Informant38

as we meet the terror and violence of the world:

President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East
Remarks by the President at the 20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy
United States Chamber of Commerce
Washington, D.C November 2003

The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region.

"The roots of our democracy can be traced to England, and to its Parliament"
"We've witnessed, in little over a generation, the swiftest advance of freedom in the 2,500 year story of democracy"
"It is no accident that the rise of so many democracies took place in a time when the world's most influential nation was itself a democracy."
"Our commitment to democracy is tested in countries like Cuba and Burma and North Korea and Zimbabwe"
"Our commitment to democracy is tested in China."
"Our commitment to democracy is also tested in the Middle East, which is my focus today, and must be a focus of American policy for decades to come. In many nations of the Middle East -- countries of great strategic importance -- democracy has not yet taken root."

"As men and women are showing, from Bangladesh to Botswana, to Mongolia, it is the practice of democracy that makes a nation ready for democracy, and every nation can start on this path."

"In Iran, the demand for democracy is strong and broad"
"For the Palestinian people, the only path to independence and dignity and progress is the path of democracy"
"The great and proud nation of Egypt has shown the way toward peace in the Middle East, and now should show the way toward democracy in the Middle East."
"Afghanistan faces continuing economic and security challenges -- it will face those challenges as a free and stable democracy." (Applause.)
"In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy -- and after three decades of tyranny, this work is not easy."

"Securing democracy in Iraq is the work of many hands."

-
democracy:
[Gr.,=rule of the people], term originating in ancient Greece to designate a government where the people share in directing the activities of the state, as distinct from governments controlled by a single class, select group, or autocrat. The definition of democracy has been expanded, however, to describe a philosophy that insists on the right and the capacity of a people, acting either directly or through representatives, to control their institutions for their own purposes.

-
34% said they favored the war in Iraq, 65% opposed, and 1% was undecided. The margin of error was plus or minus 3%

-

Bush could double force by Christmas

The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.