REACTION TO THE BUSH SPEECH

As usual, the RealClearPolitics website has the best compendium of links to articles and columns concerning the President's Inaugural Speech, as well as a link to the text itself.

While watching the speech I was struck again by the fact that this President, so unexpectedly, has taken American foreign policy into such a radical direction. When he was first sworn in in January of 2001 no one could have predicted that this former Governor of Texas would be the man responsible for re-shaping American foreign policy in such a radical new direction with such profound historical consequences. Obviously, the events of 9/11/01 were the spark for such a change, but I cannot believe that he did not have any inkling of how our foreign policy might be adjusted to address the new realities of the 21st Century.

Perhaps, though, he really did not. It would not be the first time in the life of a man or a nation that a traumatic event created a radical new way of thinking. The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, for example, instantaneously transformed an intensely isolationist nation into one willing to spend billions of dollars and raise a military of millions of men to charge across oceans and defeat foreign enemies. The "sneak attack" of that December day also radically altered most American's view of the necessity of a large standing military force. What would have been politically unthinkable prior to that date (a nearly permanent draft, a large Army and Air Force, a military as a whole always on alert for a possible attack) became mandatory after December 7th.

So perhaps 9/11 is the whole explanation for the change in George W. Bush. In any event, he has now set out a vision that commits America to something radically different than the policies of the past. It is now the policy of this nation to actively attempt to spread liberty to all the peoples of the earth, with the goal of seeing the end of tyranny forevermore. That's pretty lofty stuff.

The intellectual framework for why this policy is in the interests of the United States is pretty straightforward, however. Democracies don't go to war with democracies. Terrorist movements don't spring up from free, prosperous populations, or, at least, they are less likely to. Therefore, in order to combat terrorists and the evil ideologies that inspire them, we cannot simply hunt them down and kill them one by one (although we will continue to do just that), we must also change the global conditions that helped to create them in the first place.

It is here that the argument begins to break down. To believe in this line of thinking, one must believe in the perfectibility of human nature. One must also believe that all people in all cultures are susceptible to making those cultural changes necessary to allow for freedom. The President clearly believes in both. In that sense he is the latest in a long line of American idealists, from Thomas Jefferson to Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan. These were very different men who shared one common trait, they dreamed big dreams and had an almost unshakable faith in their own ability to achieve their dreams. George W. Bush is such a man.

In the end, it is almost irrelevant whether or not the dream is achievable. The fact of the matter is that most great human accomplishments are undertaken by dreamers who have visions even greater than the feats they manage to achieve. Did Jefferson create his utopian, agrarian republic of gentleman philosopher-farmers? No. But he did, along with his contemporaries, lay the foundation for the most prosperous and powerful republic in history. Did Woodrow Wilson achieve his dream of a world united by the rule of law that has beaten it's swords in ploughshares? No. But he did create the ideological framework for human rights and national self-determination adopted now as an almost universal given. Did Ronald Reagan achieve his goal of complete nuclear disarmament? No. But he did set in motion the events that led to the end of the U.S.-Soviet nuclear standoff, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So, will George W. Bush achieve his goal of the end of tyranny in the world? Probably not. But in the effort, he may just set into motion a series of events and policies that will push along the spread of freedom in the world that just might make the world a better, and safer, place.