During his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush set forth a bold plan to to make the advancement of freedom and democracy the cornerstone of America’s foreign policy. Under liberal democracies, the Islamic terrorist and statist authoritarian threat would practically vanish from the face of the earth. Sure, there would be conflicts, but no liberal democracy has ever warred with another; and because democracies respond to the will of the people, there is no rich soil for terrorism to plant its roots.

In that speech, he mentioned the word “democracy” seven times and “freedom” nineteen times when talking about the Middle East. This idealism came from a book by former Soviet political dissident Natan Sharansky called The Case For Democracy, which outlined why democracy is what the world needs. Such a foreign policy was revolutionary. Never before had democracy above all else been put at the top of the agenda. It was a time of change. President Bush wore a red tie on that day.

In the two years since then, that idea has faded. The war in Iraq has not gone as planned. Russia, Venezuela, and Iran are exerting their imperial influence, thereby threatening freedom in their respective regions. Freedom House has reported that freedom has actually suffered declined in 2006 due to pushback from such authoritarian regimes.

Tonight, President Bush wears a passive light blue tie. The fact is that among many foreign policy gurus, realpolitik is back on the dinner table because democracy has failed in the Middle East. Third Worldists contend that the Islamic and Arab world in particular simply is not ready for democracy. There are now more skeptics than believers, and even the administration itself has not been so noisy about the subject in the past year.

The fact that President Bush tells us tonight that he still believes, however, is heartening. Yet this State of the Union address has been less about extolling the virtues of democracy than it has been about the enemies of it that have actively come out of the woodwork in the last two years. The Sunni and Shia extremists, along with the others harboring totalitarian ideoligies, are pushing back and trying to sow discord throughout the entire Middle East.

If anything, Bush recognizes this and pinpoints the enemy and what needs to be done. We must reduce our dependence on foreign oil so that these dictatorships no longer have the funds to operate. Here is the excerpt from the speech:

It is in our vital interest to diversify America????????s energy supply ???????? and the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power ???????? by even greater use of clean coal technology … solar and wind energy … and clean, safe nuclear power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol ???????? using everything from wood chips, to grasses, to agricultural wastes.

We have made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies in Washington and the strong response of the market. Now even more dramatic advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we have done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next ten years ???????? thereby cutting our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East.
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These men are not given to idle words, and they are just one camp in the Islamist radical movement. In recent times, it has also become clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle East. Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran, which is funding and arming terrorists like Hezbollah ???????? a group second only to al Qaeda in the American lives it has taken.

The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. But whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans … kill democracy in the Middle East … and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale.

In the sixth year since our Nation was attacked, I wish I could report to you that the dangers have ended. They have not. And so it remains the policy of this government to use every lawful and proper tool of intelligence, diplomacy, law enforcement, and military action to do our duty, to find these enemies, and to protect the American people.

This war is more than a clash of arms ???????? it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of our Nation is in the balance. To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred, and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and come to kill us. What every terrorist fears most is human freedom ???????? societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of their resentments. Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies ???????? and most will choose a better way when they are given a chance. So we advance our own security interests by helping moderates, reformers, and brave voices for democracy. The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I say, for the sake of our own security . . . we must.

In the last two years, we have seen the desire for liberty in the broader Middle East ???????? and we have been sobered by the enemy????????s fierce reaction. In 2005, the world watched as the citizens of Lebanon raised the banner of the Cedar Revolution … drove out the Syrian occupiers … and chose new leaders in free elections. In 2005, the people of Afghanistan defied the terrorists and elected a democratic legislature. And in 2005, the Iraqi people held three national elections ???????? choosing a transitional government … adopting the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world ??????? and then electing a government under that constitution. Despite endless threats from the killers in their midst, nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity we should never forget.

A thinking enemy watched all of these scenes, adjusted their tactics, and in 2006 they struck back. In Lebanon, assassins took the life of Pierre Gemayel, a prominent participant in the Cedar Revolution. And Hezbollah terrorists, with support from Syria and Iran, sowed conflict in the region and are seeking to undermine Lebanon????????s legitimately elected government. In Afghanistan, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters tried to regain power by regrouping and engaging Afghan and NATO forces. In Iraq, al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists blew up one of the most sacred places in Shia Islam ???????? the Golden Mosque of Samarra. This atrocity, directed at a Muslim house of prayer, was designed to provoke retaliation from Iraqi Shia ???????? and it succeeded. Radical Shia elements, some of whom receive support from Iran, formed death squads. The result was a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and reprisal that continues to this day.

This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.

President Bush has ideologically always been right on target. Advancing and preserving democracy is and always will be in the best interests of the people of the world as well as of the United States. He recognizes that the enemies of stable and democratic governments in the Middle East are putting all of their resources to making sure this doesn’t happen. The rest of his speech focuses so much on Iraq and Lebanon not just to simply to curry favor with the American public, but to lay out the very fundamental fact that if these people are able to destroy Lebanon and Iraq, democracy in the Middle East could be doomed for our lifetimes. This cannot be allowed to happen.

To the Islamists of both flavors, their dark and murderous totalitarian ideology is worth fighting for, even dying for. Whether or not we in America and the West in general believe that democracy is worth the same to us hangs in the balance. Democracy, and liberty, are principles too sweet to give away. They are values to strive for and live by, not to die by. Western civilization is not a death cult shackled to self-defeating ideology.

That is why we must continue to fight and believe that freedom and democracy are good in and of themselves. American cannot give up on it now.