Yes. Bush is engaging in a huge gamble that is based on those ideals we all talk about, but rarely follow through on. He's taking that pesky Declaration of Independence and acting on it. And there's no guarantee that it will work. But if it does... Wow. It's the vision thing.Until George W. Bush, no American president -- not even Franklin Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson -- actually risked his presidency on the premise that Jefferson might be right. But this gambler from Texas has bet his place in history on the proposition, as he stated in a speech in March, that decades of American presidents' ''excusing and accommodating tyranny, in the pursuit of stability'' in the Middle East inflamed the hatred of the fanatics who piloted the planes into the twin towers on Sept. 11.
If democracy plants itself in Iraq and spreads throughout the Middle East, Bush will be remembered as a plain-speaking visionary. If Iraq fails, it will be his Vietnam, and nothing else will matter much about his time in office.
That's exactly what I keep trying to say. But when I do, I usually get that look conservatives have traditionally reserved for recently radicalized college freshmen. "Yes honey. It's lovely that you want to turn the US into a communist utopia, but this is the real world". It's odd that an supporting an idea that's as old as our republic makes one a pie-in-the-sky dreamer. When did democracy become such a radical proposition?
More from Ignatieff:
While Americans characteristically oversell and exaggerate the world's desire to live as they do, it is actually reasonable to suppose, as Americans believe, that most human beings, if given the chance, would like to rule themselves. It is not imperialistic to believe this. It might even be condescending to believe anything else.(Via Cheat Seeking Missile)
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