Goodbye (Teil 6)

Diesmal gibt es mal wieder eine Rede: Bushs "Second Inaugural Address", die er am 20. Januar 2005 vor dem Kapitol hielt.

Die National Review schrieb dazu: "It's worth reading: A magnificent speech, right in the American grain, one that will be remembered for as long as liberty is an issue on this planet. It's entirely devoted to the rationale for the war in Iraq."

Diese zweite Rede zur Amtseinführung ist sehr wichtig, um zu verstehen, was George Bush in den letzten acht Jahren (und namentlich im Irak) antrieb und woran er nie aufhörte zu glauben: Die Idee, dass nur dort, wo Freiheit und Demokratie herrschen, wahrer Frieden und Gerechtigkeit zu finden sind. Die Verbreitung von Freiheit als zentrales Mittel im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus und die Tyrannei. Ein freiheitlicher und demokratischer Naher Osten als Sieg gegen die fundamentalen Islamisten. Schluss mit dem Hätscheln von Dikatoren um einer falschen Stabilität willen, unter der Hass und Gewaltbereitschaft gärt.


Die wichtigsten Auszüge:

"For a half century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical - and then there came a day of fire.

We have seen our vulnerability - and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny - prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder - violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. 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.

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

[...]

We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.

[...]

In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty. Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty - though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.

[...]

Yet because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well - a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. "