Friday, January 21, 2005
No Country Left Behind
President Bush's speech was impressive, and also frightening to those who suspect that he really meant it.
January 21, 2005
President Bush stood at the apogee of his life Thursday, and he rose to the occasion. A small man (in our view), who became president through accident of birth and corruption of democracy, he has been legitimized by reelection, empowered by his party's control of all three branches of government and enlarged by history (in the form of 9/11). His second inaugural address was that of a large man indeed, eloquently weaving the big themes of his presidency and his life into a coherent philosophy and a bold vision of how he wants this country to spend the next four years.
To summarize: Having won the Cold War, the United States was on "sabbatical." Then, on the "day of fire" — Sept. 11, 2001 — America learns that it is vulnerable. The "deepest source" of our vulnerability is that "whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny." Therefore, "the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." Furthermore, all people are entitled to liberty because "they bear the image of the maker of heaven and Earth."
And "it is the policy of the United States" to promote democracy "in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
Every president talks about America's sacred mission of promoting freedom, and Thursday's speech was peppered with caveats. But from the speech itself and the official spin around it, we are clearly supposed to understand that Bush means something new and more ambitious. And even — or especially — Bush's critics have learned to respect his determination to do what he says he'll do, however much it may contradict the advice of those critics, or reality.
We take this president at his word. And the words are startling.
Bush's counterpoint of freedom and tyranny sounds like Ronald Reagan's, but the underlying analysis is much more radical. The threat to the United States, in Bush's formulation, comes not from the tyrants themselves but from the victims of their tyranny, who are radicalized by oppression and turn their hatred toward these shores. During the Cold War, the United States often supported or promoted tyrannical regimes, as long as they were anti-communist. This was realpolitik—the cynical, Machiavellian approach adopted by presidents since Harry S. Truman signed off on the policy of containing communism.
Bush the Elder was a master practitioner of realpolitik, but the aspirations Bush the Younger declared Thursday are closer to those of Woodrow Wilson: freedom and human rights everywhere, actively promoted by the U.S., by diplomacy and leverage if possible but by war if necessary. And Bush's analysis sounds nearly Marxist, with its emphasis on the radicalizing effects of oppression. When he says that "common sense" dictates that "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," he sounds like Jimmy Carter.
There are reasons to be impressed by Bush's new doctrine. There are also reasons to be very afraid. It would be good if this country's foreign policy more closely tracked our professed ideals. It would be disastrous if self-righteous hubris led us into bloody and hopeless crusades, caused us to do terrible things that mock the values we are supposed to be fighting for, alienated us from an unappreciative world and possibly brought home more of the terrorism our neo-idealism is intended to suppress. There is an illustration of all these risks close to hand. But the word "Iraq" did not cross the president's lips Thursday. He referred obliquely to the war there, only in order to say that our troops were fighting for "freedom" — which was not the main reason they were sent over.
Ironically, the dangers of self-righteous hubris in foreign policy were a theme of Bush's first presidential campaign, in 2000, when he called for humility in our global ambitions and pounded the Clinton-Gore administration for what was then called "nation-building." Bush and other Republicans specifically objected to the use of American troops to promote democratic values, as opposed to national security.
Not only does Bush now think otherwise — in the most sweeping terms — but he does not even acknowledge that there is a cost involved or another side to the argument. He makes it sound simple. Terrorism is bad, freedom is good. Coherence comes easier when you don't sweat the details.
For example: It's a lovely thought that freedom invariably saps the will to plant a car bomb. But is it true? When freedom and democracy came to the Balkans, people were liberated to do atrocious things to other people in the name of nationalist enthusiasms. In the Middle East, there is always danger that a "regime change" — by election, rebellion or invasion — will produce a theocracy rather than a democracy.
Bush, or his speechwriter, is not unaware of this, but the president does not brake for anomalies. Bush's rhetoric Thursday chased itself around in circles, declaring that America's goal — freedom and democracy, so that people can choose their own way — is not forcing people to adopt our way, which happens to be freedom and democracy.
