Bush's Noble Intentions

This Washington Post article (President paints 'Big Picture' - Bush reveals democratic vision for Middle East) appeared in the Christchurch Press last Friday (February 28th). Clearly the Christchurch Press backs a war with Iraq and has no qualms about recycling American propaganda...in any case it makes the journalist's job so much easier. To be honest I'm not actually convinced that the Christchurch Press still employs anyone that could be called a journalist.

The article just about made me spit out my morning coffee, especially the line about President Bush "presenting a neo-Wilsonian view of the imperitive to spready liberty and democracy in the world." I mean if President Bush really was painting a big picture of the Middle East he'd probably be doing it with crayons. I have some other problem's with Bush's speech - he correctly identifies the Middle East as a "troubled region" - the point he is missing is that America is one of the major reasons why it is a troubled region. He also mentions Saddam Hussein's payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and its training and support of mysteriously un-named terrorists. At least one of these claims is true but this does not give America (as opposed to Israel) a legitimate cassus belli. I meant to post the article here earlier but I couldn't find it on the internet, instead I've had to ignore the niceties of copyright law and type it out myself...bring on the evil attack lawyers.