Bush: Its worth it

forbes: "I keep reminding the American people that the stakes are worth it," Bush said. "It is worth it to help Iraq succeed. It is worth it to have a democracy in the Middle East. It is worth it to show other reformers and people who want to live in a free society what is possible.' Read more

db: Now that 'we got Zarqawi' the sky is the limit for this president. He even dares to mention 'democracy' in the Middle East again - when we all know that the democracy thing was dumped a while back - around the time that Bush and co realised that controlling the outcome of elections was an impossibly tall order, and that the voters just might have a preference for Islamist parties. Rather than deal with Islamists in government Bush props up the likes of Hosni Mubarek in Egypt - where the increasingly popular Muslim Brotherhood are banned as a political party, Ayman Nour, former leader of the secular Ghad party remains in prison on trumpted up forgery charges and protesters are jailed and tortured for demanding judicial independence.