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Is
it just a coincidence that the
President's speech to the American Enterprise Institute,
in which he outlined an ambitious strategy of "democratization"
in the Middle East, was delivered on the anniversary
of the day Napoleon escaped from Elba? On
Feb 26, 1815, Bonaparte slipped past his guards
on the rocky little isle and returned, in triumph, to
France. One hundred days later, he faced his Waterloo.
The
ideas in Bush's speech are not just wrong: they are
dangerous. Democracy can no more take root in Iraq than
palm trees can grow on the moon. The Enlightenment
bypassed the Middle East completely, and to embark on
a military crusade to impose liberty, property rights,
and the rule of law is a fool's errand. No wonder this
President has taken it up with such alacrity.
The
little Napoleons of neoconservatism,
who believe that "democracy" can be "exported"
at gunpoint, will face their own Waterloo, although
perhaps it will take longer than a hundred days. The
tragedy is that the partisans of this nutty idea will
not be the ones to physically fight and die on its behalf.
It will be American GIs – who have never seen
the inside of a thinktank, just an Abrams
tank – who will pay the price.
Need
a good laugh? Read this Jerusalem Post editorial
on the "New Europe," praising the "former"
Communist-turned-"social democratic" regimes
of Eastern Europe, called the "Vilnius Group"
– who have signed on to the Bush administration's war
plans:
"The emergence of a 'new Europe'
resolute against terrorism and opposed to the appeasement
instincts of the 'old Europe' was reinforced by what
didn't happen last weekend in the former Soviet bloc.
While millions of Western Europeans demonstrated against
uprooting the genocidal regime of Saddam Hussein, the
streets of Eastern Europe's capitals were resoundingly
silent. The message of that silence was that Eastern
Europe, unlike much of Western Europe, understands the
difference between those who would destroy civilization
and those who would defend it."
I don't think "silence" is
the way to describe the
20,000 who turned out against the war in Budapest,
2,000 in
Sofia, 1,500 in
Minsk, 2,500 in
Warsaw, not to mention the hundreds of thousands
in the former "German Democratic Republic."
And I have a question: if the "New" Europe
understands so much about "defending civilization,"
then how come they have voted all those (neo-)Communist
apparatchiks back
into office?
What's so "new" about the
"New Europe"? Nada lotta. Maureen Dowd, who
correctly points to "Bush's
Warsaw War Pact," is the only one who seems
to have gotten this right.
A NOTE TO MY READERS
I'm
on the road, on my way to the state
convention of the Libertarian Party of Illinois
to give the keynote address, "Libertarianism in
the Age of Empire," so this column is uncharacteristically
short. But I'll be back on Monday.
–
Justin Raimondo
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