"The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." George W. Bush, January 20, 2005
A Clarion Call To End Tyranny And Spread Freedom Worldwide
Clair Ellis, a 57-year-old retired marine, leaned on his cane as he offered his reasons for backing Bush. "With 9/11 happening nine months after he took office, it cemented in my mind and heart that he was going to be a good president," said Ellis, who wore a big Russian hat to ward off the cold. Bob Robbins, a 60-year-old state senator from Pennsylvania, said, "We are obviously now in the Third World War. Unfortunately, there are some that don't believe this."
And some of them were in Washington last week, too. The inaugural's estimated $40 million cost was seen by some as extravagant, even though most of it was raised from private sources. And many Democrats stayed away, although defeated presidential challenger John Kerry sat stoically about 30 feet from the podium where Bush spoke. Thousands of protesters dramatized their opposition to the Iraq war and other Bush policies with street theater, angry chants as the president's limousine rolled by, and a tossed snowball or two.
Parts of official Washington resembled an armed camp, with 100 square blocks closed off around the White House and the Capitol and security forces everywhere. As Bush's limo crawled down Pennsylvania Avenue for the parade, it was surrounded by police cars and motorcycles, all with lights flashing, and grim-faced Secret Service agents who trotted vigilantly alongside, scanning the crowd. A few blocks from the White House, Bush and his wife, Laura, emerged from their limo, walked a few hundred yards in the open, and greeted their admirers.
Bold. What will perhaps be remembered most, though, were the bold strokes of the president's address. For some hawkish foreign-policy analysts, the speech was cause for celebration. "It was the clearest, most forceful articulation of the organizing principle of American foreign policy, post 9/11," said Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. "Freedom is the answer . . . . We're not safe unless you're free."
For others, though, Bush's call for backing democratic movements everywhere is fraught with peril, especially when applied to states whose relationships with America are based on real-world priorities like fighting terror. "It was a sermon, high on rhetoric, low on substance," said Geoffrey Kemp, director of regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center. Preaching democracy, added presidential scholar Robert Dallek, is an American tradition that goes all the way back to Woodrow Wilson. The question, he said, is whether Bush's version of this "civic religion" is compatible with today's world.
Behind the scenes, the president was pleased that so many people seemed impressed with the breadth of his ideas and his willingness to state them so boldly. Said a senior White House aide, "He's not one to sit around." One way or the other, the next four years will tell whether that vision can be made into a reality.
With Dan Gilgoff , Angie C. Marek and Thomas Omestad
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