It seems bizarre that right-wing pundits would be so desperate to use the recent anti-American protests in the Middle East—in most cases numbering only a few hundred people and in no cases numbering more than two or three thousand—as somehow indicative of why the United States should oppose greater democracy in the Middle East.
At the end of December, the first popular uprising in the region against a government of the left took place in Bolivia. It was caused by an excessive increase in the price of fuels. The event demonstrates the difficulties of entering into a truly alternative mode of development, but it also reveals the limits of the Bolivian government’s stated effort to re-establish and decolonize the state.
Anti-war protesters targeting individual troops for abuse, much less gathering at their funerals like the homophobic Rev. Fred Phelps, is as much of a myth as protesters spitting on returning Vietnam veterans.
In his 2005 inaugural address, President George W. Bush declared that the United States would support
democratic movements around the world and work to end tyranny. Furthermore, he pledged to those struggling
for freedom that the United States would "not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors." Despite
these promises, the Bush administration—with the apparent acquiescence of the Democratic-controlled
Congress—has instead decided to continue U.S. support for the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf,
Pakistan’s president.