Bush sets wartime goals
UNITED NATIONS — President George W. Bush was thrust into the role of a wartime president. In well under a year in office, George W was transformed from the sometimes seemingly hesitant former Texas governor to a truly primetime U.S. President. His chief political instincts and virtues — and a good team around him, especially Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor Condi Rice, kept George Bush both focused and firm. To be sure, genuine leadership is not something that one can learn, invent, nor be media packaged. The challenge thrust upon Bush in the frightful hours of September 11th and the anxious weeks after, were in many ways more daunting than the role facing FDR after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After all by December 7, 1941 war was already raging for a few years in the Far East and Europe — it was just a matter of time before a hesitant and neutral America would be dragged into the conflict. In the case of September 11th, the USA for far too long had convinced itself we live both in a peaceful world, there were no war clouds on the horizon, and moreover as the world's sole superpower, what could possibly happen anyway? Despite our military standing, we were in the final analysis attacked by an mountain bandit with a cellphone — not by another country, but a hydra-headed terrorist organization. Now in his first and probably most important State of the Union address, President George W. Bush set out the road map for American victory in the War on Terror. Amid an enthusiastic reception from a joint session of Congress, the President outlined a plan of global action against terror while at the same time safeguarding American homeland security and reviving the economy. In a sense George W. has a tougher road to follow than did Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though December 7th remains a "day of infamy" nonetheless amid the global conflict, the actual attack was not a total shock. The War on Terror has not necessitated the massive troop and resource mobilization as did WWII, nor does the conflict have an obvious ebb and flow which could be charted by for example by the Battle of Midway or the D-Day landings in France. As the President stated from the onset, this is a conflict which shall have many battles and victories of which we will not know of publically. In the long run, it's thus toughter to fight "Terror Inc" which has few formal addresses rather than facing formal targets, formal armies, and formal state structures as with Iraq just a decade ago. The President's speech was a forceful, eloquent, and a cogent reaffirmation of American goals in the conflict and as importantly, a recommitment of American resolve to protect the US heartland. Bush singled out North Korea, Islamic Iran, and the Iraqi regimes and their terrorist cohorts as comprising an "Axis of Evil". Yet with tens of thousands of terrorists trained, and camps in dozens of countries, the terrorists are "spread throughout the world like ticking timebombs set to go off." Importantly Bush warned of states too timid to act on a terrorist presence "if they do not act, America will." The continuing counterattack comes for a well honed US military force, who has earned both a new respect and thanks from the Administration. The President proposes new defense spending which will raise the salaries of members of the armed forces as well as modernize their equipment. More than a good investment. Working with new allies and enhanced relationships with old friends are part of the overall global plan to isolate, neutralize, and liquidate the Al Qaeda terror network. Yet, there 's another strength the President can draw from — freedom loving people in the USA and friends abroad. Specificially many of those who emerged as heroes on September 11th or in the immediate aftermath. The New York Policemen and Firemen who on that fateful September day selflessly served (and sometimes died) in the line of duty. New York City's feisty former Mayor Rudy Guiliani. The current Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. Or of the Captain of the German destroyer Lutjens — who in the shocking aftermath of the tragedy — and while passing an U.S. Navy ship in the mid-Atlantic — signaled "We Stand By You!" In that spirit, President Bush stressed, "The Forces of terror cannot stop the momentum of freedom — Evil is real and it must be opposed." Yet he predicted,"We will see freedom's victory."
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
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