Bush asks Mideast to try democracy

Iraq cast as part of global ‘revolution’; president heaps scorn on Iran and Syria

WASHINGTON President George W. Bush on Thursday described a vision of how democracy could unfold in the Middle East and beyond once Iraq is stabilized, challenging Iran, Syria and one critical American ally in the region - Egypt - to end traditions of authoritarianism.

Bush directly compared what he called a new "forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East" to Ronald Reagan's 1982 declaration in England that Soviet communism had failed, and to American efforts to spread democracy in Asia after World War II. In his speech before the National Endowment for Democracy created by Congress in the Reagan administration, Bush named four other countries where he said dictatorship was doomed: North Korea, Myanmar, Cuba and Zimbabwe, declaring that "these regimes cannot hold back freedom forever.'

He predicted that just as Nelson Mandela emerged from captivity in South Africa to lead his nation, "one day, from prison camps and prison cells, and from exile, the leaders of new democracies will arrive.'

Bush has sounded similar themes before, notably in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute a month and a half before he ordered the invasion of Iraq that was an effort to offer a broader justification for military action than the weapons that he asserted that Saddam Hussein had amassed.

Several of his most senior aides say they now wished Bush had struck those themes harder in the runup to the war. But Bush's treatment of Iraq Thursday was notably different. He never mentioned weapons of mass destruction, which U.S. investigators are still searching for, so far with little success.

Nor did he declare any success in Iraq, telling the audience, "The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution.'

But he also made it clear that the United States cannot afford to let the democratization of the country blow off course, as some officials in his administration fear could happen. "The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region. Iraqi democracy will succeed - and that success will send forth the news, from Damascus to Teheran - that freedom can be the future of every nation.'

At moments in Bush's speech, his language was sweeping, and he appeared headed to taking the United States in new directions.

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe,' he said, "because in the long run stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.'

But as he listed the actions under way in the region, he heaped the most scorn on Iran and Syria. "The regime in Tehran must heed the democratic demands of the Iranian people or lose its last claim to legitimacy,' the president declared, his harshest comments about the country since it appeared to begin cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency over its suspected nuclear weapons program. He lumped Syria's leaders with Saddam, saying they had promised a restoration of ancient glories but instead left "a legacy of torture, oppression, misery and ruin.'

But Bush prasied the leaders of Saudi Arabia - among the most resistant to democratic change in the region but also one of the most critical American allies and oil suppliers - for their willingness to hold democratic elections, and suggested they were on the cusp of change.

5 billion aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan, after likening the Iraq campaign to the prolonged cold war and declaring that a free, stable Iraq would help defeat terrorism, just as America's generosity after World War II had helped the cause of freedom. "With this act of Congress, no enemy or friend can doubt that America has the resources and the will to see this war through to victory," Bush said at a White House ceremony. "Our investment in the future of Afghanistan and Iraq is the greatest commitment of its kind since the Marshall Plan," Bush said. "By this action we show the generous spirit of our country, and we serve the interest of our country, because our security is at stake. The Middle East region will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will remain a source of violence and terror."

Bush won passage of the $87.5 billion after a considerable struggle on Capitol Hill, where many Democratic lawmakers expressed reservations about the administration's approach to Iraq but said that in the end, they had to give the U.S. military whatever it needed to complete its mission. "We're engaged in a massive and difficult undertaking, but America has done this kind of hard work before," Bush said. "After World War II, we made long-term commitments to the transformation of Germany and Japan so that those nations would not be sources of war but our partners in peace. That investment in peace has been repaid many times over. Now our generation will show the same perseverance and the same vision in the cause of peace."

The bulk of the aid bill - $65.7 billion - that Bush was signing will pay for the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, with $24 billion alone going for army operations and $10 billion earmarked for Afghanistan.

The most contentious part of the bill was the $20.3 billion requested by the president for rebuilding in Iraq. Although Bush won the larger battle, preventing Iraq from having to repay any of that money to the United States, he was forced to accept a $1.6 billion cut. Iraq cast as part of global ‘revolution’; president heaps scorn on Iran and Syria