Rice claims US credit for enabling Middle East reforms

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1397523.htm

Rice claims US credit for enabling Middle East reforms

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States could take credit for an improvement in political freedoms in the Middle East after Washington made promoting democracy a priority this year.

While she acknowledged there were other factors, Dr Rice said the US campaign had generally increased the chances for reforms and, in the cases of elections in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, had directly stimulated change.

"The overall sense that this is a region that is now unlocking in terms of democratic reform ... is in part attributable to US policy," she told reporters as she flew to Brussels following a tour of the Middle East, where she prodded Saudi Arabia and Egypt to expand political freedoms.

In a policy shift that has evolved after militants attacked America on September 11, 2001, President George W Bush has pledged to make democracy central to bilateral relations in the belief that US interests are best served if freedoms spread.

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[truebrit71]

1. Ahh, I see, spiralling into chaos is actually "unlocking"...

..thanks for clearing that up for us Kinda-Sleazy...

:eyes:

[Emendator]

2. How about

Uzbekistan? How's that for progress? Karimov's having his own little Great Leap Forward. But he's our guy.

[LynnTheDem]

14. Hey good point...at least he's stopped boiling his political opponents

to death. We think.

[marmar]

3. Condi needs to stop taking hallucinogenic drugs...

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[beam me up scottie]

4. Chimpy deserves credit for Iran's election results. .nt

[Jacobin]

5. I like that alternate universe Condi lives in

I'm glad she 'takes credit' for IraqNam

The history books will certainly give her credit for it

[doodadem]

6. Pis-shaw!

I was listening to a Middle East expert on Democracy Now yesterday. He said Bush and Condi act like they invented democracy! Try to take credit for anything good that comes out of the region.
They sure don't take credit for the bad though.........

[cthrumatrix]

7. up is down ..... black is white .... IGNORE the liar

[Oreo]

8. Does this mean...

Condi is admitting that US agents killed both Harari and Arafat??

Without their deaths they wouldn't have had the elections the bush regime is taking credit for.

[lyonn]

10. Could you explain this to Condi

Naw, she already knows it, she just doesn't want us to know that those 2 deaths made a world of difference, not their bomb droppings.

[AllegroRondo]

9. Republicans: first to take credit

last to take blame

[applegrove]

11. Simply by stopping the 'disablement' of ME democracy..by getting

rid of Jean Kirkpatrick think... yes... Rice & the neocons have saved the world! Right! Incidentally Carter was after the Shaw to institute democratic reforms and improve human rights record before he was deposed. Clinton's Freedom house enabled the people in the Ukraine to get back democracy.

[TahitiNut]

12. Again ...

.... this adminstration is like a mugger claiming credit for the victim's later recovery in the hospital.

Disgusting, lying criminals! :puke:

[StevieM]

13. They should take a look at Turkey's human rights record....

it isn't so good, but Bush&Rice just don't care.

We need an independent Kurdistan, but they won't stand up to Turkey. So the problems continue, including in Iraq, which is the sorriest excuse for a confederation imaginable.

Steve

[Cocoa]

15. Bush is discrediting the reformers

the forces of repression can paint reformers as tools of Bush.