Heading Into Passover — I

As we head into Passover, some thoughts on freedom and democracy:

President George W. Bush on Friday morning at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.:

We needed a hopeful moment for this world of ours.  It’s a time when more people have a chance to claim freedom that God intended for us all.  It’s also a time of great challenge.  In some of the most advanced parts of our world, some people no longer believe that the desire for liberty is universal. . . .

In the last part of the 20th century, we saw the appeal of freedom in the hands of a priest from Poland.  When Pope John Paul II ascended to the chair of St. Peter, the Berlin Wall was still standing.  His native Poland was occupied by a communist power.  And the division of Europe looked like a permanent scar across the continent.  Yet Pope John Paul told us, "Be not afraid," . . .  Pope John Paul II set off one of the greatest revolutions for freedom the world has ever known. . . .

In this young century, our nation has been called to great duties.  I’m confident we’ll meet our responsibilities so long as we continue to trust in God’s purposes.  During our time in the White House, Laura and I have been blessed by the prayers of countless Americans, including many in this room.  It’s really an amazing country where people walk up to you, say, Mr. President, I pray for you — expecting to say, Mr. President, I’d like a bridge.  (Laughter.) . . .

I ask for your prayers again, that our nation may always be an inspiration to those who believe that God made every man, woman and child for freedom.  It is such an honor to be here.

Leon Wieseltier at The New Republic Online on Friday, in a useful article with quite a lot to say:

We could have installed a strongman [in Iraq], and we didn’t.  So if we intended to free Iraq, we have succeeded.  But if we intended to democratize Iraq, we have not yet succeeded. . . .   Democracy is a specific arrangement of freedom.  And insofar as it is an attempt to exchange one political culture with another, democratization is essentially a policy of de-stabilization; and therefore it takes time.

For this reason, and not only for this reason, the president is right that the United States must remain in Iraq for the duration of the struggle.  And he is right that there are many brave people in Iraq who are working to create a fair and open order, and that these people have a deep moral claim upon our help. 

And he is right that it is not the presence of the United States that is the main cause of the Iraqi semi-chaos:  the separatists and the saints are acting, quite obviously, on their own identities.  And he is right that a democratic Iraq would be an epochal accomplishment.

Two nights before Bush delivered his message to members of the Catholic Church, realist John Mearsheimer participated in a debate at Boston University, taking the negative side on the proposition “Should the United States promote democracy in the Islamic world?”

Arguing for the U.S. promotion of democracy in the Islamic world were Salameh Nematt, the Washington bureau chief of the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Al-Hayat, Steven A. Cook, a Douglas Dillon Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and undergraduate Daniel Chaparian (COM’07).

Those arguing the negative were John J. Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, F. Gregory Gause III, an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont, and Karin Esposito (LAW’07), a J.D. candidate at the School of Law. . . .

“Today, nobody says it was a bad idea to get rid of Nazis, fascism, and Japanese imperialism,” said Nematt.  “[This topic] brings to mind the messy war in Iraq . . .  [Efforts like that cannot be done] without the help of the United States and Western Europe.” . . .

At one point in the evening, a young man who said he was Turkish encouraged people to look around the room, commenting on the value of such free public discourse, which he described as democracy at work.  “Democracy is something Turkey could not have achieved without help,” he said.  “It’s something that I wouldn’t want to live without.”

Near the end of the last century, when my younger son was applying for college, one of the applications required an essay discussing the proposition that:  “Idealists are the true realists.”  At the time, I thought the topic was mundane.  These days, I think it encapsulates the debate of our times.

Long before there were neocons, or even liberals, Jews celebrated the centrality of freedom to God’s purposes.  On April 12, at sunset, we will begin observing the holiday of Passover, to remember what God did for us, and what we owe to others.