Full text of (President!) Bush's inaugural address

The White House, via grandforks.com ^ | 1/20/05 | A great American

[benjibrowder]

Hey Publius, let's talk about your little info for a second.

1) Hmm, Islamic militism rapidly spreading in nations like Syria, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia... hmm, sounds like Nazism.

2) Bush has a better view on the world than any other president in history. He immobilized a threat to the nation, eg Saddam Hussein, has forced Osama Bin Laden into exile in some remote cave in the Tora Bora Mountains, he has shut down any threat of U.S. interference with PA and Syria. He has shut down Libya's nuclear arsenal program, and is already at the negotiations table with China concerning North Korea. Why are the peace talks taking so long? Because they're planning the strategy of war against North Korea! And it will last approximately twenty minutes, enough for a quarter of the Chinese military to cross the border and for the N. Korean generals to say f- you Kim. As Kim is taken to some N. Korean bunker, eg. the state of the art one that was recently built, what do you think the nuclear-tipped bunker busters are for?

4) I know that Bush would have a hat sitting on his desk, that in the case of a nuclear bomb going off in a city, that he'd pull out names and tell the Islamic world, hey, we have a hat with every major arab city in it. I have pulled out two, I won't tell you what they are, but you have two hours to evacuate them! Then I'm going to eradicate them with nuclear bombs. Any country that interferes with this little plan of action will automatically be considered another enemy to this country and we shall do everything in our power to disrupt economic, government, military, etc. stability, from sabotage to military action. Oops, five minutes wasted. Make that an hour and fifty five minutes until I drop nuclear bombs on the cities I have pulled out.

[GVnana]

Here is a beautiful pdf version of the text. Enjoy! http://www.gop.com/media/PDFs/inauguraladdress.pdf

[1iron]

Before we begin, I would like to know what makes you happy. If you deem this request useless, that will be the end of our non-beginning.

[an italian]

There is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.

I adore this speech.

Italy will stand with who defends Freedom forever!!

[Publius6961]

But there are too many wrong or weak or confusing words, and phrases that are not quite right, and sentences that are not absolutely clear. Each time you hear one you wonder "What?" for a split second; then you forget all about it as the speech moves forward. But those split-second pauses produce a scratchy, unpolished texture that listeners experience as a vague not-quite-rightness.

... There were also weak phrases, a few unclear ones, and one absolute stinker.

... There was one flat-out unacceptable moment. Evidently the "edifice of character" is "sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount," and . . . "the words of the Koran"? Come off it! Which words? Name one! Is there a single sentence, phrase, idea in the Koran that has made any difference to this nation whatsoever? I'm not knocking the Koran; pluralism is wonderful. The problem is that at this moment, no listener in the whole world could possibly have believed that the president was serious.

Sometimes a Great Speech (A close reading of the second Bush inaugural) The Weekly Standard ^ | January 31, 2005 | David Gelernter

[Publius6961]

You are repeating an error I have been debating for two days now.
I have not critized our president's achievements, in the slightest. Only his choice of words in one sentence of his inaugural speech; it was unsettling. And it is merely an opinion, grounded in some sort of reality, as it turns out, from subsequent comments by others enormously more knowledgeable and articulate than I.

[Publius6961]

Before we begin, I would like to know what makes you happy. If you deem this request useless, that will be the end of our non-beginning.

I am sorry, but I understand neither the purpose nor the context of your question.
The post you are responding to simply stated my dismissal of a criticism by someone who put words in my mouth and then shot them down in flames. A sophomoric exercise.

[Publius6961]

Dear batman,
Don't fret;
Eventually you will learn the ability to distinguish criticism of a single line in a long speech from criticism of the man.

Welcome to Free Republic.
And don't forget to remove your cape in the house.

[Publius6961]

Hi Jeff, welcome to the good fight.

I admire you and I admire your thoughts, but we have been switched to different tracks on this one.

I listened to the speech, every word of it, and, I posted comment #2 immediately, while seething with a feeling that if our president can't see the futility, what hope is there?

Islam Does not have words for "individual worth", "initiative", "conscience", and above all "freedom". Appealing to their potential goodness is useless; like talking to the man in the street in Martian. Before muslims can mull over ideas, they must grasp the meaning of the word. Their actions make it clear that they cannot. Islam does not allow it.

Even the "leaders" about to be elected in Iraq suffer from the fatal flaw.

[Publius6961]

Because to NOT mention the Koran would immediately cause the groups like CAIR to start in about how Islam was being disrespected. Their ads would inflame the Americna Muslims, and would be used in propoganda abroad.

We need to formulate foreign policy and adopt a moral and ethical posture based on what enrages or inflames CAIR? Get real.

Jimmy Carter tried that with the little Teheran incident, and it brought the avalanche of "paper tiger" encouragement which has lasted to this very day.
How much more worse can the propaganda abroad be? Since when has it been based on reality?

[Jeff Head]

I had similar feelings when I first heard it regarding the phrase in questions. However, upon reflection and taken in context with the rest of the speech (which I believe the comments must be done) I came to the conclusions I posted.

Islam MUST reform in order to overcome the issues plagueing it and that are fatal to it IMHO...and it is a reformation of very basic substance because, unlike Christianity's reformation, the very teachings and writings of its founder (Mohammed) are at the core of the flaw in many cases. They not only allow for, they encourage the types of radicalism we see and we fight. In Christianiy's case, the writings and teachings of Christ were not what was suspect, it was the way they had been twisted (again, IMHO) themsleve. Those teachings of Christ are as good, true, and oriented towards self improbement, liberty of mind and body, and the imrpovement of the human conditionsthrough being good, and willingly following the source of the goodness, today as they were 2000 years ago.

Anyhow, just my opinion and though on this one issue we may diosagree, I respect your opinion, the reasons for it, and your right to it.

[SunkenCiv]

Repeating over and over that Islam isn't the enemy can be hard to take -- until one recognizes in it the hudna of the Moslems themselves. The EU will take a much tougher line against their Moslem populations, as a matter of self-preservation, which gives the US even more moral authority. :')

[1iron]

As I expected.

Carry on.

;o)

[nice lady]

The text for the part of the closing prayer your were asking about is from Isaiah 54:17 in the Amplified Bible. I liked EVERYTHING about the inauguration.