It shouldn't be a giant surprise that Bush would approve of a military occupation government for Iraq instead of democracy. If you recall during his campaign for the presidency, there was a brief "flap" after a reporter asked him the names of the rulers of four nations. He answered one right. There was much debate over whether this quiz confirmed that Bush didn't know enough to be president, or whether it was fair to give a pop quiz that most Americans couldn't answer correctly either.

When I heard his answers, I focused on the words he managed to trip over, not the number of names he missed. When asked, "Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?" Bush quibbled about being quizzed, then replied, "The new Pakistani general, he's just been elected - not elected, this guy took over office. It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for the sub-continent."

He might not be able to get the names right, but he has a good grasp on Republican foreign policy, which puts "stability" ahead of democracy. Bush acknowledges that Musharraf took power through a coup, and says that's "good" for the sub-continent. If he had been asked about the ruler of Italy in 1942, would Bush have said, "It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for Europe. I hear he makes the trains run on time."?????

So this is the clear message, that democracy is not something this man is worried about. And I don't know if citizens of the US are very worried either, because at the time the story came out, I never heard much commentary on the substance of what he said, declaring that a dictator could be a good thing, just that he missed 3 of the 4 quiz questions. (Of course, if we truly worried about democracy, we wouldn't have allowed the Supreme Court to appoint our president.)

The related BBC story from 6 NOV 1999 was titled AMERICAS BUSH NO WHIZ ON FOREIGN QUIZ. (Sigh. Remember back in those glorious days when Brits didn't even know which "Bush" you were talking about unless you said he's the one from America?)