Fleischer Declares Reform Movement Bush's Gift to Iran
Freedom, George W. Bush repeatedly insisted, "is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." Now with tens of thousands of protesters in the streets of Tehran, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer declared the reform movement is his boss' gift to Iran.
In an email last Friday on the eve of the Iranian vote, Fleischer wasn't content to give his boss credit for the defeat of the Hezbollah coalition in the Lebanese elections a week earlier. The growing reform movement in Iran, Fleischer insisted, was due to "George W. Bush's tough policies" and his administration's "outreach to the people of Iran":
"A big push for reform is because of the desire of Iranians to get out from sanctions, to put an end to the country's international ostracism because Shiites in particular see Shiites in Iraq having more freedoms than they do. Bush's tough policies have helped give rise to the reformists and I think we're witnessing that today."
"I think it's fair to say the George Bush's Freedom Agenda planted seeds that have started to grow in the Middle East."
Of course, Fleischer's revisionist history is as preposterous as it is the product of wishful thinking. A quick glance at the timeline would remind the Bush flack that reformist president Mohammed Khatami was elected in 1997 and reelected in 2001. But Khatami faltered, caught between the unmet expectations of students and other reformers on the one hand and growing pressure from conservatives on the other. And to be sure, President Bush didn't help matters when in 2002 he proclaimed Iran a member of his "Axis of Evil." Foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi foreshadowed the hardline blowback to come in Iran, calling Bush's demagoguery "arrogant" and "interference in its internal affairs." In 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency.
More laughable still is Ari Fleischer's counterclockwise spinning of the Iraq war itself. George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq did not enhance freedom and reform within Iran; it only served to expand Iranian power and influence throughout the region. And despite Bush's October 2007 warning that " if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," he left the Iranian nuclear issue unresolved for the next president.
As he has shown time and again, Ari Fleischer is neither an historian nor a philosopher of freedom. Six years after the invasion of Iraq, Fleischer this March continued to peddle the bogus link to the 9/11 attacks, asking a stunned Chris Matthews, "After September 11th having been hit once how could we take a chance that Saddam might strike again?" And after comedian Bill Maher was fired by ABC days after the catastrophe for stating the 9/11 hijackers were not "cowards," Fleischer delivered a warning more reminiscent of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than Thomas Jefferson:
"They're reminders to all Americans that they need to, to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that. It never is!"
Perhaps that's what Ari Fleischer meant by "George Bush's Freedom Agenda."
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