Liberty

Let's revisit what George Bush said at the US Air Force Academy graduation earlier this month:

We honor a generation of Americans who served this country and saved the liberty of the world... "Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force," [Eisenhower] wrote, "the eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."...In other ways, [our struggle] resembles the great clashes of the last century -- between those who put their trust in tyrants and those who put their trust in liberty...So to the oppressed peoples everywhere, we are offering the great alternative of human liberty...And we have confidence that people share this vision of dignity and freedom in every culture because liberty is not the invention of Western culture, liberty is the deepest need and hope of all humanity...We're encouraging economic opportunity and the rule of law and government reform and the expansion of liberty throughout the region...We're stepping up our efforts to train effective Iraqi security forces that will eventually defend the liberty of their own country...And we've seen the appeal of liberty with our own eyes...And that perseverance gave all the world a lesson in the power of liberty...By keeping our word, and holding firm to our values, this generation will show the world the power of liberty once again.

Sinclair Lewis wrote in It Can't Happen Here in 1935:

I tell you, an honest man gets sick when he hears the word ‘Liberty’ today, after what the Republicans did to it!

Eerily prophetic.

ntodd