Claudia Rosettt on "The Truth"

Here's one my favorite, journalists, Claudia Rosett, on democracy in the Middle East:

Though Saddam has been the only Middle Eastern tyrant so far to fall, there is no question that in the politics of that region a shift is under way. It seems that even in a part of the world the West has long written off as the turf of dictators, oil and not much more, people want freedom. The removal of Saddam is reverberating far beyond Iraq. In recent months the message has become ever clearer, from the astounding election turnout in Iraq, to the demonstrations for democracy in Lebanon, to dissidents raising their voices in Syria, to public demands for pluralism in Egypt--as well as the continuing democratic foment in Iran.

In all this, no where has the clamor for liberty and accountable government been more acute than in Lebanon, a nation that during the last century boasted democratic institutions before there were mutilated by war, then smothered by Syria's occupying forces. And in recent weeks, in their struggle for freedom, the Lebanese people have voiced a vital demand, one that deserves far more attention than even the considerable amount it has already received. They have been telling it in English to the world press, and writing it in Arabic in white-and-black signs across their country, on walls, billboards and banners.

They are demanding, simply: "The Truth."