Ace:"But they do seem to be stampeding, don't they? It doesn't take much to spook this herd and get it to change direction."

Is this sarcasm? It took winning a war in Afghanistan, a war in Iraq, free elections in Palestine and the Ukraine, and anti Syrian demonstrations in Lebanon just to get the BBC to admit that some Arab newspapers might be questioning the fact that something might be going on. I know that the BBC arent the only MSM out their saying this, but i would be willing to bet that it will be at least 10 years from now before anyone in the MSM will give Bush credit for all the changes in the middle east. Only after he is well out of office and then only if everything goes off perfecrly. No civil wars. No new dictators.

Dammit, freedom is breaking out everywhere and it's all Bush's fault. Damn cowboy!

"It doesn't take much to spook this herd and get it to change direction." Tom Wicker of the NYT said that most reporters spend all their time sitting at the bar of the local Hilton Hotel drinking, so they don't actually see much in the middle east. They pay local stringers to do their job for them and how far they are willing to put their asses on the line is questionable too. Perhaps the local stringers have caught the optimism of the revoloution taking place there. But the one thing that we can all count on is that no matter what direction this herd runs, it will not be in praise of W.

I think I'd actually have more respect for them if they didn't back down from years of previous group-think so quickly---Ace

I wouldn't have more respect for them,if they recanted everything while standing on their collective heads.Whether one ascribes their performance to bias,stupidity,carelessness,or just sheer lazyness,the results are the same.
The world needs and deserves better.

I question the timing.

Modern Enlightened Thought has it that there is no True and False, only oppressors and the oppressed. (Lord Voldemort is a leading proponent of this view.) But when an idea, like, say, Mideastern democracy, can sweep away decades of propaganda for the contrary idea in just a few weeks, it makes you wonder. Maybe it doesn't prove that True and False exist. But it does seem to indicate that ideas fall into two categories, whatever you call the categories.

"Arab newspapers are ... asking whether it is the precursor of the spread of genuine democracy across the region."

Though peace has been threatening to break out in the middle east for decades, this is really exciting news! Praise God!