The Calling of Our Time
The President’s inaugural speech said in spades what I wish he would say every day. When I returned from Iraq I said our biggest mistake was failing to “ideologize” the war. This war is truly a fight for the future– a struggle between liberty and tyranny. (I see Instapundit quoted that particular column– here’s a link to it dated September 7, 2004. It’s in the StrategyPage.com ON POINT archive. )
Technology, tyranny, and terror are the Hell Formula of the 21st century. Bush sees that: “We have seen our vulnerability - and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny - prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder - violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.”
Here’s a line I like and I hope we live up to it: “All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”
Bush explicitly made it US’ policy is to promote democratic institutions . America’s goal: ending tyranny in our world. Ending tyranny promotes peace, friends.
Another good line that has long-term policy implications– policies where our idealism has realpolitik payoffs in the 21st century : “We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies. ”
Bush argued that freedom and liberty are America’s foremost ideals. Here’s the poetry: “America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation’s security, and the calling of our time. ”
UPDATE1: Here’s a link to the entire text of the President’s speech.
UPDATE2: I’m glad I didn’t hear Brian Williams say this (quote is from gaypatriot (and thanks to Instapundit for the tip):
“Brian Williams said a few minutes ago that the AP’s Ron Fornier put out a news analysis saying “Not One Word on Iraq” — or something to that effect.”
“I’m sorry, I thought the entire speech was about Iraq…and Afghanistan…and Iran…and Palestine. All Bush talked about was Freedom vs. Oppression, Democracy vs. Tyranny. The liberals just don’t get that we are in a world war on terror and Iraq was but one theater in that war. What will it take?”
Amen. The entire speech was about Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Iran– every hard corner of this planet where there’s a fight for basic human freedom. I touch on this in a recent article in The Weekly Standard’s January 3, 2005 issue, The Millennium War. (“Reinventing Iraq”, from the December 9, 2002 Weekly Standard is also worth looking at– it gives a brief treatment of post-invasion challenges, and everyone of them has occurred, unfortunately.)
UPDATE3: Gerard Baker looks at American challenges and American self-doubts– then draws the historically correct conclusion. : “What to make of all this? The first thing to note is that we have been here before. Previous premature judgments about America?s decline enjoin us to be a little circumspect about its current difficulties. Even as American pre-eminence was realised in the past 60 years, the country has been racked by prolonged periods of self-doubt. In the 1950s, half the nation was convinced it was losing the Cold War. Vietnam eroded American confidence, not only in its power but even in the justice of its cause. In 1989, the apotheosis of American success, the fall of the Berlin Wall, was seen by many as the passing of an era of American supremacy. Japan and Germany were going to rule the world, we were told. ‘
“All these alarms proved false. Will this incipient post-Iraq malaise prove to be any different? It is too early yet to declare Iraq a failure. True, the Bush Administration, and those of us who supported it, were wrong to believe that a quick show of force would bring the walls of tyranny crashing down. It will indeed be a long slog. But if the US can stay the course, the auguries are still positive. The principal obstacle to American goals there, and in the broader Middle East, is not the brittleness of US power, but the willingness of the American people to shoulder its burden. ”
Please read Baker’s entire essay which appeared in The Times of London (January 21, 2005).
If Bu$h wants to end Tyranny he should quit right now,
Comment by GlennK — 1/20/2005 @ 6:11 pm
GlennK, you’re more clever than you are wise.
Comment by ss — 1/20/2005 @ 6:20 pm
By announcing that his administration is for freedom and liberty, he’s doing a number of things. First, he’s talking to the Lebanese, Iranians, and others stifled under a strong hand. Second, he’s warning those who seek to oppose him politically that they are in effect opposing freedom and liberty. Seems like a pretty good message to de-fang the Democrats and Old Europe, no?
Comment by The Kid — 1/20/2005 @ 6:33 pm
for those who want to think Islamic radicals are not the last impediment to world peace I urge you to return to your 1960s pot smoking dens and protest yourself
Comment by Dave Milk — 1/20/2005 @ 6:34 pm
Glennk, if you think that Bush is a tyrant, then you obviously don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. ss, I’m yoinking that for my knee-jerk response collection. It’s the perfect response.
Comment by Mitch — 1/20/2005 @ 6:36 pm
Dave Milk, While I do support Mr. Bush quite strongly there is no way I will regard Islamic radicals as the last impediment to world peace while there is a single Communist regime in the world. Nor, even if the last of the Communists or Islamic radicals were to fall, would I be quick to proclaim world peace even then. We can and should make the world a better place while protecting ourselves but all humans are still the descendents of Cain and those who think otherwise are only kidding themselves.
