Posted on: Friday, January 21, 2005

EDITORIAL
President's address put world on notice

The defining events of President Bush's first four years in office are undeniably the attacks of Sept. 11 and the following war in Iraq.

In his inaugural address yesterday, the president used those two events to put into context what he declared would be at the core of his second term: the defense of liberty and human freedom at home and across the globe.

Bush did not mention Iraq directly and referred to Sept. 11 only in oblique terms. But there was no doubting what he was talking about and no confusion about his purpose.

In many ways, this address to a wintry Washington crowd, Americans across the nation and to world leaders was Bush's most eloquent defense yet of his reaction to the terror attacks and his decision to go to war in Iraq.

Whether those words will do much to convince domestic or international doubters remains to be seen. But with passionate and clearly heartfelt words, Bush made it very clear how he views his mission during these next four years.

His goals, which echo in some ways the lofty ideals of previous presidents such as Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy, are nothing less than using America's physical, economic and moral might to spread democracy and liberty wherever it is threatened.

"We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion," Bush said: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands."

And the president left no doubt that, as in Iraq, the United States under his watch will not flinch from using the force of arms to accomplish his goals.

"This is not primarily the task of arms," he said, "though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary."

Our hope is that this vision of a muscular American foreign policy will be seen not as the bluster of the world's only superpower, but rather a sincere wish that the fruits of liberty and human freedom we enjoy at home will be peacefully shared by all.