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Mark
R. Levin
NRO
contributing editor
"Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our
enemies, justice will be done." "Freedom and fear are at war." So
said George W. Bush, and I believe these will be among the words
that resonate throughout American history.
The president has spoken
with Churchillian clarity. He has demonstrated to his most petty
detractors — from the New York Times editorial board
to Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory, as well as the
enemies of the republic — from the Taliban terrorists to Middle
East despots, that Americans have wisely chosen a strong leader
for the times.
These are enormously
difficult times, as are most wartime periods. Indeed, the American
experiment has been challenged before — from the Revolutionary
War and the Civil War, to the first and second World Wars and the
Cold War.
America was challenged
by the assassinations of four presidents — Abraham Lincoln,
James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy — and great
depressions and natural disasters. And through it all, America became
even stronger and more committed to its founding principles.
Today America is blessed,
once again, with an outstanding leader who appreciates the greatness
of her people and the awesomeness of his responsibilities. God truly
has blessed America.
Peter
Robinson,
Research fellow at the Hoover Institution & host of Uncommon
Knowledge
An astonishing
performance. The text was magnificent, a beautifully crafted, powerful
address that left nothing of importance unsaid. But Bush himself
carried the moment. Since the events of September 11, he has undergone
a transformation as dramatic as anything in Shakespeare. Gravity,
moral seriousness, stature, authority — all have descended
upon him like a mantle. Prince Hal has become Henry V.
Mackubin
Thomas Owens
Professor
of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College in Newport,
R.I. & a monthly columnist for the Providence Journal
It
would seem that the man and the moment have met. This was George
W. Bush as Americans have never seen him — determined, resolute,
and purposeful. He is not known as a great orator, but this address
was masterful, both in tone and content.
In tone, it reflected
righteous indignation, what the Greeks called thumos. His
anger was not the anger of passion, but the measured anger of the
leader who knows he has to steel citizens to a long and arduous
task.
The content of the
speech was just as remarkable as its tone. The president delivered
an unmistakable ultimatum to the Taliban, one that he must know
they will reject. But he gave them fair warning: If they do not
meet unconditional demands of the United States, they will share
the fate of the terrorists. But he also delivered an ultimatum to
other governments as well. If you harbor and support terrorism,
you are an enemy of the United States. He praised the American spirit
and American principles.
The speech was absolutely
necessary. He reassured Americans while calling them to arms. He
avoided the rhetoric of law enforcement in favor of the rhetoric
of war. His one reference to "justice" was more in the spirit of
just war than courts of justice. He reminded America and the world
that this war was not against Islam, but against a violent mutation
of that great religion, one that is as much at war against Islam
as it is against the United States and the West.
He saluted the heroes
of September 11, while warning Americans that this would not be
a war of a single battle or a single campaign, but one that would
require a commitment for the long haul. He pointed out that such
a war would not be what Americans came to expect in the 1990s —
short wars fought at a distance.
This is the most important
message of his address--that this will be a long, possibly savage
affair. This is the lesson of history. Terrorism and savage wars
of peace, after all, are not new. The president set the bar very
high when he announced the goal of eradicating terrorism worldwide.
That goal is not likely to be realized. But if he is able to attain
only part of this goal, America and the world will be safer than
they would be if the United States retreated in the face of this
threat.
Michael
Ledeen
NRO contributing editor & resident scholar in the Freedom Chair
at the American Enterprise Institute
He's in charge now,
and a good thing it is, too. You never know how a leader will react
to crisis, especially one for which he's technically unprepared.
W. did not expect to have to deal with anything like this, but he
seems to me to have the best foreign-policy instincts of the entire
Cabinet. This was clearly his speech, he was completely comfortable
with it, he chewed it up and spat it out, Hollywood couldn't have
cast the role anywhere near as perfectly. It was a feisty speech,
just what the country wanted and needed, and just what the world
needed to see.
He laid out a coherent
strategy: first Afghanistan, then the rest of you thugs. And it's
the right strategy. Let's hope somebody tells the Department of
State that it's time to support the Iraqi resistance.
I've always had a soft
spot for nonnegotiable demands, so any speech that contains one
is automatically a hit with me, and I'm really looking forward to
his nonnegotiable demands to Syria, Iran, and Iraq.
It would be churlish
to quibble with a boffo speech wonderfully delivered. So I won't.
John
O'Sullivan
NR editor-at-large
Mr. Bush's speech was lucid, bold, and eloquent. He delivered it
well — not with the polished ease of a Bill Clinton perhaps,
but with a kind of painstaking intensity that indicated his words
should be taken seriously. And he achieved important secondary objectives
with neatness and economy. Thus, his distinction between law-abiding
Muslims and peace-minded Arab states on the one hand and bin Laden's
radical terrorist network on the other will both deter shameful
attacks on American Muslims and help to dissipate anti-American
prejudices in the Islamic world.
But the central question
last night was: What does the U.S. mean in practice by a "war against
terrorism"?
My great fear beforehand
was that the president would direct the nation's anger exclusively
against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. That would have been a
sign that the U.S. was not fundamentally serious about ending the
global network of state-sponsored terrorism but would settle for
Osama's head on a platter.
And for the first third
of the speech, I was kept in suspense. Mr. Bush did indeed launch
a fierce attack on the Taliban. Then he expanded the indictment
as follows: "Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every
government that supports them."
And later: "We will
starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive
them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And
we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism."
And a third time: "From
this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support
terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."
Taken together, these
statements fall not far short of a declaration of war on several
states. That Mr. Bush did not mention the states by name —
they are, in case you are interested, Iran, Iraq, and Syria —
was almost as eloquent as the rest of his speech. For his silence
on that point seemed to offer them one last chance to retreat from
their sponsorship of terror without publicly seeming to bend to
American threats — or face the consequences.
Afterwards I asked
a colleague from Pakistan if he would be worried by the speech,
were he a terrorist or the intelligence chief of a terrorist state.
"Yes," he replied,
"I certainly would."
So what words can do
has been very effectively done. Now for the hard part.
Peter
Berkowitz
Professor at George Mason University School of Law & a contributing
editor at The New Republic. His Virtue
and the Making of Modern Liberalism was recently reissued
in paperback.
It was no small challenge
that George W. Bush faced on Thursday night: to honor the innocent
victims; to celebrate the heroic passengers who rushed the hijackers
in the sky over Pennsylvania as well as the courageous firefighters
and police officers and rescue workers in New York and Washington;
to express gratitude to the nations that have rallied behind us;
to articulate in plain and memorable terms what is at stake in,
and the purpose of, the war that the president, with our support,
has committed our country to waging; to issue a public and uncompromising
ultimatum to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan who harbor bin Laden;
and to reaffirm our devotion to the principles of freedom and equality.
With gravity and resolve, the president met the challenge. And then
some.
We would not allow
the terrorist menace, Bush stressed, to furnish a pretext for the
practice of intolerance and hatred. Incidents have been reported
of bullies and idiots across the United States who have harassed
and assaulted Muslims and Arab Americans and those who look like
them. Bush calmly reiterated Thursday evening what he and members
of his administration have frequently declared since the attack
eleven days ago: The teachings of Islam must be distinguished from
the fanaticism of the terrorists; our war is not with the millions
of peace-loving Muslims and Arabs here and abroad but with the terrorists
and the governments that support them; it is imperative that we
continue to live by the principles of freedom and equality for which
we fight. These words were necessary and important. They were also
stirring. It is an extraordinary country, the likes of which the
world has seldom seen, that in its grief and anger, even as it sifts
through its rubble and mobilizes its forces and devises its battle
plan, summons its citizens to respect the rights of all.
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