The Torch of Freedom Has Passed To Conservatives
By David Horowitz January 24, 2005


The President sounded a clarion call for freedom in his
second inaugural address. Its sentiments were based on
an assessment of the world we live in that should be
obvious. Modern technologies of destruction are
accessible to all governments and exclusively to
governments (because they are so expensive and require
sophisticated capabilities to produce). Modern
terrorism requires a base for ambitious operations that
only nation-states can provide. Hence, an impoverished
wasteland like Afghanistan can wreak incalculable
devastation on the United States. Hence, "the best hope
for peace in our world, is the expansion of freedom in
all the world," which is the line from the President's
speech the White House is highlighting above all >others.

Consider if Al Gore had been President on 9/11 and not
George Bush. Suppose Gore had adopted the response of
the Clinton administration to terrorists attacks, had
not declared war, and had not invaded Afghanistan in a
pre-emptive strike?

Suppose Osama bin Laden had been
able to mount a second and third major terrorist attack
in the months following 9/11. Instead of the $600
billion that was taken out of the American economy, the
figure might have been many times that. Confidence
might have been so shattered that a full scale economic
collapse would have followed, taking down the global
economy along with it. It is not too fanciful to
imagine civil wars and coup d'etats following in the
wake of such an economic disaster. It is not
far-fetched to think that a nuclear power like Pakistan
might fall into radical Islamist hands. Two paths
define our future: chaos, tyranny and terror, or
expanding freedom and prosperity based on free markets
and free men.

It will probably not be one or the other. There is no
steady path to progress, and there will never be a
world without tyranny and conflict. But our course must
be to strengthen the one and combat the other. Thus
encouraging the Muslim world, and particularly the Arab
Muslim world, which is the heart of the global
terrorist threat -- to adopt democratic ways and to
shine the light of liberty into its culture of medieval
darkness is a pragmatic necessity for the future
security of the civilized world.

That is the reality
behind the President's address. Only people in serious
denial can be blind to this fact. Only liberals.

The president sounded a clarion call for freedom and
liberals carped. That was virtually their
universal response to an inaugural that ranks among the
most inspirational speeches ever delivered by an
American president. ...

The President sounded a clarion call for freedom in his
second inaugural address