It's the strategy, stupid!

The Captain on the sudden interest in democracy throughout the Middle East and western Asia:

Make no mistake. This transformation didn't just happen to coincide with the terms of Bush, Blair, and Howard. Expect the mainstream media to sell that meme in the next few weeks -- how George Bush, especially, got lucky to just happen to be President when all of this happened. Don't buy it for a second. He saw how to change the world and eliminate terrorism over the long haul and more importantly had the political courage to act in that regard.

Somewhere, Ronald Reagan is smiling.

Update: Here's some evidence that people are noticing it in Europe, too.