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[Son of Godzilla]

Anyone know where this phrase came from? I've found a whole lot of reporters and professors and idiot bloggers use it, but I'm assuming it was started by someone importantish in Washington.

Meh, I can't find anything at all. I've been staring at this damn screen too long.

 

[ConfusingJazz]

Its what spinsters use to try to justify the war. Basically, the idea was that Iraq would be a shining example of the triumph of liberty, freedom, and democracy in the middle east.

At least until they elect a theocratic anti-American president, then we may have to bomb the crap out of them again.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Errr yea. I meant more like who started the phrase. I'm at the point of just assuming the media/some random pundit developed it.

 

[ConfusingJazz]

Errr yea. I meant more like who started the phrase. I'm at the point of just assuming the media/some random pundit developed it.

I am guessing either a conservative pundit, or something like the white house communications director. They like to use propaganda like that.

 

[Mandark]

That phrase, verbatim, isn't actually that popular (409 hits on Google). But the idea is. The earliest I remember hearing it is in this Bush speech from February 2003. This is before the war, but at the point where it was seeming inevitable.

A free Iraq can be a source of hope for all the Middle East. Instead of threatening its neighbors and harboring terrorists, Iraq can be an example of progress and prosperity, in a region that needs both. If we liberate the Iraqi people, they can rest assure that we will help them build a country that is disarmed and peaceful, and united, and free.

I'm sure someone could find instances of this idea among the neoconservative intellectuals, policymakers, and pundits who supported the war, but I'm not sure where to look right away (and I'm not going to spend my day slogging through Charles Krauthammer archives).

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Thanks, I was mostly concentrating on post-war speeches because of the information I was given.

 

[Makura]

It was probably...

 

[Guileless]

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was very vocal about this idea during the runup to the war. I don't know if he phrased that way specifically, I do remeber him using the phrase "tragedies of Arab misgovernance."

edit: fixed the phrase

 

[Outdoor Miner]

:lol

I read the thread title as "Iraq as a 'molested freedom".