Mideast changes are glad tidings

It was just six weeks ago that President Bush was being mocked as a misinformed idealist because in his second inaugural address he spoke boldly of America's interest in "the expansion of freedom in all the world."

Apparently, some people thought the cost would be too great.

They forgot the words of President Kennedy that "we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

They also underestimated the current president.

President Bush did not rattle any sabers in his speech. Instead he spoke in measured cadences of "freedom's cause" and "ending tyranny," acknowledging that it is the "work of generations." He offered a hand to those struggling to achieve for their own people what we almost take for granted, but he did not do so by threatening anyone else. He invited the entire world to join us in freedom.

And in just these few short weeks, it appears his invitation was heard and may be heeded - even in the tumultuous Middle East, where cynics have long scoffed that democracy could never take root because of a culture of despotism and fear.

President Bush rejected such a narrow view, which seemed to imply that freedom was only a byproduct of Western culture and unavailable to Arabs, Asians or Africans. He instead assured the world that this country still believes what we believed at the beginning - that certain human rights come from God and cannot be supplanted by expediency.

He furthermore emphasized that "America will not impose our own style of government" on anyone, but that our goal is "to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, make their own way."

In retrospect, his speech may one day be seen as a clarion call to the world's peoples to shrug off the chains of centuries and take up the yoke of liberty.

In just these few weeks, we have already witnessed a miraculous start toward democracy in several nations where it has till now been foreign. Iraq held a free election where millions risked death to dip their fingers in ink and proclaim, "I have voted." The Palestinians replaced Yasser Arafat's dictatorial reign with leadership that was popularly chosen. Egypt's strongman Hosni Mubarak has conceded to demands for a contested election for the presidency, as well as other reforms. And perhaps most importantly, the Lebanese people rose up this week to clamor for change after former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in an attack that is widely believed to have originated in Syria, which has occupied Lebanon since the 1980s.

The puppet government of Lebanon could have stood firm, but instead acceded to the will of the people and - like the communist governments of East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union two decades before - chose not to stand in the way of the march of freedom.

It remains to be seen whether these advances in the Middle East will indeed take root or not. But they do demonstrate conclusively that President Bush was neither a utopian dreamer nor a manipulative schemer when he outlined his vision of a better world on Jan. 20.

And if peace and liberty do indeed come to this troubled region, then President Bush will be owed not just an apology by his critics, but the thanks of the entire world.