President Bush’s Final Address To Nation A Smash
Thursday night, I had the privilege of watching President Bush deliver his last speech as president. It was one of his finest speeches ever because he reminded people that we still live in a dangerous world. President Bush reminded us that his decisions on preventing another terrorist attack were the right decisions. Here’s a portion of the speech that jumped out at me:
This evening, my thoughts return to the first night I addressed you from this house, September the 11th, 2001. That morning, terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. I remember standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center three days later, surrounded by rescuers who had been working around the clock. I remember talking to brave souls who charged through smoke-filled corridors at the Pentagon, and to husbands and wives whose loved ones became heroes aboard Flight 93. I remember Arlene Howard, who gave me her fallen son’s police shield as a reminder of all that was lost. And I still carry his badge.
As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.
I wish President Bush had told us about his perspective of his presidency. Saying that, though people had returned to live normal lives, he never had that luxury. Silently, he carried the burden of knowing that his decisions were decisions that could prevent another terrorist attack. What an awesome burden for one man to bear.
If I had to give him a grade on preventing another terrorist attack and protecting the homeland, I’d give him an A+ without hesitation. President Bush proposed the Patriot Act, which tore down the Gorelick Wall, which prevented the CIA from telling law enforcement about terrorists. At the time, this would’ve been known as connecting the dots. Now it’s standard operating procedure.
President Bush instructed the NSA to start intercepting the terrorist’s foreign communications, whether the communication was an email, a fax or a phone call. He instituted a program that tracked large money transfers in an attempt to cut off the terrorist’s money supply.
Here’s something that will be part of President Bush’s legacy:
Over the past seven years, a new Department of Homeland Security has been created. The military, the intelligence community, and the FBI have been transformed. Our nation is equipped with new tools to monitor the terrorists’ movements, freeze their finances, and break up their plots. And with strong allies at our side, we have taken the fight to the terrorists and those who support them. Afghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school. Iraq has gone from a brutal dictatorship and a sworn enemy of America to an Arab democracy at the heart of the Middle East and a friend of the United States.
There is legitimate debate about many of these decisions. But there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil. This is a tribute to those who toil night and day to keep us safe: law enforcement officers, intelligence analysts, homeland security and diplomatic personnel, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.
Who can forget the purple ink-stained fingers of the first Iraqis to vote in free and fair elections? Who can forget the fact that a woman was the first voter in Afghanistan? Who can forget the naysayers’ predictions that Afghanistan was the place where great armies go to die only to see our military triumph?
There’s no justifying calling President Bush one of the great presidents in US history. It’s perfectly justifiable calling President Bush an historic president. His foreign policy in the Middle East and eastern Europe was guided by a single principle:
The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God, and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.
This is the belief that gave birth to our nation. And in the long run, advancing this belief is the only practical way to protect our citizens. When people live in freedom, they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror. When people have hope in the future, they will not cede their lives to violence and extremism. So around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity. We’re standing with dissidents and young democracies, providing AIDS medicine to dying patients, to bring dying patients back to life, and sparing mothers and babies from malaria. And this great republic born alone in liberty is leading the world toward a new age when freedom belongs to all nations.
President Bush understood, much like Ronald Reagan, that people everywhere have an unquenchable thirst for liberty. This singular principlewas the driving force behind their foreign policies. President Reagan used that principle to liberate Eastern Europe from Soviet control. President Bush was guided by that principle to liberate the people oppressed by the Taliban and al Qa’ida in Afghanistan and people oppressed and tortured by Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay.
A decade from now, US presidents will reap the benefit of President Bush putting in place those important building blocks in the Middle East. That isn’t dissimilar from how people view Harry S. Truman now that a half century has shed the light of wisdom on his decisions with regard to the Cold War.
Another thing that will add to President Bush’s legacy will be the confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. They’re living proof that sane jurists still exist, though they are in short supply.
At this point, I’d like to inject something into the conversation for which the columnists haven’t given President Bush credit for: his intervention in Africa, which has saved millions of lives from the ravages of AIDS. Here’s how one doctor in Tanzania worded it:
Dr Ngoma in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
“I think what he’s done with HIV is remarkable. The funds he pledged have touched the lives of many people; these people are my relatives, my patients and other people I know these are not statistics, this is real life. I could see these people having hope in life now because of Bush’s contribution to HIV treatments they can get better now and take care of their families.”
Here’s another testimonial to his intervention in Africa:
Joe in Nairobi Kenya sent this
“Dear President Bush, Thank you for speaking out for the people of Southern Sudan and Darfur when the rest of the world and many in Africa buried their heads in the sand debating about the semantics of the term genocide. Thank you for helping in the fight against Malaria and HIV-AIDS. More children in Africa will live to see their 5th birthday.”
Under President Bush’s watch, the United States took human rights and human dignity seriously. Under President Bush’s watch, the United States instituted reforms to prevent corrupt governments from getting millions in aid from the United State while still finding a way to get people the medical supplies they needed.
Because of President Bush’s leadership, The Millenial Fund dispensed money only to countries that had reformed themselves. Those governments that refused to rid themselves from their despotic leaders didn’t get the check, though the people living there got the medical supplies they needed through the work of NGO’s. That’s the type of innovation I can admire.
Thank You, President Bush, for getting your primary constitutional responsibility so right. Thank you for protecting us from terrorist enemies.
Technorati Tags: President Bush, Legacy, Liberty, National Security, Patriot Act, NSA Intercepts, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Innk-Stained Finger, Ronald Reagan, Terrorists, Taliban, Homeland Security
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog