Bush the Liberator -- in the NYT!!!

What is it with the NYT? First they proclaim Bush a "Robin Hood" -- champion of the poor and unfortunate -- and now this!

Bush, the Great Shiite Liberator

By LEE SMITH

Published: May 1, 2005
....
[A]ny sort of democratic government in Iraq is groundbreaking. But after nearly 1,400 years of Sunni-dominated Islamic history, for a predominantly Shiite government to preside over an Arab state is utterly revolutionary.

Coming in the same week that the last Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, which is 40 percent Shiite, the developments in Iraq seemed likely to have repercussions that the Middle East will feel for some time to come - in ways that even the sagest observers cannot foresee.

In the Arab world, Shiites have largely been second-class citizens since A.D. 656, when Hussein, a grandson of Muhammad, was tortured and beheaded after a climactic battle with the Sunnis. That social order persisted through Mongol invasions, the Ottoman Empire and British occupation, until now....

As a result of Bush's policies,

It seems plausible that the United States will one day be regarded by Shiites not as the Great Satan but as the Great Liberator, and that the new Shiite ascendancy will open the region to democracy and economic reform.

Of course, this is the NYT and they are quick to say that this was not planned by Bush -- simply a consequence of his strategy of intimidating Sunni regimes, and that it all could go horribly wrong, but even so, it is an astounding admission.

Read the whole thing here.

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