All the naysayers who thought President Bush would not deliver on the promise of his inaugural address ought to take a gander at the speech Secretary Rice delivered at the American University in Cairo on Monday. “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East – and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course,” Ms. Rice told a crowd of academics, diplomats, and government officials. “We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.”

Supporting those hopes requires some tough talk for several countries of the Middle East. “It is not only the Lebanese people who desire freedom from Syria’s police state. The Syrian people themselves share that aspiration,” Ms. Rice explained before calling upon Syrian leaders to “learn to trust their people.” Opening Damascus to political reform is especially imperative, she said, “because as its neighbors embrace democracy and political reform, Syria continues to harbor or directly support groups committed to violence – in Lebanon, and in Israel, and Iraq, and in the Palestinian territories. It is time for Syria to make a strategic choice to join the progress that is going on all around it.”

Ms. Rice also gave voice to the democratic hopes of those living under the despotism of the Iranian mullahs: “In Iran, people are losing patience with an oppressive regime that denies them their liberty and their rights. The appearance of elections does not mask the organized cruelty of Iran’s theocratic state. The Iranian people, ladies and gentlemen, are capable of liberty. They desire liberty. And they deserve liberty. The time has come for the unelected few to release their grip on the aspirations of the proud people of Iran.”

But what made the speech all the more remarkable was the bold and forthright manner in which the state secretary confronted the shortcomings of American allies. “In Saudi Arabia, brave citizens are demanding accountable government,” she said. “Yet many people pay an unfair price for exercising their basic rights. Three individuals in particular are currently imprisoned for peacefully petitioning their government.” The three individuals – democracy activists Ali al-Demaini, Abdullah al-Hamed, and Matruk al- Faleh – received jail sentences of between six and nine years last month for advocating political reform, including a constitutional monarchy, in Saudi Arabia. “That should not be a crime in any country,” insisted the secretary.

Ms. Rice praised Egypt’s decision to hold contested elections, but said that fair elections cannot take place within the environment of a police state. “We are all concerned for the future of Egypt’s reforms when peaceful supporters of democracy – men and women – are not free from violence. The day must come when the rule of law replaces emergency decrees – and when the independent judiciary replaces arbitrary justice.”

Most important is ensuring genuine democratic change. “The Egyptian Government must fulfill the promise it has made to its people – and to the entire world – by giving its citizens the freedom to choose,” Ms. Rice told the audience in Cairo. “Egypt’s elections, including the Parliamentary elections, must meet objective standards that define every free election.” For the elections to meet those standards, Egyptians must be able to vote without fear of violence or intimidation, opposition groups must be free to assemble and to speak with the press, and international election monitors must have unrestricted access to do their jobs. With elections scheduled for this fall, we hope the Bush administration pushes for monitors to be in place as soon as possible to ensure that a free and fair campaign process gets under way.

The secretary of state presented a vision of America as a champion of the rights of those who aspire to freedom – in opposition to authoritarian regimes, but always in support of the people who labor under them. “Today, liberty is threatened by undemocratic governments. Some believe this is a permanent fact of history. But there are others who know better,” said Ms. Rice. “These impatient patriots can be found in Baghdad and Beirut, in Riyadh and in Ramallah, in Amman and in Tehran and right here in Cairo.” Now they know that America stands with them, and it is hard to imagine that when future historians look back on our time they will fail to mark Ms. Rice’s speech as a watershed in the advance of democracy throughout the Middle East.