of the Middle East, because I believe that freedom is the future of all humanity," Bush said in Istanbul, Turkey. "And the historic achievement of democracy in the broader Middle East will be a victory shared by all."
[...]
Gadhafi has not stopped his extremist rhetoric. In Europe last April, he said he hoped that no evil would "force us to go back to the days when we use our cars and explosive belts."
In June, Gadhafi expressed regret that President Reagan died before standing trial for the 1986 U.S. airstrikes that killed Gadhafi's daughter and 36 other people. The air raid was in response to a discotheque bombing in Berlin allegedly ordered by Gadhafi. (AP, via pennlive.com)
Do we think Bush should have opened diplomatic ties with Libya? Absolutely. But to claim that the effort to bring democracy to Iraq was worth 900 American lives, thousands of Iraqi lives and an increase in terrorist violence in the Middle East and Europe, while at the same time supporting non-democratic regimes across the region, is utter stupidity.
It's an insult to the American public that Bush keeps feeding us this utter bullshit.
