“The ultimate outcome will be transformational, for I believe there is no way to avoid the massive restructuring of the Muslim world that will follow (and parallel) this conflict. The ruling elites in these societies, friend and foe alike, must choose which future they want, and the status quo ante is not acceptable, for us or for them. In too many instances in the past, U. S. foreign policy has supported stability as the ultimate human objective, where revolution would have been preferable, albeit messy.”—The Texas Pilgrim, November 2001.
With apologies for again repeating this passage from the period immediately following the 9-11 attack on America, I must ask, folks, how are we doing so far? With the impending ouster of Syria from Lebanon, the first real elections in Egypt now imminent, The New York Times editorial page and several normally anti-Bush European editorials at least leaning toward an admission that the Bush Doctrine might be working, the radical anti-American Lebanese Druze leader Jumblatt equating the Iraqi elections to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and other related “dominos” falling, it is clear that revolution is in the air and the transformation is well underway.
What next? First, no gloating—we are at a tipping point, but it could still tip the other way, particularly in Iraq. There remains much to be done, and firming our resolve to finish the job is the most important priority. And we should keep the pressure on the Saudis, the Russians, Assad of Syria, and the mullahs in Iran. We still don’t know what kind of revolution this will be—let us pray it will be closer to the American style than the French, with its totalitarian legacy, but the important thing is the conversion to freedom and the rule of law for, as Natan Sharansky so well explains in The Case for Democracy, “Freedom’s skeptics must understand that the democracy that hates you is less dangerous than the dictator who loves you”. Viva la revolution!
