Bush's idealism fraught with danger

I'm sure I sound pessimistic to some when I assert that there are some cultures that are not yet ready for any form of democracy, much less a representative republican one. It seems so obvious that there are some peoples and some lands that civilization has not yet reached a fertile enough point to allow the sort of liberty we have to sprout even the most feeble roots.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic. I'm being realistic. And pardon me, but I also hold fast to the concept of American exceptionalism. For one culture, ethos or nation to be exceptional, it goes to follow that there must be those that are ordinary, mediocre, and banal.

Revolutionary idea . . . on bridge too far?
The Washington Times: Commentary

"If freedom, mentioned 27 times by Mr. Bush, means authoritarian governors must learn to trust their people and allow them to vote leaders in and out of power, that is precisely what Algerian leaders did in December 1991. A free election gave a majority to Islamist extremists. Algeria's military declared the results null and void and a civil war broke out that killed some 100,000 people in the following 10 years."

See, I told you that the other end of the cultural bell curve exists.

Now, if someone will just tell Jorge W.