Democracy in the Middle East

It seems that President Bush's hopes for democracy in the Middle East are already beginning to bear fruit, despite the skepticism of many on both sides of the political divide.

Just a few examples of the spread of democracy and reform in the Middle East in recent months:

• the collapse of the Lebanese government in the face of huge protests
• hints by President Assad of Syria that he might consider reforms both at home and in the Lebanon
• moves towards democracy by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt
• the extension of suffrage to women and municipal elections in Saudi Arabia

All of these since the President's inaugural and state of the union addresses, in which he emphasised the need to spread democracy and freedom throughout the world. And of course, all of them come on top of the elections in Iraq at the end of January and the Palestinian elections which followed the death of Yasser Arafat. A nice summary of the current state of democracy in the Middle East is available on the BBC website.

It now seems that we may be witnessing a Ronald Reagan-like vindication of a much-ridiculed Republican president's policies, despite the assertions of the foreign policy intelligentsia. Of course, we know from experience that none of those who ridiculed President Bush's plans will ever acknowledge that they were wrong.