WASHINGTON – With tens of thousands of Georgians assembled last week in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square, where the “Rose Revolution” brought a peaceful revival of democracy, President Bush praised the movement as part of the same march toward freedom that is taking place in Iraq.
And with thousands of Slovaks assembled last winter in Bratislava’s picturesque national square, where the candlelit demonstrations of a “Velvet Revolution” peacefully brought freedom for Czechoslovakia, Bush praised that movement, too.
With American dissatisfaction over the conflict in Iraq reaching its highest level since the invasion two years ago – and the initial reasons for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein undermined by the discovery that he possessed no weapons of mass destruction – Bush has set out this year with carefully scripted tours of the recently liberated nations of Europe to cast all of these events as chapters of one great world saga.
But the peaceful, homegrown movements of these nations bear little resemblance to what Bush has dubbed “the Purple Revolution” of Iraq – named for ink-stains on the fingers of Iraqis who voted in January for a new government.
Critics contend that the president is masking the original, and later discredited, reasons for invading Iraq with his vow to end world tyranny, a theme Bush voiced in his second-term inaugural address and has repeated across Europe.
“The pretext for this war has been redealt to us as many times as a riverboat gambler deals the cards on a busy night,” said Rashid Khalidi, professor of Arab studies at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute.
The Bush administration maintains that successful elections in Iraq and creation of a new government are part of a historic movement toward democracy that has swept Central Europe and now in the Middle East.
“You’re seeing great progress in terms of Iraq moving forward,” said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. “You have Lebanon moving forward with free elections, and in Egypt we will see how they move forward in implementing the decision to allow multiparty candidates to participate in elections.”
Yet unlike the largely bloodless revolutions that Bush has praised in Europe, the U.S.-led action in Iraq has cost the lives of more than 1,600 Americans and thousands of Iraqis.
“It is one thing to celebrate revolutions that other people conduct for their own reasons, and another thing entirely to create the conditions that not only lead to the revolution but also the creation of a stable nation-state that follows,” said Anthony Cordesman, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Invasion is not a revolution,” he added. “In the case of Iraq, we have become deeply involved in the reasons for creating change rather than being in the position only to celebrate that change.”
Some conservatives cautioned that the president, in search of an overarching theme, may be glossing over the differing realities within different countries.
“The tension in the Bush administration is, are these different stories, or is there an overarching theme?” said John Hulsman, research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Is democracy something that ultimately can be imposed?
“It doesn’t mean that people don’t yearn to breathe free, that President Bush isn’t on to something,” Hulsman said. “But the tension of that is to reconcile it with the world we actually live in … We have to be very careful to be not too utopian and giddy about all of this.”
If Bush is attempting to redefine the reason for fighting in Iraq, he may have reason. As his initial rationale of WMD has been undermined, Bush has turned toward justifying the conflict as central to his vision, outlined in his second inaugural address, of “ending tyranny in the world.”
Bush has stepped up speechmaking centered on his repeated theme that “freedom is on the march” as public support for the war has declined.
For two years, the Gallup Poll has asked Americans the question: “All in all, do you think the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, or not?” In the latest survey run April 29-May 1, Gallup recorded the highest level of public discontent ever, 57 percent. A year ago, 47 percent said the situation was not worth going to war.
In the latest survey, just 41 percent said it was worth it. A year ago, 50 percent said yes.
For Bush, who last week signed into law an $82 billion supplemental appropriation for Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing to make the case for fighting in Iraq has become critical. He has made Georgia, Slovakia and the Baltics exhibits in that case.
“The administration has tried to draw some consistent themes, that it is really, truly committed to democratic change,” Cordesman said. “At the same time, when you have an unsuccessful war and an uncertain political climate, linking Iraq to success (in Europe) is an obvious political gesture.”
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Bush’s European travels also have spotlighted nations supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Both Georgia and Slovakia are providing modest military forces. In the Baltic states, which emerged from Soviet domination in 1991, Bush has found support for the coalition in Iraq – and he thanked them last week with an address in Riga, Latvia.
At strategic, campaign-style visits to European nations that have overthrown oppressors, assembling massive crowds in the historic centers of those nations, Bush praised their causes.
“You are making many important contributions to freedom’s cause, but your most important contribution is your example,” Bush told a teeming crowd in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square, where Georgians amassed to celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and assembled again in 2003 to demand the resignation of a Soviet-linked president.
The resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze and a call for new elections was celebrated with roses carried into Georgia’s parliamentary hall. “Before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq, or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine … there was the Rose Revolution in Georgia,” Bush told the crowd.
The speech echoed the one Bush made to conclude his tour of Europe in February, with an address to thousands of people assembled outside the national theater of Bratislava.
In Czechoslovakia, a series of public protests known as the “Velvet Revolution” in 1989 led to the ouster of communist rule. The Slovaks and Czechs agreed to a peaceful separation in January 1993.
“You’re showing that a small nation, built on a big idea, can spread liberty throughout the world,” Bush told the Slovaks, drawing a line to Iraq. “At this moment, Slovak soldiers are serving courageously alongside U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. … With their votes cast and counted, the Iraqi people now begin a great and historic journey.”
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AP-NY-05-14-05 1851EDT
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