<sarcasm> The Republicans are paying me good money to link to this stuff </sarcasm>, so here goes:

Bush never accepted the view that Islamic terrorism had its roots in religion or culture or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead he veered toward the analysis that the region was breeding terror because it had developed deep dysfunctions caused by decades of repression and an almost total lack of political, economic and social modernization. The Arab world, in this analysis, was almost unique in that over the past three decades it had become increasingly unfree, even as the rest of the world was opening up. His solution, therefore, was to push for reform in these lands.

That's Fareed Zakaria writing for Newsweek about how President Bush just may change the world, with special reference to the Iraq vote and the hope of Lebanon.

I wonder when the kids at Kos will start digging through his past.