Demagogue

President Bush is urging European leaders to back his campaign to spread democracy abroad, but a new Associated Press poll found that a majority of people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said that it should not be the U.S. role to spread democracy.

My initial reaction was one of disappointment because I firmly believe the Middle East and other regions could benefit from greater democracy (by that, I don't simply mean "majority rule"). But, as I began to consider why Europeans might have reacted so negatively to a push to expand democracy worldwide, I reached the same conclusion that a Bush insider reached -- they see the administration's "democracy" message as shorthand for unilateral muscle-flexing around the globe.

As MSNBC explains:

White House counselor Dan Bartlett suggested that foreigners may misunderstand Bush’s plan to spread the liberties that Europeans and Americans take for granted.

“People get in their mind that spreading freedom means war and that’s not the case,” Bartlett said in an interview Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Some of those opinion polls are reading in to it a little more than what President Bush intends.”

Gee, Dan, I wonder why?

This illustrates the long-lasting fallout that results when you wage a war over the objection of most of your major allies in order to find and destroy non-existent WMDs.

If Bush genuinely wants to see democracy spread -- a worthy goal -- he will need European support. Securing this support will take time, the right words and the right deeds.