NYT,pg1: In Bush's Vision, a Mission to Spread Power of Liberty

[DeepModem Mom]

Page-one NYT story, penance for editorial endorsement of Kerry?


ON THE TRAIL
In Bush's Vision, a Mission to Spread Power of Liberty
By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: October 21, 2004


WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - In the last, frenetic two weeks of the campaign, there comes a moment at every rally, every town hall meeting, when President Bush starts talking about what he calls "the transformational power of liberty.''

It usually happens toward the end of his speech, after Mr. Bush accuses Senator John Kerry of seeking to beat a hasty retreat from Iraq and of surrendering American sovereignty by creating a "global test'' for the use of military power. It almost always starts with Mr. Bush's description of his warm relationship with Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, and his sense of wonder that he sits down "at the table with the head of a former enemy'' whom his father fought in the Second World War.

Yet it moves quickly to a vision democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then to "free governments in the broader Middle East that will fight the terrorists, instead of harboring them.'' It is Mr. Bush's way of infusing the storyline of his presidency with a sense of mission, one as great as the liberation of Asia and Europe a half-century ago, one with the promise of turning the region into what Japan has become: wealthy, peaceful and its own distinctive form of democracy.

It is deliberately far more Reagan than Bush 41, a sparkling symbol of "the vision thing'' that Mr. Bush's father lacked, with disastrous electoral results, a dozen years ago. And while the president's riff rarely shows up on the evening news, it is the uplifting moment in his daily message. It is artfully crafted to get his audiences to look beyond the daily headlines of beheadings and suicide bombers, of an insurgency that has defied American military might, and to focus Americans' attention on the fact that Afghans have just gone to the polls and that Iraqis are trying to do the same.

"Freedom is on the march," Mr. Bush declared in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Tuesday morning, as he began to describe an American mission to spread democracy and liberty that just a few years ago was the vision of just a few neo-conservatives, led by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary. That argument gathered enthusiasts in the administration as they pressed arguments for ousting Saddam Hussein. "Freedom is taking hold in a part of the world that no one ever dreamed would be free," Mr. Bush said, "and that makes America more secure."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/politics/campaign/21memo.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1098353185-/nGVIx1gpbi4OBHmf+oLyg

[leftchick]

1. Good Lord! This "vision" of his is just as INSANE as the notion

that "we are fighting the terroists there so we don't fight them here at home". (Which I just saw in his latest TV Ad yesterday.) One needs to consume a lot of Kool-Aid to believe that shit!

[mike from ri]

2. kerry needs to work on the "vision thing"

kerry needs to counter b*sh's big-picture regarding the future with his own overriding world view. he needs to explain the War-on-terror in large long-term philosophical terms.

i sugggest oil co-dependency as the key to dysfunction in the mid-east leading to terror. i suggest kerry needs to relate energy conservation to reforming the mideast.

[tlcandie]

10. I think you've got it!!!

When there's no more money for oil and such then what will they do? :shrug:

[Demit]

3. This article is FILLED with Bush's war imagery & rhetoric, and shows

quite starkly what his "vision" for America is: endless war, American military might, Empire. That "freedom is on the march" theme--the word march is deliberately chosen. Armies march. To war. Spreading "freedom" at the point of a gun.

The fact that--if the media is to be believed--roughly 50% of our citizens embrace this scenario is horrifying. We must get out the vote on our side.

[chelaque liberal]

4. That fact that this is believed is proof

that we have to take back the media, the Ministry of Propaganda.

Orwell must be spinning in his grave.

[leftchick]

6. legitimizing the PNAC agenda!

and that my friends is pretty fucking scary!

:scared:

[JPace]

5. He's breaking the back of America,

using all our resources to march his damned "freedom"
around the world. People are hurting here and this
crazy twit couldn't care less.

[natrat]

7. and this was the

noninterventionist president. Whay can you say ? Theye are less inteligent than farm animals.

[robbedvoter]

8. It's the answer to Kerry's speech yesterday - the leadership thingy

Kerry struck a nerve - he should keep harping on that. Interesting how NYT puts on page one W's campaign talking points (the novelty is the obviousness)

[ithacan]

9. what bullshit!!!

what he means by "freedom" is the freedom of other countries to do what the US wants or to suffer the consequences!

Remember what they did to Turkey when the Turkish public and Turkish parliament, in line with political freedom, all massively opposed US use of Turkish bases to invade Iraq, despite massive bribes from Bush?

They vilified the Turks.

They treated other countries' leaders the same. They said they should ignore their public opinion.

And if you look at the Bush doctrine of "spreading freedom," it is actually spreading a very narrow Republican vision of economic deregulation to the rest of the world.

And those other countries have no choice about it.

This is bullshit!

[tlcandie]

11. Easy to sell nice pretty packages

when all you have to look at are the pretty papers and bows!! If anyone ever opens that pretty package they might be horrified to see the blood and bloody body pieces mixed with oil that is his gift to them for bringing liberty/democracy to a people who aren't interested in selling their country, resources, or souls!!

I guess some will wait to unwrap this present until the VERY last because it's the biggest and prettiest one!!

[chelaque liberal]

12. Similar language

"Freedom is on the march," George Bush 2004

"There is a road to freedom. Its milestones are Obedience, Endeavor, Honesty, Order, Cleanliness, Sobriety, Truthfulness, Sacrifice, and love of the Fatherland." Message, signed Hitler, painted on walls of concentration camps; Life, August 21, 1939


I know a lot of people get upset about these comparisons but I believe we have to face reality.