In his State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress and the American people, President George W. Bush said the United States must choose to exercise leadership in the world to secure peace and to protect its citizens:
“Our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal -- we seek the end of tyranny in our world. . . . On September the 11th, 2001, we found that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state seven-thousand miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country. Dictatorships shelter terrorists, and feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction. Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror. Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer -- so we will act boldly in freedom's cause."
Recalling U.S. global involvement in the twentieth century, President Bush said the U.S. “rejects the false comfort of isolationism”:
"We are the nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire. Once again, we accept the call of history to deliver the oppressed and move this world toward peace."
President Bush vowed to stay on the offensive against terrorists around the world, including those in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S., he said, “cannot find security by abandoning our commitments and retreating within our borders.” The ultimate path to defeating terrorists and their radical ideology, he said, will be “the hopeful alternative of political freedom and peaceful change."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
