SwiftVets.com

[shawa]

Here is ONE Canadian journalist who gets it!

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/01/09/853635-sun.html

Sun, January 9, 2005
Democracy coming

BUSH IS DELIVERING FREEDOM, BOB MACDONALD SAYS

By BOB MACDONALD

DON'T LOOK now, but democracy is on the march in parts of the world that have never experienced it before. And the man determinedly promoting it against all kinds of murderous opposition is U.S. President George W. Bush.

I know, that probably doesn't make all those lib-left Bush-haters feel good. But it's happening.

For instance, there's an election today to select a new Palestinian president to succeed the late Yasser Arafat, who supported decades of violence. The leading candidate is Mahmoud Abbas, who says he wants to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Israel and the creation of a democratic Palestinian state -- the first ever in the Arab Muslim world.

Bush has been strongly supporting these moves.

And on Dec. 26, a rerun of a previously rigged election was held in Ukraine despite the opposition of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's been cracking down on freedom in Russia -- some fear he wants to build a new Russian empire.

However, with thousands of foreign official observers on hand -- including hundreds from Canada -- pro-western presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko scored a big win over pro-Russia candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

Previously, Yushchenko and his supporters charged he'd been poisoned and badly disfigured by Ukrainian secret police.

Finally, on Friday, Putin -- who had declared Yanukovych the winner after the first, rigged, election -- acknowledged Yushchenko's victory. He urged that "campaign rhetoric be occupied by pragmatic views in the interests of economic development and improvement of the people's living standards."

NEW LIFE

So there, democracy is enjoying a new breath of life in Ukraine -- a nation that was under the iron boot of the communist Soviet Union for seven decades. During that oppression, Ukraine lost an estimated 7 million people during the Red Terror campaign of Soviet dictator Joe Stalin alone.

And today, the Arab Muslim-ruled African state of Sudan ended a two-decade civil war in its southern area where its mainly Christian population sought more self-government. On hand for the peace treaty signing in Kenya was Bush's representative, Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The hope is that the settlement will lead to another in Sudan's Darfur area. That would bring peace to the entire country and help rid Sudan of Muslim terrorists who have used it as a safe haven.

"If Libya and Iraq and others can come off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, Sudan also has to try," commented Charles Gurdon, a British analyst.

In other words, Bush's persistent war against terrorism throughout the world is having its effect on many of those Arab Muslim nations that supported it. That followed on the horrific attacks by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, that slaughtered more than 3,000 innocent people, including 24 Canadians.

The first step was the U.S.-led coalition that went into Afghanistan and eliminated al-Qaida's bases. The terrorist-supporting Taliban regime was overthrown and the country's first-ever democratic government was elected this past year.

And now, with only three weeks to go, the first free, democratic elections in Iraq are on the way. That's despite the all-out efforts of al-Qaida and other terrorists -- some Iraqi, some foreign -- to try to intimidate Iraqi people to keep them from voting.

BEHEADINGS

Video-recorded beheadings of Iraqis are shown on terrorist-friendly Arab TV stations; pro-election Iraqi officials are kidnapped; Iraqi police and U.S. troops are attacked.

But the American president and the interim Iraqi government have declared the terrorists will not stop the elections.

"I know it's hard, but it's hard for a reason," said Bush.

He said the terrorists are stepping up their attacks because they desperately fear the Iraqi people will like this first taste of democracy -- and not want to return to dictatorship.

And behind it all is George W. Bush, a very determined leader backed by a fresh new four-year mandate from the American people.