Excerpt:
Each generation must redefine its struggle, rise against the forces of evil and articulate why the good must triumph. Lincoln himself understood this. He began his famous speech "Four score and seven years ago," to tie his colossal struggle to save the Union to the revolution that created it. His message was that the cause remained the same--to fight for the freedom of man--even if the battlefields had changed.
President Bush understands this. He immediately identified al Qaeda's ultimate target, freedom. From the beginning, he has insisted on calling evil by its name. This moral clarity gives him both an understanding of where he stands in history and the proper perspective to articulate the emotions so many Americans feel. Despite the stereotype that he is inarticulate, Mr. Bush has spoken--often off the cuff--some of the most memorable words over the past year. "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon," he told the firemen crawling over the rubble at Ground Zero three days after the attack.
Rudy Giuliani understands this too. In the months after the attack, he sometimes seemed to even eclipse the president. In only a few simple words, spoken straight from the heart, Mr. Giuliani turned away a $10 million check from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The prince had toured Ground Zero and blamed U.S. policy for the devastation. "There is no moral equivalent for this attack," Mr. Giuliani admonished the prince in turning away the money. "The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification. . . . Not only are [Alwaleed's] statements wrong, they're part of the problem."
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