Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Conservative Credits Bush Agenda For Revolutions

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/26/134091075/Conservative-Credits-Bush-Agenda-For-Revolutions


This article talks about what the U.S. should do in light of the current situation in the Middle East. America has had multiple foreign policies dealing with democratization throughout the world stemming back multiple presidential terms. However, learning from our past, America is being cautious this time. 

Under the Bush administration, the U.S. developed a policy called the "freedom agenda", to distribute democracy throughout the world. President Regan had a similar policy throughout the Cold War. The Bush policy was about world democracy. As Americans, we want democracy. But, the question now resides, what should we do with the situation in the Middle East? There have been multiple propositions, but no hard action. It was not until this week that President Obama took a hard formal stance. The article says that by taking a hard stance the problem is that, "The U.S. stands to lose stability in the area" (p. 1). This is where our past comes into play. 

One idea that has been thrown around is the possibility of training local militia groups to overthrow the governments. In the interview, former Regan and Bush staffer Elliott Abrams says, "Give (the people) whatever help they can" (p. 2). This was an agenda strongly supported within Iraq and Afghanistan. However, we have seen the results of that. More importantly is the results of what happened with the Taliban. We supported and trained the Taliban militants against the Soviets, we even gave them weaponry; we see where that ended up today. Abrams makes the claim, "The Middle East is turning democratic" (p. 2). I agree with this. However, we should let them do so themselves. 

NPR is a public news source using multiple non-bias sources. However Abrams is a former Presidential staffer siding towards American views.