Democracy and Freedom are On the March

The frame game is well underway. This is the White House interpretation of what is happening in the Middle East and Central Asia:

Bill Sammon reports:

The White House, buoyed by the fall of Lebanon's pro-Syria government and other signs of democratization throughout the Middle East, yesterday proclaimed that "democracy and freedom are on the march."

Although careful not to gloat over encouraging developments that still could turn sour, administration officials were heartened by the speed with which President Bush's foreign policy of introducing liberty to the Middle East appears to be bearing fruit. [emphasis mine]

Middle East analyst Marc Ginsberg, who was an ambassador to Morocco during the Clinton administration, said Mr. Bush "deserves credit" for aggressively trying to spread freedom in the region. He said the catalyst for reform was Iraq, which held its first free elections on Jan. 30....

Sammon hammers the point home time and again:

Lebanon's pro-Syria government abruptly resigned yesterday amid pro-democracy demonstrations in Beirut. The move came one week after Mr. Bush gave a speech in Brussels declaring that "the Lebanese people have the right to be free."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced Saturday that Egypt will hold its first direct, multiparty presidential elections. Mr. Bush, in his Brussels speech, called on Egypt to "show the way toward democracy in the Middle East."

Iraq announced this weekend that Syria has captured Saddam Hussein's half brother, a leader of Iraq's insurgency, and turned him over to Baghdad with 29 other fugitives. The announcement came in the wake of Mr. Bush's admonition in Brussels that "the Syrian regime must take stronger action to stop those who support violence and subversion in Iraq."

In Lebanon, Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, a frequent critic of the United States, credited Mr. Bush for the recent trend toward democratization.

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq...."

Read the whole thing here.

The key here is to identify the spreading democracy movement with American initiatives. Critics of the administration both here and abroad will seek to find other, preferably indigenous, sources for the recent disturbances. A good example is the Boston Globe piece by Rami Khouri referenced below, which cites indigenous conditions in Lebanon and the Ukraine elections as precedents for the "Red and White" revolution.