President George W. Bush peppered his inauguration speech with inspiring words such as “freedom,” “democracy” and the “end of tyranny.” Coming as they did from the world’s most powerful man, those words should have set off celebrations across the world. If they have not, it is because the world has heard the same words from the same man and has seen him using them for quite different purposes. Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace summed up what the words could mean: “I fear that he is presenting a justification for a greater expansion of US military presence in the rest of the world... He seems to be putting an anti-tyranny veneer on a policy of US expansion and regime change.”
We hope the cynics are wrong and that the president has used those words in the same sense that we all understand them. The Palestinians hope that when he quoted Abraham Lincoln — “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot for long retain it” — he also meant those who deny them their freedom. They hope that when Bush said Thursday “There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom” he was talking as much about them as he was about any other people.
The Europeans are profoundly skeptical of the new Bush White House. In his first term, those European states who opposed the war in Iraq were written off as “Old Europe.” Former Secretary of State Colin Powell often appeared embarrassed as he peddled his president’s political hard-line in European capitals. Despite all her talk about the time for diplomacy being now, European leaders are expecting far less insight and reflection from Powell’s replacement, Condoleezza Rice.
In Europe, which has a long history of freedom and democracy, the expectation of Bush serving those causes is very low. It is so even in traditional US allies in Western Europe: 64 percent in Britain, 75 percent in France, 77 percent in Germany, 54 percent in Italy and 61 percent in Australia think that his presidency has made the world a more dangerous place.
The majority of the general public has always been resolutely opposed to Washington’s war rhetoric. Even in Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair is finding it increasingly difficult to justify his close and supportive relationship with President Bush. The previously warm personal relationship between the two men is coming under strain because of the president’s disinclination to listen to British counsel against the steely and inflexible advice coming from his handpicked neoconservative kitchen Cabinet.
If this inauguration speech had been made four years ago, then people might have been more hopeful. Unfortunately the president’s stirring words Thursday have to be measured against the list of broken promises and missed opportunities of his first term. Fine words are no good when your actions contradict them.