In his brief discussion of domestic issues, Bush astonished again by endorsing a "broader definition of liberty" than the one in our founding documents. Bush's domestic agenda, in contrast to his foreign policy, is mostly a conventional Republican brew of tax cuts, deregulation and subsidies for undeserving businesses. But the language is more Democratic than today's Democrats. Liberty does not just mean freedom from government oppression. It means "economic independence," he said. This is civic religion as promulgated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his famous "Four Freedoms," but by no other president, Republican or Democrat, ever since.
In most other presidents, we would take all this talk with a grain of salt. But we suspect that Bush means it, which will make the next four years interesting, if nothing else.
President Bush's speech was impressive, and also frightening to those who suspect that he really meant it.
January 21, 2005
President Bush stood at the apogee of his life Thursday, and he rose to the occasion. A small man (in our view), who became president through accident of birth and corruption of democracy, he has been legitimized by reelection, empowered by his party's control of all three branches of government and enlarged by history (in the form of 9/11). His second inaugural address was that of a large man indeed, eloquently weaving the big themes of his presidency and his life into a coherent philosophy and a bold vision of how he wants this country to spend the next four years.
To summarize: Having won the Cold War, the United States was on "sabbatical." Then, on the "day of fire" — Sept. 11, 2001 — America learns that it is vulnerable. The "deepest source" of our vulnerability is that "whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny." Therefore, "the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." Furthermore, all people are entitled to liberty because "they bear the image of the maker of heaven and Earth."
And "it is the policy of the United States" to promote democracy "in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
Every president talks about America's sacred mission of promoting freedom, and Thursday's speech was peppered with caveats. But from the speech itself and the official spin around it, we are clearly supposed to understand that Bush means something new and more ambitious. And even — or especially — Bush's critics have learned to respect his determination to do what he says he'll do, however much it may contradict the advice of those critics, or reality.
We take this president at his word. And the words are startling.
Bush's counterpoint of freedom and tyranny sounds like Ronald Reagan's, but the underlying analysis is much more radical. The threat to the United States, in Bush's formulation, comes not from the tyrants themselves but from the victims of their tyranny, who are radicalized by oppression and turn their hatred toward these shores. During the Cold War, the United States often supported or promoted tyrannical regimes, as long as they were anti-communist. This was realpolitik—the cynical, Machiavellian approach adopted by presidents since Harry S. Truman signed off on the policy of containing communism.
Bush the Elder was a master practitioner of realpolitik, but the aspirations Bush the Younger declared Thursday are closer to those of Woodrow Wilson: freedom and human rights everywhere, actively promoted by the U.S., by diplomacy and leverage if possible but by war if necessary. And Bush's analysis sounds nearly Marxist, with its emphasis on the radicalizing effects of oppression. When he says that "common sense" dictates that "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," he sounds like Jimmy Carter.
There are reasons to be impressed by Bush's new doctrine. There are also reasons to be very afraid. It would be good if this country's foreign policy more closely tracked our professed ideals. It would be disastrous if self-righteous hubris led us into bloody and hopeless crusades, caused us to do terrible things that mock the values we are supposed to be fighting for, alienated us from an unappreciative world and possibly brought home more of the terrorism our neo-idealism is intended to suppress. There is an illustration of all these risks close to hand. But the word "Iraq" did not cross the president's lips Thursday. He referred obliquely to the war there, only in order to say that our troops were fighting for "freedom" — which was not the main reason they were sent over.
Ironically, the dangers of self-righteous hubris in foreign policy were a theme of Bush's first presidential campaign, in 2000, when he called for humility in our global ambitions and pounded the Clinton-Gore administration for what was then called "nation-building." Bush and other Republicans specifically objected to the use of American troops to promote democratic values, as opposed to national security.
Not only does Bush now think otherwise — in the most sweeping terms — but he does not even acknowledge that there is a cost involved or another side to the argument. He makes it sound simple. Terrorism is bad, freedom is good. Coherence comes easier when you don't sweat the details.
For example: It's a lovely thought that freedom invariably saps the will to plant a car bomb. But is it true? When freedom and democracy came to the Balkans, people were liberated to do atrocious things to other people in the name of nationalist enthusiasms. In the Middle East, there is always danger that a "regime change" — by election, rebellion or invasion — will produce a theocracy rather than a democracy.
