"Bush urges Mideast to modernize"

<big>Bush urges Mideast to modernize

Liberty is key, he tells Saudis, others</big>

By Judy Keen
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday that democracy is "the only path to national success and dignity" in the Middle East and said six decades of U.S. policies in the region had failed.

He challenged Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia to give their citizens bigger roles in their governments and more personal liberty. "Freedom can be the future of every nation," he said. The mission is "the calling of our time."

Bush shifted the emphasis of his rationale for war with Iraq from the threat of lethal weapons to transforming the Middle East. he put the war in the context of his vision for sweeping historical changes in a region still defined by old resentments and fear. In a speech to the National Endownment for Democracy, a private non-profit group, the president said a new strategy "requires the same persistence and energy and idealism we have shown before, and it will yeild the same results."

Bush said 60 years of Western policies that excused the absence of freedom in the region "did nothing to make us safe." As long as the Middle East is "a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of ... voilence ready for export." he said.

He also said Middle East democracies "will not and should not look like us... Modernization is not the same as Westernization."

Later Thursday, Bush signed a bill containing $87.5 billion to continue military operations and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush hopes to restore support for the war before it endangers his re-election next year. A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll this week found that 46% approve of his foreign policy, his lowest rating since February 2001.

Bush had previously called for more democracy in the region. This time he named names:

Saudi Arabia, which plans its first local elections within a year but does not allow women to vote, should give its citizens "a greater role in their own society."

Iran must reform "or lose its last claim to legitimatcy."

Egypt "has shown the way toward peace" and now should lead the region to democracy.

Dictators in Syria "promised the restoration of national honor" but "left instead a legacy of torture, oppression, misery and ruin."

In addition to routine foreign aid, Bush has sent $129 million to the region in the past two years to promote private enterprise, voter education, court reform and women's rights.

Reaction in the Arab world was mixed. "Bush is reading the situation correctly. There is a great need for greater democratic reform," said Gehad Auda, a political scientist at Egypt's Helwan University. But he said Egypt and others won't like "being singled out."

"In Amman, Jordan, Samer Hussein, 18, said, "With the justification of democracy, Bush and the Americans plan to occupy Arab and Muslim lands. We tell him, we do not want his democracy."