Peggy Noonan: Way Too Much God (Freepers let's tell her our thoughts)

WSJ ^ | 1/21/05 | Peggy Noonan

[Mikmur]

PEGGY NOONAN

Way Too Much God Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?

The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike. Rhetorically, it veered from high-class boilerplate to strong and simple sentences, but it was not pedestrian. George W. Bush's second inaugural will no doubt prove historic because it carried a punch, asserting an agenda so sweeping that an observer quipped that by the end he would not have been surprised if the president had announced we were going to colonize Mars. A short and self-conscious preamble led quickly to the meat of the speech: the president's evolving thoughts on freedom in the world. Those thoughts seemed marked by deep moral seriousness and no moral modesty.

The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul."

And yet such promising moments were followed by this, the ending of the speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." This is--how else to put it?--over the top. It is the kind of sentence that makes you wonder if this White House did not, in the preparation period, have a case of what I have called in the past "mission inebriation." A sense that there are few legitimate boundaries to the desires born in the goodness of their good hearts.

[Eva]

I already sent a response to the Opinion Journal. I said that I was more "startled" by Peggy's shallow response than I was by the speech. Peggy missed a major point of the speech if she thinks that there was too much God. Bush was sending an important message to those in the Middle East and around the world who invoke a higher power to stir hatred and murder, rather than freedom and human dignity. Bush was telling them and the world that the God that America follows is a just God.

Maybe we should review those old articles on " A Just War."

[beyond the sea]

I thought the speech was exactly what should be said for the occasion. ---

Ditto!

[Earthdweller]

"Timid or aggressive, they all fall sooner or later. That is why the best way in the long run for a nation to maintain itself is to resist the imperial urge, no matter how seductive empire-building may be; it only leads to ruin in the long run.

-- Friend.. this ain't no "urge" it is a necessity. The only other choice is to let your so-called "subhuman" culture grow and get the "imperial urge"..which seems to already be taking place.

[syriacus]

As I've explained ad nauseum in previous posts, when individuals emigrate (or their ancestors were transported as slaves) to the United States, they, or at least their children, become inculcated in American values

Soon after they arrived in America, plenty of immigrant Irish couldn't wait to get into US politics

Those folks didn't need any inculcating, only a short tour of our system of government. They only needed an opportunity to participate in their own government.

It's said that Irish immigrants got into American politics more quickly than some other immigrant groups, because they knew English already.

The Iraqis don't need to learn English in order to participate in their own goverment.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I love Peggy Noonan.. but I am very surprised by this article and I disagree with her 100%.

[beyond the sea]

She's either nuts or bitter about something.

She's most likely upset because her input for the speech was NOT requested. I would be too (a little). She's also getting a very high opinion of herself, and on the talk shows she comes off as a little too uppity and condescending.

But, since we're about the same age and have about the same political opinions, and she's pretty cute, I'd be willing to take her out and straighten her out.

;-)

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Don't overstate the facts. Baker was the faceman of that effort. The legal team in Florida and DC put the real work in making effort successful. He was not responsible for putting GW in the WH. OTOH, Baker is definitely part of that Brent Scowcroft, Kissinger, et al. school of foreign policy wonks that apeased alot of tyrants.

[iconoclast]

Peggy Noonan is a devout Catholic

Oh Lord, now they'll be pinging the Catholic bashers.

[syriacus]

BTW--Ireland is a fully functioning democracy.

How true.

It's also true that Ireland's government runs a little more along the European lines of "Democracy," (President, Prime Minister, Houses of Parliament) but that's perfect, because that's the way the Irish wanted to do things.

Welcome to the Government of Ireland website.

Like President Bush says, the Iraqis will set things up the way they want, too.

[beyond the sea]

This piece reveals a real mega-ego.

YEP! She's been there for a while. It's sad to see a girl I once was aware of....... who first came to write for R.R., change in this way. I wish her the best, though. She's been a good girl.

******

I will never forget her piece

November 24th, 2000 -- We Must Fight. This was extremely powerful and meaningful to G.W. and all of us at the time!!! I will always be indepted to her for this! She came up big at the right time!!!

[iconoclast]

Juan Williams has the same trait.

I consider Juan Williams to be a very decent and bright gentleman.

Oops, sorry, (I missed a couple of indoctrination classes) he's on the hated side isn't he?

[mudblood]

I loved the president's speech. My wife, a harder-line republican than I (I'm neither rep nor dem), loved the president's speech. My two friends, both repub, loved it. And even my Bush-hating mostly-liberal co-worker grudgingly admitted it was a good speech. It was a good speech. I love Peggy Noonan, but she's wrong on this one. The President was right to invoke God - he believes in God, and that belief is far different than someone's belief in Santa, for example. It follows him everywhere he goes and is reflected in everything he does. I'm fine with that, why isn't she? Or anyone, for that matter? If they don't like it, they should vote for someone else. Democracy in action. They lost, we won - I thought Noonan won too, but now I'm in doubt.

[Earthdweller]

"WHOSE Iraqi government? The Sunni Baathist government? The Shi'ite government? The Kurdish government? There is no national identity in Iraq, only group identity. That is why it took a monster like Saddam Hussein to hold Iraq together--Iraq was held together by the glue of brute force. With that force removed by the US, Iraq is reverting to a Hobbesian state of nature. Iraq is not a natural nation; it was cobbled together on a drawing room map from the detritus of the Turkish empire."
---

I suggest you rent the movie "Gangs of New York" if you think our republic was not molded from the fire of violence, stupidity and mob rule in the beginning. Remember the Wild West? Have you no patience to see how they might do?

[syriacus]

That is why the best way in the long run for a nation to maintain itself is to resist the imperial urge, no matter how seductive empire-building may be; it only leads to ruin in the long run.

I guess we agree, then

Nothing created by man lasts forever

[mudblood]

"resist the imperial urge"

If we further the cause of freedom, we aren't imperialists. If we dipose a dictator and setup elections in a nation, and help stabalize it for a few years before leaving, and keep close ties and help them along, this isn't imperialist. Imperialism is more like what the British did in India, where they built railroads and charged it to India. Where they put villagers to work sewing textiles and if they worked too slow, they'd hire people to beat them and charge it back to the slow worker. Also, there is a moral question here. If the biggest kid on the block walks blistfully by bully after bully opressing and exploiting the weak, then what's the point of him being the biggest kid? When God gives you muscles, he did so for a reason, right? Helping the weak help themselves is the opposite of imperialism.

[syriacus]

Have you no patience to see how they might do?

Good question to ask many of the folks on Capitol Hill and in the MSM, too.

[Aquamarine]

This is an old speech that has been given time and again throughout our history.

It was refreshing to finally hear it again. Am relieved that we've completed the cycle and gone back to our roots.

[Mudboy Slim]

I'm disappointed in Ms. Noonan's opinion here...MUD