Bush, or his speechwriter, is not unaware of this, but the president does not brake for anomalies. Bush's rhetoric Thursday chased itself around in circles, declaring that America's goal — freedom and democracy, so that people can choose their own way — is not forcing people to adopt our way, which happens to be freedom and democracy.
In his brief discussion of domestic issues, Bush astonished again by endorsing a "broader definition of liberty" than the one in our founding documents. Bush's domestic agenda, in contrast to his foreign policy, is mostly a conventional Republican brew of tax cuts, deregulation and subsidies for undeserving businesses. But the language is more Democratic than today's Democrats. Liberty does not just mean freedom from government oppression. It means "economic independence," he said. This is civic religion as promulgated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his famous "Four Freedoms," but by no other president, Republican or Democrat, ever since.
In most other presidents, we would take all this talk with a grain of salt. But we suspect that Bush means it, which will make the next four years interesting, if nothing else.
Bush's 'Freedom Speech'
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Washington
On his way out of the first Cabinet meeting after his re-election, President Bush gave his longtime chief speechwriter the theme for the second Inaugural Address: "I want this to be the freedom speech."
In the next month, the writer, Michael Gerson, had a heart attack. With two stents in his arteries, the recovering writer received a call from a president who was careful not to apply any deadline pressure. "I'm not calling to see if the inaugural speech is O.K.," Bush said. "I'm calling to see if the guy writing the inaugural speech is O.K."
Yesterday's strongly thematic address was indeed "the freedom speech." Not only did the words "freedom, free, liberty" appear 49 times, but the president used the world-watched occasion to expound his basic reason for the war and his vision of America's mission in the world.
I rate it among the top 5 of the 20 second-inaugurals in our history. Lincoln's profound sermon "with malice toward none" is incomparable, but Bush's second was better than Jefferson's mean-spirited pouting at "the artillery of the press."
In Bush's "second gathering" (Lincoln called it his "second appearing"), the Texan evoked J.F.K.'s "survival of liberty" phrase to convey his central message: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." Bush repeated that internationalist human-rights idea, with a slight change, in these words: "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world."
The change in emphasis was addressed to accommodationists who make "peace" and "the peace process" the No. 1 priority of foreign policy. Others of us - formerly known as hardliners, now called Wilsonian idealists - put freedom first, recalling that the U.S. has often had to go to war to gain and preserve it. Bush makes clear that it is human liberty, not peace, that takes precedence, and that it is tyrants who enslave peoples, start wars and provoke revolution. Thus, the spread of freedom is the prerequisite to world peace.
It takes guts to take on that peace-freedom priority so starkly. Bush, by retaliatory and pre-emptive decisions in his first term - and by his choice of words and his tall stance in this speech, and despite his unmodulated delivery - now drives his critics batty by exuding a buoyant confidence reminiscent of F.D.R. and Truman.
He promised to use America's influence "confidently in freedom's cause." He jabbed at today's Thomases: "Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty, though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt."
Bush has seen the enemy and it is not us. Nor is it only a group of nations (the "axis of evil"). Nor is the prime enemy the tactic of terrorism.
The president identified the enemy (and did not euphemize it, as Nixon's writers did, as "the adversary") a half-dozen times in this speech. The archenemy of freedom, now as ever, is tyranny.
That's thinking big, with history in mind. That comes from reading Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, and sends a message of hope to democrats jailed by despots in places like China, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Bush embraced "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world," but added that our active encouragement of reform "is not primarily the task of arms."
That was also a reference to Iraq, where the greatest danger to postelection democracy is less from Zarqawi's terrorist murderers than from the legion of Baathists who want to re-impose Saddam's brand of tyranny.
A metaphorical nitpick: he said our liberation of millions lit "a fire in the minds of men ... and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world." I would have replaced "this untamed fire," which could be dangerous, with "the light from this fire," which would have illuminated the "darkest corner." (Once a speechwriter ...)
Evidence that Bush's "freedom speech" was tightly edited for time was in his concluding evocation of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell. Cut out of a near-final draft was the line on the side of the bell from Leviticus that rings out Bush's theme: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof ..."
