Ignatius gives Rice her due

Passed on to me by Mike Bussio:

Here is the opening:

Rice's Useful Rhetoric
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By David Ignatius
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Wednesday, June 22, 2005
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Speeches don't change the world, but they sometimes put down markers for policymakers and help ordinary folks understand what's going on. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech in Cairo this week about Middle East democracy struck me as one of those important yardsticks.
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The initial take on Rice's speech focused on her evaluation of the democratic progress of other nations -- of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, specifically. She pressed those countries to reform their political systems, while noting that local reformers must lead and define the agenda and set the pace of change. Amen.
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But an overlooked aspect of Rice's speech was that it established guideposts by which to measure the policy of the United States. She enunciated a pro-democracy position so forcefully that if the Bush administration deviates from it, or undermines its credibility through belligerent, anti-democratic actions, it will be open to the charge of hypocrisy . . .

Read the full at washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101364.html.