An amazingly obtuse article in the Nation. The central thesis is that the crazy democracy cowboy Bush is destroying democracy by cunningly pushing... um, democracy.

The only idea that has ever stood up to kings, tyrants and mullahs in the Middle East is the promise of economic justice, brought about through nationalist and socialist policies of agrarian reform and state control over oil.

Um, sure. That would explain all the flourishing socialist utopias dotting the region. Correct me if I am wrong but all the worst mass murding despots of the twentieth century rose to power on "the promise of economic justice, brought about through nationalist and socialist policies..."

Freedom and democracy need to be liberated from Bush's deadly embrace and returned to the movements of the Middle East that have been struggling for these goals for decades. They have a story of their own to finish.

Returned? Did the US come in and rip democracy from some liberal regime to whom it legitamately belongs? I think not. There was no democracy in Iraq. There is none in Saudi Arabia or Iran. Now there is a fledgeling democracy in Iraq, under attack by ruthless zealots who hack the heads off children. They are struggling to form a government and write a constitution. I suggest now is not the perfect moment to leave them in the lurch. They do have a story to finish. And now that a certain Texan cowboy has made it possible they can get on with it.

MSD