In the real world, revolutionary change takes far longer to develop, and the Arab Spring discussed in 2005 (really, a Moslem spring) is starting to tentatively bud:
The famed and failed Arab Spring of 2005 was, I think, only delayed—and is due to arrive right about now. There are several recent indications that what many thought was happening in the spring of 2005 is occurring in 2008, but in a slightly different form. In fact, with sharia being rejected in Iraq and embraced in, say, London, it seems the “Arab spring” may work out just fine; it’s the Western fall that we have to worry about.
Sparked by our fight against jihadis in Iraq, the slow revolution against Islamo-fascism versust plain old fascism as governing models in the Arab world is continuing despite the horrible toll that the Iraq War is supposedly inflicting on our relations with the Moslem world. I think that it is premature to say the spring is about to arrive. But the old debate is definitely unfrozen. We need to nurture what grows on the land we've plowed.
The Long War is about more than killing terrorists. And strangling the ideology that spawns and supports Islamist terrorism is the longest job of all. And make no mistake, a strategy of cruise missile attacks every few years only perpetuates the problem. We have to change the terms of the debate by giving Arabs the option of freedom if they will fight for it. And if they will fight for it they must know we will help.
How our Left can be so against the promotion of democracy in Iraq and the Arab world is beyond me. I think Arabs are capable of appreciating and wanting democracy rather than enduring and deserving the thug rulers or mullah rulers that are their current choices.
Yet I'm the knuckle dragger? How is our Left "progressive," again?
