Don’t credit Bush for Arab Spring - NashuaTelegraph.com

Don’t credit Bush for Arab Spring - NashuaTelegraph.com

A new piece of historical revisionism is now being foisted upon Americans in defense of President George W. Bush.

That’s the claim the “Arab Spring” movement that erupted across the Middle East is a result of his policy to promote democracy by invading Iraq and forcing regime change there. Allegedly, current events vindicate Bush.

False.

First of all, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan are inspiring models of democracy. Afghanistan’s government is entirely corrupt, and Iraq’s democracy, though real in form, is troubled – yet Iraq is the model to which supporters, reiterating former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams’ claims, point.

In Iraq, the political divisions in national government are entirely ethnic and sectarian. Sunni countries like Egypt regard Iraq with horror because democracy empowers the Shia and disenfranchises Sunnis.

The only two major elections, so far, have produced paralysis lasting months because negotiations to form governments are almost impossible. Political violence is still rampant. Iraq delivers no democracy to emulate.

Amnesty International, in its annual report for 2011, credits WikiLeaks as the catalyst that touched off Arab rage and disgust at corrupt regimes when secret American diplomatic documents were published.

Here’s what it said: “Leveraging this information, political activists used other new communications tools now easily available on mobile phones and on social networking sites to bring people to the streets to demand accountability.”

So it turns out that Julian Assange deserves credit for the popular uprisings instead of Bush, but what finally emerges from them is still unknowable.

Stephen D. Clark

Merrimack