I'm as surprised as you are -- Thomas Friedman making all kinds of sense.

Bush's Mideast Sand Trap The Bush team is pushing democracy on Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, but it will not utter a word against an Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank that helps poison the atmosphere there, empowering Palestinian radicals and weakening the liberals.

"Up to now, the Bush administration has been using democracy-promotion in the Mideast only as a tool to punish its enemies, not to create opportunities for its friends," notes the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen.

It's true. The Bush team is advocating democracy only in authoritarian regimes that oppose America, not in authoritarian regimes that are ostensibly pro-American.