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 | | From: | D. Spencer Hines | | Subject: | Re: American Exceptionalism -- Bringing Freedom & Liberty To The World | | Date: | Fri, 21 Jan 2005 19:43:42 -0000 |
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 | Bingo!
Excellent News Analysis:
DSH
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"REVIEW & OUTLOOK"
"Liberty Bell Ringer
An idealistic Bush puts dictators on notice."
Friday, January 21, 2005
The Wall Street Journal
"If nothing else, President Bush's second inaugural address yesterday
should put to rest the myth that the idealistic roots of his foreign
policy aren't his own. The vast "neo-con" conspiracy would appear to
start at the top.
Indeed! ---- DSH
Not since JFK in 1960 has an American President provided such an
ambitious and unabashed case for the promotion of liberty at home and
abroad.
Bingo! And if a Democrat President had made that inaugural speech
yesterday that's exactly what Democrats would be saying too. Why do you
think Kerry had such a sour look and Clinton was so pensive? ---- DSH
******
"We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival
of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in
other lands," the President said. "The best hope for peace in our world
is the expansion of freedom in all the world."
If his critics were looking for a retreat from the challenges in Iraq,
or back to the "realism" favored by so many in the foreign-policy
establishment, they didn't find it in this speech. ******
This clearly is a President transformed by September 11. He has drawn
the essential lesson of that day, which is that the U.S. cannot consider
itself safe from the world's turmoil simply by ignoring it.
In George Washington's day, we could avoid "entangling alliances."
The silly-buggers, jaded, cynical, selfish, small-minded, "Little
Englander"crowd among the Brits want to do that TODAY! Just watch
Horsellman Rarebit of Surrey as he babbles and bubbles on, in that
vein. ---- DSH
******
But not in a world where fanaticism bred in the tyrannies of the Middle
East can hijack planes and fly them into office towers in Manhattan.
The dictators of the world were especially put on notice.
"So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth
of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture,
with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," Mr. Bush
declared.
Even with that caveat "ultimate," this is no modest ambition.
"We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that
success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own
people," Mr. Bush also said, in words that will get noticed in Riyadh,
Cairo, Damascus, Tehran and Beijing, among other places. ******
And in Havana, Rangoon and Caracas as well. ---- DSH
There will be, and should be, debates about how to achieve all this, and
how fast.
And critics will point out the inconsistencies of America doing business
with a Musharraf or Putin despite their detours from democracy.
But we made such accommodations during the Cold War as well, by
necessity, and that didn't stop Presidents from letting the dissidents
behind the Iron Curtain know that we were on their side. Mr. Bush is
declaring -- candidly, and even to our friends -- that the dictatorial
status quo endangers U.S. interests, and so America will not help
sustain it.
Bingo! ---- DSH
Some commentators mentioned yesterday that Mr. Bush left the word "Iraq"
unspoken. But in a sense the entire speech was about Iraq, as a way of
explaining to Americans why the sacrifice our troops are making there is
justified.
He asked for the patience, and the endurance, of the American people in
this effort -- and the striking thing to us is how much he has received
of both. We suspect that is because, with his invocation of liberty,
Mr. Bush is speaking to and for the bedrock idealism of the American
people."
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Lincoln + T.R. + Wilson + F.D.R. + Truman + Eisenhower + Reagan...A
Great And Noble Tradition.
Forward!
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Vires et Honor
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