The Arab Street

I recall, way back when in 2001, when we were ramping up to attack Afghanistan. The anti-war crowd was making all sorts of dire predictions about mass casualties, Afghani winters, the Empire breaking toughness of the Afghani guerilla soldiers and the "silent genocide" predicted by Noam Chomsky. All of which were proven completely wrong.

Another prediction that has recently collapsed was the "rise of the Arab Street" babble, ie: the mass uprising of Muslim rage against the insult to Islam that was to come about if we dared to respond to terrorism with more than the oocasional random cruise missile. With the fall of Saddam came Ghaddafis sudden smell-the-coffee turn around on his nuclear ambitions. But most recently, with the successful Iraqi election, there has indeed been a rise of the Arab street. But it has been in the opposite direction of that predicted by the usual leftwing moaners. The PLA has responded to a recent Tel Aviv bombing by arresting 2 terrorists and there wasn't the usual street celebrations or martyr pictures carried by the mob. The Lebanese have responded to a Syrian sponsored assassination with street protests that have forced the Syrian backed Government to resign and Syria to wothdraw their troops from Lebanon. Egypts Musharef has been forced by international pressure to actually include opposition candidates on the ballot.

While the ultimate results won't be clear for some time, this does show that President Bush is right in his Jeffersionian foreign policies which recognize that the human desire for freedom from oppression cannot be crushed and must be supported by other free nations. Since WW2, Many Middle Eastern countries have been under the boot of assorted thugs and their people are responding predictably. Once again, freedom is on the march and once again, leftists and their liberal Democrat enablers are on the wrong side of history.