Spreading democracy

The Washington Times: Editorials/:

Mr. Bush thinks big. Some might have imagined the war on terror to have been his great project and the one on which his legacy would stand or fall. But here, he has subsumed even that task under the broader 'philosophical argument of the age': The best weapon against terror is political participation of the sort only democracy allows. Terror is born of alienation from the political process, from denial of the ability to participate in making the decisions that govern one's life. But isn't the war on terror really a war against Islamist radicalism? Yes, but considered in terms of 'the philosophical argument of the age,' that radicalism is itself an expression of alienation. It will not survive the extension of democracy and political participation, at least not in nearly so virulent and dangerous a form. Islamism grows where Muslims lack democracy, understood in the sense of a permanent political system of self-governance with regular elections and protected minority rights. Islamism has grown in democratic Europe precisely because of Muslim alienation from politics there.

This is exactly how I feel and I am confident that history will reflect very favorably on those who stood on the side of democracy on this issue.