In her regular Thursday column, Peggy Noonan reviews Bush’s speech at Kansas State University. She approves of his strategic, even romantic vision, but worries about the short term.
We want our president to love democracy and hold it high. But I would feel better if his preoccupations, and his public statements, had more to do with safety, homeland security and a heightened sense of the need for preparedness. I would like him to find Osama.
Actually, I would argue that the opposite is true. If you have the strategy right, you can always deal with the tactical issues, the friction and the fog of battle. But the way to win battles is to have your troops in the right place before the battle.
The notable thing about the Bush presidency has been its strategic sense. It has put in place the tax rate cuts that blasted the economy out of stasis. It has injected the United States in between the two radical foci in the Middle East, the Sunni radical Wahabis in Saudi Arabia and the Shia radicals in Iran. It has allowed Israel to advance to a unilateral division of Palestine.
The conseqence of these strategic moves will become evident in the future when the unexpected happens and battles in the War on Terror erupt. We will realize how convenient it is to have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will observe the good fortune of having walled off the Palestinians into their own political and physical space.
But do not expect the world to thank President Bush for his strategic dispositions. Not now, and maybe not ever.
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