The "Arab Spring" of 2010-11 — however bitter or sweet its fruits may grow in the fullness of time — didn't just happen. Bill Whittle makes a powerful case for GWB's foreign policy as a major catalyst in his latest YouTube sensation, "Memebusters! The Osama bin Laden Edition," where he asks "Why are all these Muslims in repressive regimes suddenly rising up for freedom and the right to vote? Why now, all of a sudden? That's why," he answers, pointing to the iconic image of a triumphant Iraqi woman who had just voted for the first time in her life in the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"You know, there's a word for this kind of long-range, deep, subtle planning. It's called 'strategery,'" says Professor-at-Large of Memebuster University Bill Whittle, turning the memetic Saturday Night Live putdown of GW's Iraq strategy on its head in a Geography 101 lesson about why the 43rd President sent our forces into both Afganistan and Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11:
If you wanna know why there haven't been any large-scale attacks on the U.S. homeland since 9/11, 2001, just look at this map (below). Imagine if Mexico and Canada both became radical Muslim Nations like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Where do you think our attention would be?
Armchair strategerist that we are, we'd noticed something similar — including the geographically strategic importance of Pakistan — way back in July of 2004 in "Between Iraq and a hard place":
"Could the President know something that the Media and the Left don't?" asks Speed of Thought (found 'em in our Site Meter stats). Iran is getting the squeeze as The Bush Doctrine makes slow but steady headway on the ground. The old board game of "Risk" comes to mind.
Something that the Media and the Left don't get. That's the larger subject of Bill Whittle's tutorial. Stumbling over their "all-about-oil" meme, BDS sufferers, then as now, missed the big picture:
Memes are cultural beliefs that were not [Ed note: Much thanks to Joy McCann aka Little Miss Atilla for typo correction] taught in school or in religion but that take on a life of their own because large numbers of people have emotional reasons for wanting them to be true …
My joy about hearing about the death of Osama bin Laden lasted for about 20 seconds until I turned on the TV to see Andrea Mitchell crowing about how this really was "Mission Accomplished," not the premature "Mission Accomplished" that Cowboy George Bush claimed during his speech on that aircraft carrier, which happened, coincidentally, eight years earlier to the day …
Only George Bush didn't claim "Mission Accomplished." In fact he said just the opposite.
"So, where did this meme come from?" asks Whittle:
Well, the press made it up out of whole cloth. They not only distorted, they actually reversed everything that George Bush said on the deck of that aircraft carrier …
"Now that day on the carrier, President Bush didn't say 'Mission Accomplished,'" but he did say this:
The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world … Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope … When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life … American values and American interests lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty.
How ironic that even as American values are making inroads in distant lands where tyranny has long oppressed the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, a thuggish mindset worthy of any foreign tyrant — spawn of the insidious Gramscian march through the institutions — "has crept into our political life," as John of PowerLine explains in his must-read "The Politics of Personal Intimidation":
A disturbing new element has crept into our political life: organized efforts to intimidate private citizens who choose to support certain political causes or otherwise participate in civic affairs. This, as far as I know, is unprecedented in our modern history. Our democracy depends on citizen involvement, and until now, Americans have felt free to participate in public life and to support whatever causes, political and otherwise, they choose. But if the Left has its way, that may be about to change.
Update: Thank you, dear old friend Ed Driscoll, guest posting during Glenn's vacation, for the Instalanche!
Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.
Ignorance of the freedom of thought and of expression and of action that has made the USA the freest and most prosperous country that the world has know is the standard for leftists. Because of their
intellectual education they think they know what makes success. They don't have a clue, and if they are able rule us and force us to live by their standards, our future will be one of povety and slavery.
Posted by: goomp | May 12, 2011 at 03:35 PM
"The advance of freedom is the surest stratey" but we continue to shuffle around it as our enemies attack us headON with their ideology. When are we going to have a vote in the U.N. about the U.S. Consitutions First Amendment? Isn't it diametrically opposed to the 'freedom' (submission) that OIC countries are proposing daily, in every corner of the world, at every international meeting? NO aid, NO visas, NO food subsidies...NOTHING to countries that cannot support the First Amendment loudly!
Posted by: SenatorMark4 | May 12, 2011 at 05:39 PM
Powerline has apparently forgotten about union busting, abolition, the KKK, border ruffians, Father Cochran, the Blue Eagle, the Red Scare...
When John says "This, as far as I know, is unprecedented in our modern history." I have to assume that by modern he means "sometime in the last 15 years".
Posted by: spool32 | May 12, 2011 at 06:10 PM
And the second. And the third, and the fourth, and on down the line through the 10th. Add the 13th and 19th. We can argue about the rest.
Posted by: Kathy Kinsley | May 12, 2011 at 06:12 PM
The Arab uprising is a direct result of our attempts to debase our currency. Their inflation rates are skyrocketing the common Arab is starving which is why they are rioting. Well at least our Bankers are Ok.
The results of the Arab "spring" will be ugly. It is absurd to believe that democracy will result in anything but a radicalized ME.
Posted by: Pierre Legrand | May 12, 2011 at 07:01 PM
As America slips under the icy waters faster than the Titanic, who will save us from President Obama and the Democratic Party? Open the telephone book and select any name at random and you will likely find a more competent leader then this bungling socialist the American people have placed in our White House.
Did Obama kill Osama? No. If not for the ground work of George Bush and Dick Cheney, Osama bin Laden could have been living in Trump Tower and the Obama administration wouldn’t have had a clue.
Our brave Navy SEALs using information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques and the polices of Bush/Cheney lead us to bin Laden. While the single greatest accomplishment of Obama is to take credit for the work of someone else.
You can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to blame everything on “eight years of Bush,” you have to give him credit for the demise of bin Laden too.
GREGORY H. BONTRAGER,
Posted by: Gregory H. Bontrager | June 17, 2011 at 05:31 PM