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Washington
On his way out of the first Cabinet meeting after his re-election, President Bush gave his longtime chief speechwriter the theme for the second Inaugural Address: "I want this to be the freedom speech."
In the next month, the writer, Michael Gerson, had a heart attack. With two stents in his arteries, the recovering writer received a call from a president who was careful not to apply any deadline pressure. "I'm not calling to see if the inaugural speech is O.K.," Bush said. "I'm calling to see if the guy writing the inaugural speech is O.K."
Yesterday's strongly thematic address was indeed "the freedom speech." Not only did the words "freedom, free, liberty" appear 49 times, but the president used the world-watched occasion to expound his basic reason for the war and his vision of America's mission in the world.
I rate it among the top 5 of the 20 second-inaugurals in our history. Lincoln's profound sermon "with malice toward none" is incomparable, but Bush's second was better than Jefferson's mean-spirited pouting at "the artillery of the press."
In Bush's "second gathering" (Lincoln called it his "second appearing"), the Texan evoked J.F.K.'s "survival of liberty" phrase to convey his central message: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." Bush repeated that internationalist human-rights idea, with a slight change, in these words: "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world."
The change in emphasis was addressed to accommodationists who make "peace" and "the peace process" the No. 1 priority of foreign policy. Others of us - formerly known as hardliners, now called Wilsonian idealists - put freedom first, recalling that the U.S. has often had to go to war to gain and preserve it. Bush makes clear that it is human liberty, not peace, that takes precedence, and that it is tyrants who enslave peoples, start wars and provoke revolution. Thus, the spread of freedom is the prerequisite to world peace.
It takes guts to take on that peace-freedom priority so starkly. Bush, by retaliatory and pre-emptive decisions in his first term - and by his choice of words and his tall stance in this speech, and despite his unmodulated delivery - now drives his critics batty by exuding a buoyant confidence reminiscent of F.D.R. and Truman.
He promised to use America's influence "confidently in freedom's cause." He jabbed at today's Thomases: "Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty, though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt."
Bush has seen the enemy and it is not us. Nor is it only a group of nations (the "axis of evil"). Nor is the prime enemy the tactic of terrorism.
The president identified the enemy (and did not euphemize it, as Nixon's writers did, as "the adversary") a half-dozen times in this speech. The archenemy of freedom, now as ever, is tyranny.
That's thinking big, with history in mind. That comes from reading Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, and sends a message of hope to democrats jailed by despots in places like China, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Bush embraced "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world," but added that our active encouragement of reform "is not primarily the task of arms."
That was also a reference to Iraq, where the greatest danger to postelection democracy is less from Zarqawi's terrorist murderers than from the legion of Baathists who want to re-impose Saddam's brand of tyranny.
A metaphorical nitpick: he said our liberation of millions lit "a fire in the minds of men ... and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world." I would have replaced "this untamed fire," which could be dangerous, with "the light from this fire," which would have illuminated the "darkest corner." (Once a speechwriter ...)
Evidence that Bush's "freedom speech" was tightly edited for time was in his concluding evocation of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell. Cut out of a near-final draft was the line on the side of the bell from Leviticus that rings out Bush's theme: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof ..."
Thursday, January 20, 2005
President's Second Inaugural Address
Following is a transcript of President Bush's inaugural speech as provided by Federal News Service.
Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, members of the United States Congress, reverend, clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens -- (applause) -- on this day prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.
At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half a century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical. And then there came a day of fire.
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. (Cheers, applause.)
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. (Applause.) The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. (Cheers, applause.)
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. (Cheers, applause.) 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. (Applause.)
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. 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. (Applause.)
This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom by its nature must be chosen and defended by citizens and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own.
America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal, instead, is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.
The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. (Cheers, applause.) America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause. (Cheers, applause.)
My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people from further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve and have found it firm. (Cheers, applause.)
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. (Cheers, applause.)
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. We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. (Applause.)
America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies. Yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators. They are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom and there can be no human rights without human liberty. (Cheers, applause.)
Some I know have questioned the global appeal of liberty, though this time in history -- four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen -- is an odd time for doubt.
Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals.
Eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. (Applause.) Liberty will come to those who love it.
Today America speaks anew to the peoples of the world. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you. (Applause.)
Democratic reformers facing repression, prison or exile can know: America sees you for who you are, the future leaders of your free country. The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe, as Abraham Lincoln did, those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under the rule of a just God cannot long retain it.
The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know to serve your people, you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side. (Applause.)
And all the allies of the United States can know we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.
Today I also speak anew to my fellow citizens. From all of you I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet, because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. (Cheers, applause.) And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts we have lit a fire as well, a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power; it burns those who fight its progress. And one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. (Cheers, applause.)
A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause -- in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy, the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments, the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies.
Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives, and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice. (Applause.)
All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile and evil is real and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself, and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character. (Cheers, applause.)
America has need of idealism and courage because we have essential work at home.
In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.
In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act and the GI Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time.
To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools and build an ownership society. (Applause.) We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance, preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society.
By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal. (Applause.)
In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character, on integrity and tolerance toward others and the rule of conscience in our own lives.
Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our nation life by the truths of Sinai, the sermon on the mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before, ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today and forever. (Cheers, applause.)
In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service and mercy and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. (Cheers, applause.)
And our country must abandon all the habits of racism because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time. (Cheers, applause.)
From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom, and did our character bring credit to that cause?
These questions that judge us also unite us because Americans of every party and background, Americans, by choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom.
We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes. And I will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good and the victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives are set free. (Cheers, applause.)
We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom, not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul.
When our Founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now," they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled.
History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction set by liberty and the author of liberty. (Cheers, applause.)
When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said it rang as if it meant something. In our time, it means something still. America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world and to all the inhabitants thereof. (Cheers, applause.) Renewed in our strength, tested but not weary, we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom. (Cheers, applause.)
May God bless you, and may he watch over the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)
© Federal News Service
Following is a transcript of President Bush's inaugural speech as provided by Federal News Service.
Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, members of the United States Congress, reverend, clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens -- (applause) -- on this day prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.
At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half a century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical. And then there came a day of fire.
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. (Cheers, applause.)
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. (Applause.) The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. (Cheers, applause.)
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. (Cheers, applause.) 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. (Applause.)
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. 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. (Applause.)
This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom by its nature must be chosen and defended by citizens and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own.
America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal, instead, is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.
The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. (Cheers, applause.) America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause. (Cheers, applause.)
My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people from further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve and have found it firm. (Cheers, applause.)
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. (Cheers, applause.)
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. We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. (Applause.)
America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies. Yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators. They are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom and there can be no human rights without human liberty. (Cheers, applause.)
Some I know have questioned the global appeal of liberty, though this time in history -- four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen -- is an odd time for doubt.
Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals.
Eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. (Applause.) Liberty will come to those who love it.
Today America speaks anew to the peoples of the world. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you. (Applause.)
Democratic reformers facing repression, prison or exile can know: America sees you for who you are, the future leaders of your free country. The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe, as Abraham Lincoln did, those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under the rule of a just God cannot long retain it.
The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know to serve your people, you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side. (Applause.)
And all the allies of the United States can know we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.
Today I also speak anew to my fellow citizens. From all of you I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet, because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. (Cheers, applause.) And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts we have lit a fire as well, a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power; it burns those who fight its progress. And one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. (Cheers, applause.)
A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause -- in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy, the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments, the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies.
Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives, and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice. (Applause.)
All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile and evil is real and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself, and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character. (Cheers, applause.)
America has need of idealism and courage because we have essential work at home.
In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.
In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act and the GI Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time.
To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools and build an ownership society. (Applause.) We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance, preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society.
By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal. (Applause.)
In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character, on integrity and tolerance toward others and the rule of conscience in our own lives.
Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our nation life by the truths of Sinai, the sermon on the mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before, ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today and forever. (Cheers, applause.)
In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service and mercy and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. (Cheers, applause.)
And our country must abandon all the habits of racism because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time. (Cheers, applause.)
From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom, and did our character bring credit to that cause?
