The theme is freedom.(At War II)(George W. Bush)

PRESIDENT BUSH's speech at the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy conveyed the stamp of the man. Its theme was simple, classical, that freedom is an absolute value the whole world over, not negotiable. It is the basis of our society, our civilization. Regimes of one dictatorial sort or another have placed considerations of power, race, religion, or some other collective notion above freedom. All have failed in human terms. The record speaks for itself. The president rightly rejoiced that 30 years ago there were about 40 democracies, and today around 120.

Democratic Germany and Japan are conspicuous through success. Russia has replaced the Soviet Union, for most of the 20th century a main destroyer of peoples and societies. China today, as Bush said, may be concluding that freedom is essential to national greatness and national dignity. Islam is the one great civilization immune so far to the huge tide of social and political liberation otherwise encompassing the globe. For years, observers have been holding a magnifying glass up to the Muslim Middle East in the hope of detecting signs of burgeoning democracy. They could not help seeing instead the stagnation and misery that grows out of dictatorship, but everyone who knows the region will affirm that the longsuffering people there are not for a moment fooled by those who claim to be doing great things in their name. Well aware that a better life is not only possible but potentially within reach, they ask for liberation.

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