He writes:
If the world could only strip away some of its blind resentment it might start to see without prejudice what Mr Bush and Tony Blair are seeking to achieve in their grand and noble venture in the Middle East. But in the end, it will matter not how the world reports a president’s or a prime minister’s words. It will be the inescapable logic and reality of events that will eventually persuade even the most cynical critic.
Sometimes moments of truly historic significance are almost instantly recognisable for what they are. The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 proclaimed its universal importance right from the start. No one needed to be told that the fall of the Berlin Wall was going to change history. With others the consequences creep up on us slowly, even surreptitiously. Some wise heads see the significance; others resist it or are blind to it. It was not immediately necessarily evident that Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933 would lead to the unrelenting tragedy that unfolded for Europe and the world over the next decade. We all know better now.
Last Sunday I think will quickly fall into the first category. There is an unstoppable momentum for change in the Middle East now. In just two years tyrannies have been felled in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Palestine, the inexorable clock of human mortality has ended another. But the crucial element was always going to be the voluntary and courageous act of self-assertion that democratic and free elections represent — a message heard around the region and the world.
The way is open now, as it has never been, for an end to the servitude and alienation that have been the lot of the people of the Middle East for centuries. Long after the rhetoric has been ridiculed and scorned, the reality will stand as a magnificent monument to the possibilities of liberty.
I couldn'ta said it better. Read the whole thing here.
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