Courtesy of The Belmont Club, here is an excellent piece from Austin Bay on the revolution in the Middle East.
Toppling Saddam also toppled the myth of the "Arab strongman," a point unfortunately missed by critics of the Iraq war. The Arab strongman was a romantic, Superman story of militant rescue and revenge, but it was also a justification for dictatorial rule. The armed strongman would drive the Israelis into the sea. The strongman would restore Arab prestige, at the point of a sword or the blast of a nuclear weapon. But these bloody miracles, permanently scheduled for the near future, required submission to tyranny. To advocate liberty, to promote free trade, to critique the corrupt, to demand a voice in governance -- these acts of weakness undermined the strongman and thus undermined "the Arab cause."I'll say it again, comrades: you can take a dump on George W. Bush all day long for certain of his domestic policies and I wouldn't care less. But for what he's doing to move the Middle East into the modern age? Your great-grandchildren will know this President as one of the most important leaders of the Twenty-First Century.
Unimaginable, isn't it?