Dissidents in Prague: Aznar, Havel, Sharansky and Bush.

by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Spent a very busy week in magical Prague, attending 2 events.

The first one, the Democracy and Security Conference in Prague was historically monumental. Did anyone report the standing ovation that President Bush got at the beginning of his speech as well as at the end of it?

No… but, fortunately, some of us were there to witness this event. Most prolific writing about the conference is Gateway Pundit.

There’s an excellent description of all that happened at the conference, which was really a forum to allow dissidents from around the world to be heard, and behind the scenes.

Read it all at Gateway Pundit:

Prague Blogging- 2007 Democracy & Security Conference
Blogging From the Communist Parliament Building
Bush Rocks the Czernin Palace At Prague Democracy Conference
Democracy & Security: Day 2- Dissident Row

The only thing I found a bit odd in this meeting of giants is that there was only one Pole who attended the conference and participated as a panelist. It was, therefore, great to have President Bush specifically mention in his speech the visionaries Lech Walesa and John Paul II:

Behind these astonishing achievements was the triumph of freedom in the battle of ideas. The communists had an imperial ideology that claimed to know the directions of history. But in the end, it was overpowered by ordinary people who wanted to live their lives, and worship their God, and speak the truth to their children. The communists had the harsh rule of Brezhnev, and Honecker, and Ceausescu. But in the end, it was no match for the vision of Walesa and Havel, the defiance of Sakharov and Sharansky, the resolve of Reagan and Thatcher, and fearless witness of John Paul. From this experience, a clear lesson has emerged: Freedom can be resisted, and freedom can be delayed, but freedom cannot be denied.