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January
29, 2003 9:15 a.m.
Elevation
He
knows what it’s all about.
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e's turned into a great orator, although I must say I miss the occasional
malapropism. And he's a hell of a leader; he shows real nerve and conviction
— both in his toughness on the terror masters, and in his insistence
that we defend our moral standards by tending to the sick and suffering,
by opposing human cloning, by outlawing "partial-birth abortions,"
by rescuing drug addicts, and by trying to turn prisons into an opportunity
for rehabilitation. It's been a long time since we've heard a president
elevate the tone of public discourse so effectively.
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I
didn't think he was going to declare war tonight — although at a
couple of points I half expected him to announce that the liberation of
Baghdad had begun — but he certainly set the table. Most commentators
overlooked the fact that he restated the Axis of Evil theme, dealing with
Iran, North Korea, and Iraq in turn. He was spot-on when he said that
each required a different strategy, and we can only hope that he really
does it — so far the Iranians have only gotten words, not action.
The best news of
all was that he finally set a timetable for Iraq. Powell goes to the Security
Council on the 5th and will present our case, presumably with at least
some of the proof for which the skeptics and the anti-war crowd have been
clamoring. Then, very quickly, I would expect the war speech itself, the
one where the president explains in detail why we are waging war, and
what we hope to accomplish.
He's got it right:
We're bringing freedom to the oppressed peoples of the terror tyrants.
It's about time. He could even do it faster...
—
Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author
of The
War Against the Terror Masters. Ledeen,
Resident Scholar in the Freedom Chair at the
American Enterprise Institute, can be reached through Benador
Associates.
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