As the “Cedar Revolution” continues to spread with today’s announcement that Syria would finally start pulling back some of its troops, the parallel to the revolutions of 1848 occurred to me. We’ve seen democratic movements bubble up simultaneously in a wide variety of countries in the Middle East and former Soviet republics, and this time the great powers aren’t united in their determination to stifle them, as was the case 150 years ago. I’m still dubious about the whole idea of basing our foreign policy on the spread of democracy and, of course, the changes caused by many of the 1848 revolutions were short-lived, and that may be the case again. Nonetheless, I’m open to the possibility that this may turn out better than I expected.