Brave Laura Bush

From Reuters:

U.S. first lady Laura Bush will travel this week to the Middle East to press for expanding women's rights amid a furor in the Muslim world over a retracted magazine report that the Koran was desecrated by U.S. interrogators.

Her visit to Jordan, Israel and Egypt, announced on Tuesday by the White House, was to be part of President Bush's push for democracy in the region and for restarting the stalled "road map" peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The trip is an opportunity for Mrs. Bush to reinforce our commitment to promoting freedom and supporting women and girls across the Middle East," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

But the first lady, who has won favorable reviews in her overseas forays, could face some of the anti-American sentiment that swept the region following the Newsweek report about Koran abuse at Guantanamo.
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Not only is Mrs. Bush making her trip on the heels of the Newsweek fiasco, she's going to the Middle East days after Kuwaiti women were granted full suffrage--a horrible, deadly failure of incompetent journalists juxtaposed with a great, historic victory for women's rights.

No one can criticize the First Lady for playing it safe. She could easily postpone plans to visit, given the current state of heightened anti-Americanism in an already hostile place. Of course, she will have the tightest security possible. Still, I admire her courage.

Putting the obvious danger aside, I think Laura Bush is the perfect American representative to go to the Middle East at this time. She has such grace and class, hardly the embodiment of the Great Satan United States.

Mrs. Bush's visit takes on greater significance in the midst of the MSM's latest disgraceful effort to derail U.S. progress in the Arab world. I'm certain she will counter at least some of the anti-Americanism being stoked by Democrats, the unrepentant, leftist media, and other assorted Bush haters.