I MISSED IT, BOY I REALLY MISSED IT

HAS THE LEFT DONE IT AGAIN?

They have been wrong about everything during the entire 20th century starting with their support of Stalin. They just may be wrong again still. Their reactionary attack upon the war in both Iraq and Afghanistan could be completely off the mark.

GWB caved to Germany and France at the G8 Summit when he didn't issue a "unilateral" statement for reform in the Middle East, probably cowed by the American Left. However there is surprising news that our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are causing an awful lot of highly placed Middle Eastern leaders to think the real "age of the despots" is over. There have been little publicized meetings in Tunis (the Arab Summit), Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, and plenty of other places. #1 on everyone's agenda was "broader participation" in the governments. The general feeling is that a Muslim state is DOA. The overall conclusions of all these meetings was that democratic reform is the only way out of their own "quagmire".

The thinking, or more importantly the actual writing and publishing; together with actual meetings of Muslim leaders concerning these views is a surprise. When we kicked out the Taliban we kicked out the penultimate pure Islamist "government"; the removal of Saddam was the removal of a guy who emulated Hitler while actually practicing communism. Nobody ever wants to see these two again. There is no longer the determination to create an Islamic state, instead they seem to be heading toward something different. There is still argument about the compatibility of Islam with democracy. But there is lots of support toward "democratizing" Muslim states.

Al Jazeera seems to be behind the curve now because all kinds of words are appearing in independent newspapers that were never seen before. Things like open society, freedom, and tons of awful words like that. Lots of us, including me, have missed the large number of actual elections in "backwater" countries like Kuwait, Yemen, Mauritania (quick, find it on a map. Hint: it's to the left of China. Someplace.), Morocco, Jordan (Jordan for Christ sakes), and others. While these "elections" are not our kind, they are a hell of a lot better than those held in Africa, most of Asia, and parts of Latin America. Missing from the list are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Syria (but they are under enormous pressure to change). Saudi Arabia may be about to grant women full citizenship, a monster change there.

The elections in Iraq and Afghanistan are crucial. Crucial.

The Left cannot face the possibility that another stupid cowboy might succeed like Reagan did. This is a horrible prospect for them. We don't get to hear stuff like this news from the Middle East very often but we might get more of it----from the Web naturally, never from the press or TV. The only thing missing is for Bush to openly support democratic forms in the area as his policy. We can hope that this inarticulate president can somehow articulate an understandable policy of supporting democracies in the Mid- East.

Anything is possible. I never thought I'd live to see the Berlin Wall come down or Communism implode without firing a shot, and I was wrong. I may be wrong about my cynicism regarding the history of despotism ruling everyone's lives in the Middle East, forever.

There ain't no forever, and as somebody famous once said, "Never say never."

For some cold water on this piece or at least the Saudi part go here. Do it quick because you can only access it for 6 days. The already sewn seeds of hate my stop this stuff yet. Saudi Arabia is the elephant in the family room.