These questions that judge us also unite us because Americans of every party and background, Americans, by choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom.
We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes. And I will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good and the victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives are set free. (Cheers, applause.)
We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom, not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul.
When our Founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now," they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled.
History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction set by liberty and the author of liberty. (Cheers, applause.)
When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said it rang as if it meant something. In our time, it means something still. America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world and to all the inhabitants thereof. (Cheers, applause.) Renewed in our strength, tested but not weary, we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom. (Cheers, applause.)
May God bless you, and may he watch over the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)
© Federal News Service
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Pop-Tarts or Freedom?
January 16, 2005
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
In the wake of U.S. aid to help Muslim and other victims of
the recent tsunami, Colin Powell suggested that maybe, now
that the Muslim world had seen "American generosity" and
"American values in action," it wouldn't be so hostile to
America.
Don't hold your breath waiting for a thank-you card. If the
fact that American soldiers have risked their lives to save
the Muslims of Bosnia, the Muslims of Kuwait, the Muslims
of Somalia, the Muslims of Afghanistan and the Muslims of
Iraq has earned the U.S. only the false accusation of being
"anti-Muslim," trust me, U.S. troops passing out bottled
water and Pop-Tarts in Indonesia are not going to erase
that lie. It is not an exaggeration to say that, if you
throw in the Oslo peace process, U.S. foreign policy for
the last 15 years has been dominated by an effort to save
Muslims - not from tsunamis, but from tyrannies, mostly
their own theocratic or autocratic regimes.
It clearly has not made much of an impression. So you will
pardon me if I say that I don't care whether the state
media in Saudi Arabia - whose government gave far less to
the Muslim tsunami victims ($30 million) than the amount
spent by King Fahd's entourage on his last two vacations in
Marbella (reportedly $100 million) - say nice things about
us.
I believe the tensions between us and the Muslim world stem
primarily from the conditions under which many Muslims
live, not what we do. I believe free people, living under
freely elected governments, with a free press and with
economies and education systems that enable their young
people to achieve their full potential, don't spend a lot
of time thinking about who to hate, who to blame, and who
to lash out at. Free countries don't have leaders who use
their media and state-owned "intellectuals" to deflect all
of their people's anger away from them and onto America.
Ah, you say, but the Europeans live in free-market
democracies and they have become very anti-American. Yes,
some of them. But for Europeans, anti-Americanism is a
hobby. For too many in the Muslim world it has become a
career.
I am sure that young Taiwanese, young Koreans, young
Japanese, young Poles and young Indians have their views on
America, but they are not an obsession. They want our jobs,
not our lives. They live in societies that empower their
young people to realize their full potential and to express
any opinion - pro-American, anti-American or neutral.
So I don't want young Muslims to like us. I want them to
like and respect themselves, their own countries and their
own governments. I want them to have the same luxury to
ignore America as young Taiwanese have - because they are
too busy focusing on improving their own lives and
governance, running for office, studying anything they want
or finding good jobs in their own countries.
The Bush team is certainly not fostering all this when it
mismanages a war it launched to liberate the people of
Iraq. Its performance has been pathetic, and I understand
anyone on the right or the left who wants to wash his hands
of the whole thing. Speaking personally, though, I am still
hoping that these Iraqi elections come off - out of respect
for the Iraqis who have been ready to risk their lives for
a chance to vote, out of contempt for the insurgents who
want to prevent that and out of a deep conviction that
something very important is at stake.
No, these elections won't change Iraq or the region
overnight, and Thomas Jefferson is not on the ballot. But
they will at least kick off what the Iraq expert Yitzhak
Nakash calls "a real, Iraqi political process run by and
for Iraqis."
That Iraqi political process "has to begin now to enable
the U.S. to get out sooner rather than later," added Mr.
Nakash, a Brandeis professor and currently a fellow at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center. "The U.S. must go
ahead with the elections in Iraq, accept the likelihood
that Shiites and Kurds will do well, and leave the door
open to Sunnis to join as partners in writing the Iraqi
constitution. We want a system there that answers to the
aspirations of Iraqis, not Americans. That is the key to a
legitimate Iraqi government."
