NOT THAT ANY OF THE REALISTS REALIZED THE USSR WAS LOW-HANGING:

Exporting Freedom (ANDREW FERGUSON, January 24, 2007, NY Sun)

[T]here's nothing straightforward about making the domestic liberty of other nations the principal purpose of American foreign policy. That's the message -- though definitely not an intentional one -- of this year's annual survey of political rights around the globe issued by the admirable do-gooders at Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington.

They have compiled their survey since 1972, tracing the condition of human freedom from the darkest days of communism's advance into Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe -- an advance that only ended with the revival of American military and diplomatic power in the early 1980s.

In 1981, researchers at Freedom House graded one out of every three countries "free." Today nearly half of the world's countries qualify as "free," meaning they allow competitive elections, a free press, and room for civic life to flourish independent of government control. [...]

"When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union imploded, there was a lot of low-hanging fruit," says Freedom House's director of research and author of this year's report, Arch Puddington.

"In the Baltics, in Eastern Europe, these were countries ripe for democracy, culturally and politically and historically, with close proximity to Western Europe," he says. "Now we're left with much harder cases, in China, Africa, the Middle East." [...]

By the way, Freedom House over the years has usually designated Iraq as "not free." Now, several years into the freedom agenda, Iraq's designation is unchanged.

Do you suppose Abe Lincoln thought he led a not free country?

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 24, 2007 8:55 AM