The ultimate prospects for democracy in Tunisia are still very uncertain. While the former head of the secular, autocratic government, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, has fled the country in the face of a popular uprising, efforts to form a government and prepare for elections are facing significant obstacles.
Nevertheless, here in the U.S., The Post's Jennifer Rubin is already field testing the narrative that President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq somehow led to the uprising in Tunisia:
Recall when President George W. Bush talked about democracy taking hold in Iraq and then the region? Now Bush's vision seems very prescient.
Rubin doesn't even attempt to prove causation -- eight years ago, the U.S. invaded Iraq, and last week there was an uprising in Tunisia. Ergo Bush deserves the credit. This is deeply paternalistic -- in Rubin's version of history, the Tunisians who faced down the security forces of an autocratic regime are practically bit players in their own political upheaval.
The point is not to make an actual argument, but to inject a political narrative that will retroactively vindicate the decision to go to war in Iraq, as though the American people would ever forget that the Bush administration justified that decision by manufacturing an imminent danger in the form of WMD that were never found.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/01/bush_doesnt_deserve_credit_for.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
