Calpundit quoted the Washington Post article on Bush’s new “Greater Middle East Initiative.” It includes:

It calls for the United States and Europe to press for and assist free elections, foster new independent media, help create a “literate generation”….[promote] freedom, knowledge and women’s empowerment….increase funding of democracy, human rights, media, women’s and other groups….assistance in civic education, the creation of independent election commissions, and voter registration, particularly of women….with special emphasis on providing computer technology to schools and on teacher-training institutes to target women….It also suggests that providing $500 million in micro-loans — of about $400 each — would spur 1.2 million small entrepreneurs out of poverty.

Calpundit noted that there was a lot of mentioning of women in that, and he is right. But my first thought was, “OK–when will we get all those things in America?” In Iraq, Bush is pushing for more funding for education, is fighting tooth and nail to keep religion out of government, and is trying to establish rights for women… while in the U.S., he gives unfunded mandates that strap schools financially (so he can look like he’s doing something to fix education while still starving them for cash), wants religion (Christianity) to be an integral part of government, and is trying to take away reproductive rights for women.

In addition, he is offering money for small businesses and trying to fight poverty in Iraq, while in the U.S. he only gives handouts to megacorps and the wealthy; in Iraq, he wants an independent media, while in the U.S. he tries to get the media to be lapdogs for his administration; he wants increased voter registration for Iraq, while he is against making it easier for the poor to register back home, because they’re more Democratic than Republican; Iraq should get independent election commissions, while in Florida, he did everything possible to stop a legal counting of the vote and asked the Supreme Court to decide the election for us….

If Bush just applied the governance he wants in Iraq to his own job in the U.S., he wouldn’t be half-bad as president.