Posted on: Sunday, September 26, 2004

COMMENTARY
Liberty turns foes into allies

By Richard Benedetto

About a week ago, Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister of Japan, put on a blue New York Yankees warm-up jacket, strode out to the pitcher's mound in Yankee Stadium and threw out the ceremonial first pitch to start a critical game between the Yankees and their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox.

On the receiving end of the pitch was Hideki Matsui, the Yankees left fielder, a native of Japan and a baseball legend back in his home country. The Bronx crowd of 55,000 roared when Koizumi fired a near-perfect strike into Matsui's mitt.

Koizumi was in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. And like many Americans, he decided to take in a ball game on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

"It's like a dream to hurl a first pitch," Koizumi told reporters after the game. "My heart fluttered with excitement."

Koizumi said Matsui gave him the Yankees jacket, and the glove he wore was a gift from President Bush.

Readers at this point might be asking, "Yeah, that's nice, but what does it have to do with politics?"

A lot. In nearly every campaign speech he makes, Bush uses the U.S. relationship with Japan, and his personal friendship with Koizumi, as examples of why he thinks it is important to stay the course in Iraq — even in the face of brutal violence.

Bush's bottom line: Bitter enemies can become friends and allies in the cause of freedom and peace.

Here is how the president explained it on Wednesday in a speech in Latrobe, Pa.:

"I believe in the transformational power of liberty. You know, I sat down with Prime Minister Koizumi yesterday. I said, 'I'm using your name quite a bit when I'm traveling around the country. I hope it's all right.'

"I like to tell about my relationship with Prime Minister Koizumi," Bush continued, "because it wasn't all that long ago in the march of history that we were at war with the Japanese.

"And after we won in World War II, President Harry S. Truman, wanted to work for democracy in Japan because he believed liberty could transform nations. And you can bet there were some skeptics. There were skeptics then, just like ... today.

"A lot of people in America said, 'Why do we want to work with an enemy? This enemy can't change its ways. We just fought them.' But a lot of citizens didn't agree with that. Japan did become a democracy. And today, I sit down at the table with a former enemy, talking about achieving the peace we all want.

"Liberty is powerful. One day, an American president is going to be sitting down with a duly elected official from Iraq, talking about how to keep the peace."

Bush believes that America, by its unique position as the symbol of liberty in the world, has a duty to spread that liberty, even at great cost.

Japan embraced democracy. Maybe someday the leader of Iraq will throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.

Richard Benedetto is a national political correspondent for Gannett.