U.S. President George W. Bush called on Arab allies in the Gulf to embrace democracy as ``the only form of government that treats people with liberty and dignity,'' and warned them of the dangers he said were posed by Iran. ``Iran today is the world's leading state sponsor of terror,'' Bush said today in a speech in Abu Dhabi. ``Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere.''
In the gilded auditorium of Abu Dhabi's $3 billion Emirates Palace Hotel, built along a beach of imported Algerian sand, Bush said the Middle East is facing an ideological struggle between democratic and economic progress and Islamic extremists. ``Across the world, the majority of Muslim people live in a free and democratic society,'' Bush said. ``The people of the Middle East must continue to work for the day where that is also true of the land that Islam first called home.''
| As a comely young maiden once told me-- Well, maybe she wasn't actually a maiden -- "nebbah hoppen, G.I.!" A free society is possible only with freedom of thought. Freedom of thought equates to freedom of religion. There's no way around it, which means that Muslim countries will not be free by definition. |
Bush is midway through a Middle East tour aimed in part at shoring up support in confronting Iran before, he said today, ``it's too late.'' As part of his effort to strengthen the U.S.'s Gulf allies, Bush tomorrow will notify Congress of plans to sell precision- guided missiles and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, a senior administration official said in a briefing for reporters. The announcement is timed to Bush's visit to Riyadh. |