The SOTU

Anybody who reads this blog, all three of you, knows that I support President Bush. I think his speech tonight was powerful in its cogency and courage. Whether he wins on Social Security or not, he deserves credit for telling us the truth about it. It's an unsustainable system, and Paul Krugman's assurance that even after the trust fund is gone, Social Security revenues will cover 81 percent of the promised benefits is hardly reassuring. This program generates strong feelings and they won't be any kinder if we wait until the shortage in upon us.

I tried to listen to it as if I were uninformed and undecided, and I found his appeals to courage, sacrifice and idealism attractive. His approach to dealing with terrorism is carefully reasoned and strategically visionary. Like the containment policy that eventually won the Cold War, it will need to be followed up over generations, but unlike it, pursuing democracy as a cure for dangerous states is not as obvious as arming ourselves for deterrence. I hope the American people understand it and are smart enough to remember Bush's inaugural speech. It is not obvious that the only assurance of continued freedom is to pursue it everywhere.

As for the Democrats' response, Reid's recounting his roots in Searchlight, Nevada was embarrassingly hokey and egocentric, and his appeal to balancing the budget strikes me as hypocritical. Nancy Pelosi came across as a person with nothing positive to say. In short, they were naysayers, not leaders. They want to play it safe and rely on the old formula of government programs to garner support, which has turned us into a nation of dependents, no matter how we like to see ourselves. This is a dead end, and that's why they are losing elections. Bush threw down a gauntlet on every major issue, and they just let it lie there.

The Iraqi experiment in Democracy has made me think about what it takes for a people to adopt freedom. They have to accept responsibility and they have to have the courage to stand up for their rights. I wasn't sure the Iraqis understood that. I am now convinced that most of them do. I only hope their courage and determination will not fail them in days to come.

This war has restored my faith in our military and admiration for the men and women who serve. Soldiers aren't cannon fodder as most anti-war types see them. They think in terms of the draft, failing to realize that the old model in which each side threw more men at the other and the one that ran out first was the loser. The volunteer military is fundamentally different. It is composed of warriors, not conscripts. It fights with intelligence, training and the best equipment, not body counts. I never felt that I had the physical prowess to be a soldier, but I love and honor those who do; who risk their lives for priniciples like freedom, democracy and patriotism.