Okay, let’s all say it together: there is no ‘freedom agenda.’

Crooks and Liars:

On Tuesday, Mr. Bush cast the stakes in stark terms, repeatedly invoking his desire to spread freedom and democracy, the central themes of his foreign policy. Those themes are hardly new to American presidents. Woodrow Wilson talked about making the world safe for democracy, while Ronald Reagan warned that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

But Mr. Bush, most experts agree, has taken the American freedom agenda to an entirely new level, by trying to foster democracy in nations that have not known it before, like Iraq and Afghanistan. Some historians have called it folly, and Mr. Bush conceded in an interview with conservative commentators last year that his critics believe he is “hopelessly idealistic.” (emphasis added)

The very idea that there’s a genuine “American freedom agenda” is rather foolish, and the notion that “experts agree” that Bush has taken democracy promotion “to an entirely new level” may come directly from White House talking points, but that doesn’t make it true.