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The speech President Bush gave last night at the American Enterprise Institute was not only one of the most important of the war -- it ranks among the most important state papers of the past three decades. In front of 2000 dinner guests, the president announced that the assumptions that have governed U.S. policy in the Middle East since 1945 would govern no longer. The U.S. government did not use to care about the internal governance of the oil-producers of the Middle East. From now on, it does. The U.S. will not merely overthrow Saddam Hussein -- and throughout the speech, the president treated Saddam's overthrow as a certain fact - but it will seek to build a more democratic Iraq afterward.
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There are a lot of people out there who are desperate to find some explanation beyond the obvious one for why the US has gone to war. The idea that we got attacked, we didn't like it, and we wanted to make sure we didn't get attacked again just is to simplistic for them; they need something deeper, something much more disgraceful to point to for a rationale. They need the US motive to be something that can be condemned so that it can be dismissed.
to most Americans, the cowboy is not a villain but a hero. What we honor about the cowboy of the Old West is his willingness to stand up to evil and to do it alone, if necessary. The cowboy is a symbol of the crucial virtues of courage and independence.
After defeating enemies, we did not leave behind occupying armies. We left constitutions and parliaments. We established an atmosphere of safety in which responsible, reform-minded local leaders could build lasting institutions of freedom. In societies that once bred fascism and militarism, liberty found a permanent home. There was a time when many said that the cultures of Japan and Germany were incapable of sustaining democratic values. Well, they were wrong. Some say the same of Iraq today. They are mistaken.