"Freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul."
Discretion is the better part of valor. Those who want President Bush to give the war for freedom the pedagogy it deserves should be pleased, as there can be no mistaking the locus of today's inaugural address. The president was speaking as much to the blessed as the imprisoned. As Jonah Goldberg puts it, "it was a brilliant bit of foreign policy masked as domestic rhetoric. How can a dissident in Iran or Burma read such a thing and not feel emboldened?"
But more importantly, as Victor Davis Hanson observes, "This is the first time that an American president has committed the United States to side with democratic reformers worldwide."
Naturally, for this country is a democratic paraclete.
YES!: From Michael Novak, "'Democracy' is a new name for 'peace.'" One place where the church, I've believed, is inexact. Lord, grant us freedom: then peace will come naturally.
CONFIDENCE IN COUNTRY, HUMILITY IN PRACTICE: From the president:
...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....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 best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.
I couldn't be more proud.
AND: As I suspected, written above, Austin Bay is pleased.