India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Former US President George W Bush has praised the Arab Spring revolution in the Middle East, and urged America not to fear the spread of freedom, even if it doesn't know what policies the newly liberated countries will pursue. " America does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the Middle East or elsewhere. It only gets to choose what side it is on," Bush said. Bush added that the United States should always be on the side of freedom. He said uprisings last year in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere marked the broadest challenge to authoritarian rule since the fall of the Soviet Union . Bush also pointed out that some feared what that would mean for US foreign policy. "America, they argue, should be content with supporting the flawed leaders they know, in the name of stability," News24 quoted Bush, as saying. "But in the long run this foreign policy approach is not realistic. It is not realistic to presume that so-called stability enhances our national security," he added. Bush also said the US also does not have the power to 'preserve the old order, which is inherently unstable'. His remarks came at event marking the launch of his presidential institute's "Freedom Collection".

Bush touts Arab Spring, says US shouldn't fear spread of freedom