Hear, hear!
Posted on 01/21/2005 8:07:40 PM PST by quidnunc
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Informed by Strauss and inspired by Paine, appealing to Lincoln and alluding to Truman, beginning with the Constitution and ending with the Declaration, with Biblical phrases echoing throughout — George W. Bush's Second Inaugural was a powerful and subtle speech.
It will also prove to be a historic speech. Less than three and a half years after 9/11, Bush's Second Inaugural moves American foreign policy beyond the war on terror to the larger struggle against tyranny. It grounds Bush's foreign policy — American foreign policy — in American history and American principles. If actions follow words and success greets his efforts, then President Bush will have ushered in a new era in American foreign policy.
That era will of course build on the efforts and achievements of his predecessors — especially Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. The invocation of Truman is clear. Here is Truman, in his address to a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, announcing what came to be known as the Truman Doctrine: "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." And here is Bush: "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."
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(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
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.
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.”
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(Austin Bay in Austin Bay Blog, January 20, 2005)
http://austinbay.net/blog/index.php?cat=1
Ooooo conservatives getting catty.
Hear, hear!
Waitaminnit! I thought Kristol was an evil McCain-supporting big-gummint neocon whom we were all supposed to hate!
I'm so confused....
Its those darned neocons again. Wait til Pat Buchanan and the paleos discover Bush's presidency has been hijacked a second time!
Ending tyranny is certainly a noble goal, but I believe attempting to "end" tyranny is the same as all of our attempts to "end" poverty. Poverty has always been here, and so has tyranny. Both will be here until the end of time, because of the existence of evil.
But we still fight evil. We still try.
We have to keep fighting evil; its the only thing we can do. We just have to recognize that it is a fight which will never end.
Poor Pat Buchanderthal made a complete ass of himself last night on Scarborough Country.
He's evolved from ardent anti-communist, to isolationist, to a blame America firster. Go Pat Go (away).
I'll take Peggy Noonan over Bill Kristol any day.
Great post. It is good to know that those who continue to fight those cowardly bastards in Iraq understand the stakes that they are fighting for. It may take a while, but eventually freedom and will overcome the Islamofascists just like it has overcome every other failed ideology.
She did it for attention and TV interviews.
Poverty is a material condition. That was the problem with the war on poverty. By definition, it was an outcome-based program. Ending tyrrany is different. Political oppression is not a material state. It is more of a power relation. Liberation does not have a material component as an essential element. Poverty and Tyrrany are different afflictions. There never should have been a war on poverty. Rather, there could have been an effort to provide opportunities, not material results....only spiritual room wihtin which each would be free to take or not take what was offered. Freedom was/is a better offer than goods.
Wonder if she is writing another book?
I think he meant "Levi" Strauss, because he's certainly written a pantsload.
Unfortunately, he meant Leo Strauss, the nihilist, atheistic philosopher who advocated hedonism for the elites and ignorance for the masses--and who is the intellectual guru for Billy Kristol and the other neocons.
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