I mentioned it yesterday. Read it for yourself here. While you’re at it, this Larry Diamond piece in Foreign Affairs is sobering as well.
FAREED CALLS IT: My old friend and fellow-conservative, Fareed Zakaria, has been writing up a storm lately. He too is unwilling simply to overlook the growing crisis in Iraq, or the burden that president Bush’s legacy of disarray is placing on the war against terror. Money quote:
Bush is right to note that after World War II, because “generations of Americans held firm in the cause of liberty, we live in a better and safer world.” But in those years the United States adopted a series of wise, generous policies and a conciliatory style that made it much loved in the countries we were trying to help. Spreading democracy requires allies, particularly among the targets of one’s affection.
The picture could not be more different today. Bush does not seem aware that the intense hostility toward him in every country in the world (save Israel) has made it very difficult for the United States to be the agent of freedom. In every Arab country that I have been to in the last two years, the liberals, reformers and businessmen say, “Please don’t support us. American support today is the kiss of death.”
I’m past making excuses for this – because I want us to win the war against terrorism. Less than five percent of the reconstruction funds pledged by the Congress has actually been spent in Iraq. The follow-through is close to non-existent. And unforgivable.
BESLAN THOUGHTS: I cannot do better than David Brooks in his revulsion at the inhumanity and depravity of the Jihadists. But the Chechnya situation strikes me as one in which the necessary distinction between terrorists’ methods and the injustices that sometimes fuel them is not as iron-clad as, say, in our war against al Qaeda or against Saddam. The truth is: Putin has treated Chechnya barbarically, and his brutal suppression of legitimate demands for autonomy is partially responsible for the chaos in that region and the violence across Russia. We should therefore not give in to the easy notion that Putin and we are on the same side in this war. Putin is trying to destroy self-government in Chechnya in favor of Russian imperialism. We are trying to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq from unspeakable tyranny. There is a difference here.
The Dish 