Comment by Towering Barbarian — 1/20/2005 @ 7:44 pm
I hate to get real technical on you, Towering Barbarian, but all humans are actually the descendents of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son. Seth was an ancestor to Noah.
Comment by Alan Hess — 1/20/2005 @ 8:36 pm
Even more technicalities: Noah had three sons - Shem, Ham, Japheth - each of whom had a wife…not necessarily of Seths lineage. If memory serves me, Ham’s wife was of the line of Cain.
Comment by netmarcos — 1/20/2005 @ 8:58 pm
Can we agree that transnational progressives, Islamic radicals, and dirty stinking commies are the enemies of freedom and liberty?
Comment by The Kid — 1/20/2005 @ 9:17 pm
It will be interesting to hear the reaction of the people living under oppression in Iran and North Korea is tothe speech. If it were me in that circumstance, I would say, “Faster, please.”
Comment by Merv Benson — 1/20/2005 @ 9:41 pm
“It will be interesting to hear the reaction of the people living under oppression in Iran and North Korea is tothe speech.” People in Iran might hear it, people in North Korea probably won’t. Considering the consequences, I wouldn’t expect too much reaction from them, either. James
Comment by James R. Rummel — 1/20/2005 @ 10:31 pm
Thank God Bush is a man with some basic moral integrity and horse sense. We could’ve done a lot worse. Wish the Democrats could field a comparably staunch candidate.
Comment by McClain — 1/21/2005 @ 1:25 am
“The President’s inaugural speech said in spades what I wish he would say every day.” Yes this has always been the problem with Republicans… it’s an inherent problem with how the modern media works. Democrats have mastered the art of hammering their message over and over and over and…. People with a message that caters to the rational, rather than the emotional, will tend to say it once, feeling this is sufficient. Unfortunately, we have a media that takes single emotional points and hammers them relentlessly. In the end the truth of the point is immaterial, people simply begin to believe it. Until the Republicans can finally come to terms with this and start to master it, they will always be at a disadvantage. Sadly, even though Reagan was President for 8 years, they didn’t bother to learn a thing from him on how to handle the media. The big conservative talk radio hosts have learned how it works and though I don’t agree with all their points, it seems someone is finally stepping up and taking the fight to the Democrats on their own turf. Now we just have to get the President to do the same.
Comment by Teresa — 1/21/2005 @ 10:30 am
One of the reasons that the lefties don’t “get it” is because many of the top officials of this administration act as if “it” isn’t happening. Most every time Bush said this sort of thing in the past, Powell raced out to say he didn’t mean it. And in today’s WaPo, there’s a front-page story quoting top administration officials saying “there’s nothing new here.” Your hope, and mine, is that this speech will lead to more vigorous action in support of democratic forces fighting tyranny in several countries. But if it remains merely a rhetorical flourish, it will weaken our ability to fight tyranny, because both democrats and tyrants will conclude we are not serious. The president raised the stakes. I sure hope he’s got the cards and will bet them to the hilt.
Comment by michael ledeen — 1/22/2005 @ 8:59 am
If Bush can continue to activate the vigilance necessary to keep folks busily prospering, while assuring the rest of the world that they deserve the same pursuit of happiness, then the Left and the media have become nothing more than harpies and Mordreds, spoilers. There’s nothing more dangerous than priveleged folks who are unhappy, feeling guilty about their privelege. Instead of doing the hard work of freedom, it’s easier to foment self-doubt from some secure ivory tower. Bush’s speech wasn’t for privileged Americans. It was for the rest of the “huddled masses, yearning to be free.”
Comment by Joan of Argghh! — 1/22/2005 @ 1:28 pm
The acme of human living is in liberty, and I am thankful to Bush for making that topic his theme. However, charity begins at home. For starters, Bush could restore the liberties that all citizens had only a few years ago. How about repealing the law that forces banks to spy on their customers, the Orwellian-named “Bank Secrecy Act”. This act, along with some other very Patriotic laws, have redefined the word ‘privacy’ to mean ‘transparent to government’. Bush could also restore symmetry to the government’s relationship with its citizens. For starters, he could require that all government agencies comply with the same financial accounting and reporting standards that the SEC requires of publically held corporations. If GAAP is good enough for GM it is good enough for Uncle Sam. Even a simple change to the law to put government bureaucrats on the same footing as the citizens they have been hired to serve: it is a felony for a citizen to lie to a government employee. It would improve our government a lot by also making it a felony for a governmnent employee to lie to a citizen. Indeed, given how little the body of law is in Iraq today, it is very safe to say that the average Iraqi is more free than is any US citizen. At the very least, they don’t have a 25,000 page tax code. How about if Bush just restored to us the same amount of liberty that those who returned from fighting in WW II had?
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