FAINT? IT'S DEAFENING:

The Iraq Promise: The sounds emanating from the Middle East are the sounds, faint but unmistakable, of the ice cracking. (William Kristol, 12/13/2004, Weekly Standard)

THE SOUNDS one hears emanating from the Arab Middle East are the sounds, faint but unmistakable, of the ice cracking. Though long suppressed and successfully repressed, demands for liberal reform and claims of the right to self-government seem to be on the verge of breaking through in that difficult region.

The key to turning these random sounds of discontent into the beginnings of a symphony of self-government is, of course, success in Iraq. Here, the last month's news--the mainstream media to the contrary notwithstanding--is promising. Bush's reelection victory; the successful offensive in Falluja and the failure of the "Sunni street" to rise up in outrage; the inability of both the terrorists and antidemocratic political forces to deter the Iraqi and American governments from moving ahead with the January 30 elections; the president's willingness to increase U.S. troop levels, and his commitment to victory--all of this enables one to be cautiously optimistic about the prospects in Iraq.

And if Iraq goes well, the allegedly "utopian" and "Wilsonian" dreams of fundamental change in the broader Middle East won't look so far-fetched.

The neocons have dreamed of doing Iraq for so long that they tend to overestimate its importance. The liberalization that's occurring today in Palestine is every bit as significant and should not be ignored just because it's being done by Palestinians.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2004 10:01 AM