Henry Hyde: Prophet

When GWB announced that the US would 'implant democracy' in the Middle East (and Afghanistan), Henry Hyde called him out.

No one noticed at the time.  Too bad.  Hyde was right.

"Viewed in its more compete historical context," Hyde said, "implanting democracy in large areas would require that we possess an unbounded power and undertake an open-ended commitment of time and resources, which we cannot and will not do."

..."America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," Bush said. "From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights and dignity and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of heaven and earth."

This principle - articulated in our Declaration of Independence and based on an understanding of God and man that traces back to both classical philosophy and the Bible - is undoubtedly true. But the dominant cultural forces in the very lands Bush tried to fashion into democracies deny it.

Four years after Hyde rebutted the Golden Theory, the last Christian church was razed in Condoleezza Rice's Afghan democracy.

Then there's the halving of the Christian population in Iraq, the Egypt problem, and what looks like a coming sectarian war in Syria and Lebanon. 

In short, Bush was a dreamer.  Nice guy, good neighbor, stand-up fella.

But absolutely wrong on this issue.