A YEAR OLD, the Bush presidency seems to have undergone a dramatic shift. It began as a presidency concentrated on domestic issues, such as education. It now is, as the president’s State of the Union address last week affirmed with even more definition, a war and foreign policy presidency. It would be a mistake, however, to see the Bush presidency as two unrelated tenures–domestic and war. A rereading of President Bush’s inaugural address shows that his war presidency, midwifed by the savage attacks of September 11, is a natural progression. In the first substantive paragraph of his inaugural, Bush observed the role that America has in “a long story”–that of “a new world” that became “a liberator of the old, . . . of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, . . . of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.” Bush understood the American “story” in terms of the freedom to which any person, simply by virtue of being human, is entitled. He called this belief in freedom “our democratic faith” but emphasized that we Americans “do not own” but carry this faith simply because by right it belongs to everyone everywhere. It is, he said, “the inborn hope of . . . humanity.” Note again the choice of words: Our story is one of “a power that went into the world” to defend freedom. Bush doubtless had in mind the roles that the United States played in the great world wars. And he understood the American role on behalf of freedom as essential to its survival: “The stakes for America are never small. If our country does not lead the cause of freedom, it will not be led.” Against whom might it be led? Against “the enemies of liberty.” He warned that they “should make no mistake: America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom. We will meet aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength.” Fast forward now to Bush’s September 20 speech to Congress, in which he said the United States had been “awakened to danger and called to defend freedom.” And it wasn’t just our freedom we had to defend but freedom potentially everywhere. “The advance of human freedom depends on us. We will rally the world to its cause by our efforts, by our courage.” In his inaugural, Bush left unspecified the “enemies of freedom.” When the terrorists struck on September 11, Bush filled in the blanks. He identified Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. But Bush also saw terrorism “of global reach” as a threat to freedom. Thus, he defined as “enemies” other international terrorist groups. And, in a significant foreign policy change, he placed in the same category “nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism,” the obvious one then being Afghanistan. A last point about the inaugural: “We must show courage in a time of blessing,” Bush said, “by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.” He identified several domestic problems before naming one abroad: “We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is spared new horrors.” And so we will. In a November 6 speech, the president said, “We will not wait for the authors of mass murder”–i.e., terrorists like Osama bin Laden–“to gain the weapons of mass destruction.” That imparted urgency to the war on terrorism. And then in his State of the Union speech, Bush’s war presidency made a last progression. For it turns out that the terrorist groups aren’t the only enemies of freedom. So are the nations that “seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.” Bush named three on an “axis of evil”–North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. In a personalized statement of the problem–confronting resolve in his inaugural, Bush declared, “I will not wait on events while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive power.” There it is, the Bush war presidency as it has evolved, its principles traceable to the inaugural. Committed now to pre-emptive action against the enemies of freedom, it is a war presidency not merely in word but deed: The Taliban has been routed, and the al Qaeda camps have been destroyed. The question now–and for the duration of Bush’s presidency–is where and how the war president will engage next and with what results. Terry Eastland is publisher of The Weekly Standard.
