Full text of (President!) Bush's inaugural address

Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens:

On this day, prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution, and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.

At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. 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.

This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.

The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause.

My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve, and have found it firm.

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.

We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. 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.

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.

The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.

And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.

From all of you, I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be dishonorable to abandon. 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.

A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause - in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy ... the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments ... the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives - and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice.

All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself - and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character.

America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential work at home - the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.

In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence, instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the G.I. Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time. To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance - preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.

In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character - on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before - ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service, and mercy, and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.

From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?

These questions that judge us also unite us, because Americans of every party and background, Americans by choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom. We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes - and I will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack, and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good, and the victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives are set free.

We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.

When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said, "It rang as if it meant something." In our time it means something still. America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to all the inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength - tested, but not weary - we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.

Hey Publius, let's talk about your little info for a second.

1) Hmm, Islamic militism rapidly spreading in nations like Syria, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia... hmm, sounds like Nazism.

2) Bush has a better view on the world than any other president in history. He immobilized a threat to the nation, eg Saddam Hussein, has forced Osama Bin Laden into exile in some remote cave in the Tora Bora Mountains, he has shut down any threat of U.S. interference with PA and Syria. He has shut down Libya's nuclear arsenal program, and is already at the negotiations table with China concerning North Korea. Why are the peace talks taking so long? Because they're planning the strategy of war against North Korea! And it will last approximately twenty minutes, enough for a quarter of the Chinese military to cross the border and for the N. Korean generals to say f- you Kim. As Kim is taken to some N. Korean bunker, eg. the state of the art one that was recently built, what do you think the nuclear-tipped bunker busters are for?

4) I know that Bush would have a hat sitting on his desk, that in the case of a nuclear bomb going off in a city, that he'd pull out names and tell the Islamic world, hey, we have a hat with every major arab city in it. I have pulled out two, I won't tell you what they are, but you have two hours to evacuate them! Then I'm going to eradicate them with nuclear bombs. Any country that interferes with this little plan of action will automatically be considered another enemy to this country and we shall do everything in our power to disrupt economic, government, military, etc. stability, from sabotage to military action. Oops, five minutes wasted. Make that an hour and fifty five minutes until I drop nuclear bombs on the cities I have pulled out.

But there are too many wrong or weak or confusing words, and phrases that are not quite right, and sentences that are not absolutely clear. Each time you hear one you wonder "What?" for a split second; then you forget all about it as the speech moves forward. But those split-second pauses produce a scratchy, unpolished texture that listeners experience as a vague not-quite-rightness.
... There were also weak phrases, a few unclear ones, and one absolute stinker.

... There was one flat-out unacceptable moment. Evidently the "edifice of character" is "sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount," and . . . "the words of the Koran"? Come off it! Which words? Name one! Is there a single sentence, phrase, idea in the Koran that has made any difference to this nation whatsoever? I'm not knocking the Koran; pluralism is wonderful. The problem is that at this moment, no listener in the whole world could possibly have believed that the president was serious.

Sometimes a Great Speech (A close reading of the second Bush inaugural) The Weekly Standard ^ | January 31, 2005 | David Gelernter

You are repeating an error I have been debating for two days now.
I have not critized our president's achievements, in the slightest. Only his choice of words in one sentence of his inaugural speech; it was unsettling. And it is merely an opinion, grounded in some sort of reality, as it turns out, from subsequent comments by others enormously more knowledgeable and articulate than I.

Before we begin, I would like to know what makes you happy. If you deem this request useless, that will be the end of our non-beginning.

I am sorry, but I understand neither the purpose nor the context of your question.
The post you are responding to simply stated my dismissal of a criticism by someone who put words in my mouth and then shot them down in flames. A sophomoric exercise.

Hi Jeff, welcome to the good fight.

I admire you and I admire your thoughts, but we have been switched to different tracks on this one.

I listened to the speech, every word of it, and, I posted comment #2 immediately, while seething with a feeling that if our president can't see the futility, what hope is there?

Islam Does not have words for "individual worth", "initiative", "conscience", and above all "freedom". Appealing to their potential goodness is useless; like talking to the man in the street in Martian. Before muslims can mull over ideas, they must grasp the meaning of the word. Their actions make it clear that they cannot. Islam does not allow it.

Even the "leaders" about to be elected in Iraq suffer from the fatal flaw.

Because to NOT mention the Koran would immediately cause the groups like CAIR to start in about how Islam was being disrespected. Their ads would inflame the Americna Muslims, and would be used in propoganda abroad.

We need to formulate foreign policy and adopt a moral and ethical posture based on what enrages or inflames CAIR? Get real.

Jimmy Carter tried that with the little Teheran incident, and it brought the avalanche of "paper tiger" encouragement which has lasted to this very day.
How much more worse can the propaganda abroad be? Since when has it been based on reality?

I had similar feelings when I first heard it regarding the phrase in questions. However, upon reflection and taken in context with the rest of the speech (which I believe the comments must be done) I came to the conclusions I posted.

Islam MUST reform in order to overcome the issues plagueing it and that are fatal to it IMHO...and it is a reformation of very basic substance because, unlike Christianity's reformation, the very teachings and writings of its founder (Mohammed) are at the core of the flaw in many cases. They not only allow for, they encourage the types of radicalism we see and we fight. In Christianiy's case, the writings and teachings of Christ were not what was suspect, it was the way they had been twisted (again, IMHO) themsleve. Those teachings of Christ are as good, true, and oriented towards self improbement, liberty of mind and body, and the imrpovement of the human conditionsthrough being good, and willingly following the source of the goodness, today as they were 2000 years ago.

Anyhow, just my opinion and though on this one issue we may diosagree, I respect your opinion, the reasons for it, and your right to it.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.