Before the war, I said of Iraq, "We break it, we own it."
Today, my motto is, "If they own it, they'll fix it."
America's standing in the Muslim world will improve, not
when we get a better message, but when they have more
control. People with the responsibility and opportunity to
run their own lives focus on their own lives - not on us.
More of that would be a very good thing.
January 16, 2005
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
In the wake of U.S. aid to help Muslim and other victims of
the recent tsunami, Colin Powell suggested that maybe, now
that the Muslim world had seen "American generosity" and
"American values in action," it wouldn't be so hostile to
America.
Don't hold your breath waiting for a thank-you card. If the
fact that American soldiers have risked their lives to save
the Muslims of Bosnia, the Muslims of Kuwait, the Muslims
of Somalia, the Muslims of Afghanistan and the Muslims of
Iraq has earned the U.S. only the false accusation of being
"anti-Muslim," trust me, U.S. troops passing out bottled
water and Pop-Tarts in Indonesia are not going to erase
that lie. It is not an exaggeration to say that, if you
throw in the Oslo peace process, U.S. foreign policy for
the last 15 years has been dominated by an effort to save
Muslims - not from tsunamis, but from tyrannies, mostly
their own theocratic or autocratic regimes.
It clearly has not made much of an impression. So you will
pardon me if I say that I don't care whether the state
media in Saudi Arabia - whose government gave far less to
the Muslim tsunami victims ($30 million) than the amount
spent by King Fahd's entourage on his last two vacations in
Marbella (reportedly $100 million) - say nice things about
us.
I believe the tensions between us and the Muslim world stem
primarily from the conditions under which many Muslims
live, not what we do. I believe free people, living under
freely elected governments, with a free press and with
economies and education systems that enable their young
people to achieve their full potential, don't spend a lot
of time thinking about who to hate, who to blame, and who
to lash out at. Free countries don't have leaders who use
their media and state-owned "intellectuals" to deflect all
of their people's anger away from them and onto America.
Ah, you say, but the Europeans live in free-market
democracies and they have become very anti-American. Yes,
some of them. But for Europeans, anti-Americanism is a
hobby. For too many in the Muslim world it has become a
career.
I am sure that young Taiwanese, young Koreans, young
Japanese, young Poles and young Indians have their views on
America, but they are not an obsession. They want our jobs,
not our lives. They live in societies that empower their
young people to realize their full potential and to express
any opinion - pro-American, anti-American or neutral.
So I don't want young Muslims to like us. I want them to
like and respect themselves, their own countries and their
own governments. I want them to have the same luxury to
ignore America as young Taiwanese have - because they are
too busy focusing on improving their own lives and
governance, running for office, studying anything they want
or finding good jobs in their own countries.
The Bush team is certainly not fostering all this when it
mismanages a war it launched to liberate the people of
Iraq. Its performance has been pathetic, and I understand
anyone on the right or the left who wants to wash his hands
of the whole thing. Speaking personally, though, I am still
hoping that these Iraqi elections come off - out of respect
for the Iraqis who have been ready to risk their lives for
a chance to vote, out of contempt for the insurgents who
want to prevent that and out of a deep conviction that
something very important is at stake.
No, these elections won't change Iraq or the region
overnight, and Thomas Jefferson is not on the ballot. But
they will at least kick off what the Iraq expert Yitzhak
Nakash calls "a real, Iraqi political process run by and
for Iraqis."
That Iraqi political process "has to begin now to enable
the U.S. to get out sooner rather than later," added Mr.
Nakash, a Brandeis professor and currently a fellow at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center. "The U.S. must go
ahead with the elections in Iraq, accept the likelihood
that Shiites and Kurds will do well, and leave the door
open to Sunnis to join as partners in writing the Iraqi
constitution. We want a system there that answers to the
aspirations of Iraqis, not Americans. That is the key to a
legitimate Iraqi government."
Before the war, I said of Iraq, "We break it, we own it."
Today, my motto is, "If they own it, they'll fix it."
America's standing in the Muslim world will improve, not
when we get a better message, but when they have more
control. People with the responsibility and opportunity to
run their own lives focus on their own lives - not on us.
More of that would be a very good thing.
