SOBRAN'S -- THE REAL NEWS OF THE MONTH
                       August 2006
                        (page 1)

Triumphs of Democracy
by Joe Sobran

{{ MATERIAL DROPPED OR CHANGED SOLELY FOR REASONS OF 
SPACE APPEARS IN DOUBLE CURLY BRACKETS. EMPHASIS IS 
INDICATED BY THE PRESENCE OF "EQUALS" SIGNS AROUND THE 
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     As I write, yet another war has erupted in the 
Middle East, and Condoleezza Rice, an enthusiast of the 
continuing war in Iraq, has been dispatched to try to 
negotiate peace. Setting aside any sense of irony and 
hypocrisy in that venture, anyone can see that she has 
her work cut out for her. The failure of her mission, 
needless to say, is a certainty.

     Both sides, the Israelis and Iran-backed Hezbollah, 
want war and won't accept peace on any terms the United 
States can propose. Both can give so many reasons and 
provocations for fighting that it is hard to imagine any 
incentives for them to stop at this point. The most we 
can hope for is that the United States won't be drawn 
further into another conflict it has done so much to 
promote.

     As all the observers have already observed ad 
nauseam, the United States has long since destroyed, 
through its partiality to the state of Israel, any 
possibility of acting as a mediator with the Muslims. 
Both the Bush administration and Congress have lost no 
time in supporting the Israelis' devastating assault on 
Lebanon, which the rest of the world has almost 
unanimously condemned as "disproportionate." And the 
United States, while piously deploring the violence, 
immediately rushed a new supply of rockets to Israel.

     How the Israelis should have responded to 
Hezbollah's rocket attacks on their cities is a good 
question, and my own first reaction was to make 
allowances for them, until I read that they had launched 
their own assault =before= those attacks. Now I can only 
marvel at this administration's ability to make any 
situation, however grim, even worse.

     Condemning "isolationism," the Bush team has 
achieved one thing: the isolation of America with Israel. 
{{ Even Tony Blair must be having second thoughts about 
making himself such a reliable ally to this rogue 
superpower, which makes even the unmourned Soviet Union 
seem a model of prudence and forbearance. Meanwhile, Abe 
Foxman, Charles Krauthammer, and the rest of the Amen 
Corner have been explaining why the Israelis are right 
again. }}

     The reason men like Washington, Jefferson, and 
Hamilton urged Americans to resist "entangling alliances" 
was not that they were xenophobic, but that they 
understood that there are often strong motives, moral and 
otherwise, for intervention abroad. But even the highest 
of motives might be contrary to American interests.

     {{ In those days the chief danger they saw was U.S. 
embroilment in European wars, especially those of France 
and England. They would have been utterly incredulous at 
the idea of American intervention in the Middle East. 
Even Tocqueville's prediction of conflict between America 
and Russia would have seemed far-fetched. }}

     But the United States has long since abandoned the 
once-revered principle of neutrality. George W. Bush, 
surpassing even Woodrow Wilson in moralistic fatuity, has 
all but declared war on Evil, proclaiming "global 
democratic revolution." That is, only democracy can be 
truly legitimate; with the proviso, of course, that only 
the United States can decide what counts as truly 
democratic.

     As I've noted elsewhere, this comfortably simple 
notion, no less than Marxism-Leninism, would serve as a 
pretext for eternal war and revolution. And in fact it 
has already proved impossible to apply consistently. 
Recent democratic elections in the Muslim world -- in 
Algeria, Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon, for example -- have 
produced results unacceptable to the United States and 
Israel. Even conquered Iraq has proved hard to 
democratize to American specifications.

     In America, we used to be taught, moments of crisis 
elicit great leaders. We last heard it shortly after 
September 11, 2001. One minor consolation of the latest 
conflagrations in the Middle East is that this old saw 
will finally be retired for good.

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