Lutchye Pazdne chem Nicogda

"Better late than never," as the Russians have it (forgive the crude transliteration--I have not yet learned how to insert Cyrilic text in Blogger).

The Left is catching on--at least among a few:

The invasion of Iraq was the equivalent of a bucket of freezing water thrown in the face of an Arab world in deep slumber... There is a way to talk about the effect of the Iraq war on the rest of the Arab world without actually supporting that war. This time last year and the year before, I marched in demonstrations in New York against the war on Iraq, which I did not believe was launched in the name of democracy and freedom. But we would be lying to ourselves if we didn't acknowledge that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is a major catalyst for what has been happening lately, be it in Egypt, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia.

Amazing. And a most apt metaphor. That Ms Eltahawy is also Egyptian is interesting. Of course, the rest of her article is a "but" to the statement above. But she's also right in a sense she doesn't mean on one topic: There is a way to talk about the effect of the Iraqi campaign on the rest of the Arab world without supporting "the war*:" that "way" is variously known as "fantasy," "denial," and "delusion." Lefties can jump on the bandwagon now--and good on 'em if they do--but to understand what is starting to happen today throughout the muslim world and in other tyrranies like North Korea and Cuba, they must understand that the use of military force in Iraq was necesary and that none of the miraculous openings we have seen recently would have happened at all had the anti-war crowd had its way. None. Ever. Period.

Whether recent events will turn out to be a Prague Spring or a Fall of the Berlin Wall for islam remains to be seen. But we (the US and its few true allies like Britain and Israel, that is) must stay on a course that could entail further military action as well as diplomatic, economic, informational, and cultural initiatives. Military power is just one instrument of overall national power, appropriate in some situations and not in others. The morality of its use depends on the ends for which it is used and on the degree to which it is waged with moral restraint. The ends in Iraq were overwhelmingly moral in every sense--including dreaded "oil"--and the campaigns fought by US and British military professionals (that is, from the Falklands and Grenada on) have been the most morally restrained in human history, Italian claims to the contrary notwithstanding.

Belgravia Dispatch has more:

"[Bush's] talk about democracy is good," an Egyptian-born woman was telling companions at the Fatafeet (or "Crumbs") restaurant the other night, exuberant enough for her voice to carry to neighboring tables. "He keeps hitting this nail. That's good, by God, isn't it?" At another table, a Lebanese man was waxing enthusiastic over Bush's blunt and irreverent manner toward Arab autocrats. "It is good to light a fire under their feet," he said.

All brought to you by your friends in the US Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, with substantial help from the armed forces of Great Britain and Australia. Please...please--hold the applause.

Monk

*By which Leftists always mean "the Iraqi campaign" when spoken of in this context--they believe that Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, the global campaign against al-Qaeda, etc., are separate "wars" rather than differing facets of the same war against the same enemy. But then, the Left does not have a good record of understanding strategy; witness the Democrats' choice of party chairman, for instance.