Destroying Democracy, At Home And Abroad

In the USA, Bush rallies are becoming eerily reminiscent of pre-WWII Nazi rallies:

"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."

Abroad, the USA's reputation is lying in bloody tatters and the very concept that the USA is even capable of "spreading democracy" is becoming increasingly laughable.

"Eighteen months after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, the naive belief that the statues of other despots might start to look shaky - that a democratic domino effect would ripple through the region - is being cruelly exposed as idiocy.

All the signs are that anti-American anger in the Middle East is at an all-time high, mostly because of the war in Iraq, and that the invasion and its aftermath, rather than promoting democracy in the region, has set it back.

Experts on the Middle East report that the example of the Iraq disaster has strengthened the hand of the despots and undermined the position of reformers and moderates."

Story here: War makes democracy a dirty word.