A Ringing Defense of Freedom
I'm going to be on Larry Kudlow's syndicated radio show tomorrow morning at around 11:05 central time. (That leaves me just enough time to get home after teaching Sunday School, the Book of Ruth--amazingly enough to those who knew me when). The topic under discussion will be the election in Iraq. I can't improve on Larry's own piece on Real Clear Politics:
Osama bin Laden and Zarqawi both know that free-election democracy is the death knell of terrorism. They also know that the potential impact of free Iraqi elections on the rest of the region -- including Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia -- is incalculable. The Iraqi elections will reverberate throughout the entire Muslim world, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the whole South Asian tsunami zone.Sophisticated policy observers know full well that rather than plotting a worldwide military invasion, Bush is constructing a statement of principles; that he is setting new standards and diplomatic benchmarks that will govern our foreign policy for decades to come.
Polling and reports on the ground in Iraq indicate there will be a blowout turnout for Sunday’s election. The Iraqi election results for a new government and constitution-writing parliament will produce a pluralistic coalition that will end fears of a mullah-based theocracy or any return of Saddamite Baathism.
Bush’s inaugural vision will be proven right. His speech will be vindicated, and along with it will come a foreign-policy triumph of moral idealism, human rights, and freedom over the cynical “realist” view that after all we have seen in the past 25 years we can still do business with dictators and despots in the name of stability.
President Bush is not content to be the best President since Reagan; he wants to be the greatest President since Lincoln. I still think he has a shot. The next few months will tell a great deal.
