Hungary '56 = Iraq '06?
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Bush was in Hungary today, commemorating the heroic 1956 uprising against puppet-rule of the country by an outside invader. While comparing the struggle to Iraq, he forgot to urge the public not to arrive to the comparison's obvious implication.
Assuming Bush knows something about the 1956 uprising (yeah, big assumption), he's probably really, really glad that Iraqis aren't doing now what Hungarians were doing 50 years earlier. Direct establishment of workers' councils and regional councils as a basic unit of political and economic power, demands for the occupying country to leave and a desire to align closely with regional neighbors doesn't strike me as something in this Administration's gameplan.
So if in this metaphor, Iraq is Hungary, will we end up being the USSR? Time will tell whether history paints us as liberators, or as a foreign occupying and controlling force that, like the Hungarians of the last century, Iraqis will have to fight against for decades before they win true sovereignty. I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that.
Looks like both Iraqis and Hungarians are good at toppling large moustachioed statues.
President Bush praised Hungary's bloody 1956 uprising against communist rule on Thursday and said the country's eventual success in ousting authoritarian rule was a shining example for Iraq to follow.
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He compared Iraq's struggle to develop into a democracy to Hungary's effort to bring down communist rule 50 years ago and said Iraqis would need the same kind of patience as Hungarians as they try to establish a thriving democracy. [Reuters]
Assuming Bush knows something about the 1956 uprising (yeah, big assumption), he's probably really, really glad that Iraqis aren't doing now what Hungarians were doing 50 years earlier. Direct establishment of workers' councils and regional councils as a basic unit of political and economic power, demands for the occupying country to leave and a desire to align closely with regional neighbors doesn't strike me as something in this Administration's gameplan.
So if in this metaphor, Iraq is Hungary, will we end up being the USSR? Time will tell whether history paints us as liberators, or as a foreign occupying and controlling force that, like the Hungarians of the last century, Iraqis will have to fight against for decades before they win true sovereignty. I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that.
Looks like both Iraqis and Hungarians are good at toppling large moustachioed statues.
