Snow Falling on Cedars

All together now: the dissolution of the Syrian-backed Lebanese government (the beginnings of the so-called "Cedar Revolution") is a good thing. But it has nothing to do with the Bush Administration's call for freedom around the world. I don't know how the one could possibly presuppose the other. The death of Rafik Hariri, one of the stifled voices for reform in the country, was clearly the catalyst for events on the ground there. The US tried to use Hariri's death to put more international pressure on the Syrians, but none of this would have happened without the efforts and the national unity of the Lebanese themselves. As Ed Kilgore notes, what US government would have reacted to Hariri's death differently? The Clinton State Department listed Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism for years. Trade was almost nil. Not to mention the fact that Syria has cooperated with the Bush Administration in antiterror policies, including being a landing point for terror suspects who underwent "extraordinary rendition."

Here's Ed's key point:

This is the kind of thinking, of course, that has convinced God knows how many people that Ronald Reagan personally won the Cold War. It's the old post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) logical fallacy. This is a president and an administration that chronically refuse to accept responsibility for the bad things that have happened on their watch--even things like the insurgency in Iraq that are directly attributable to its policies. Barring any specific evidence (provided, say, by Lebanese pro-democracy leaders)that Bush had anything in particular to do with Syria's setbacks in Lebanon, I see no particular reason to high-five him for being in office when they happened.

Indeed, if you do want to give Bush credit for this, you have to let him share it with France, who was much earlier to the call for Syria's pullout of Lebanon. France for freedom! Furthermore, if Bush's "bully diplomacy" truly worked, Syria would have been out of Lebanon by now, in fact as soon as troops landed on his border in Iraq. And Hariri would be alive.

I'm sick and tired of conservatives taking credit for everything that happens when a conservative is in the room. An increase in the banana crop in Pango Pango is not due to our strong foreign policy. Things do happen independently of the United States. The sun does not revolve around the Earth. Got it? Good.