A better than average speech

President Bush's 17-minute speech from the Oval Office last night, while far from Churchillian, was better than I expected it was going to be. Let's hope the steadfast words are backed by wise and steadfast actions. The strongest part of this address was near its end:

At the start of this young century, America looks to the day when the people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile gardens of liberty, and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and prosperity. We look to the day when the nations of that region recognize their greatest resource is not the oil in the ground, but the talent and creativity of their people. We look to the day when moms and dads throughout the Middle East see a future of hope and opportunity for their children. And when that good day comes, the clouds of war will part, the appeal of radicalism will decline, and we will leave our children with a better and safer world.

...Dangerous enemies have declared their intention to destroy our way of life. They're not the first to try, and their fate will be the same as those who tried before. Nine-Eleven showed us why. The attacks were meant to bring us to our knees, and they did, but not in the way the terrorists intended. Americans united in prayer, came to the aid of neighbors in need, and resolved that our enemies would not have the last word. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. And we go forward with trust in that spirit, confidence in our purpose, and faith in a loving God who made us to be free.

Note the alliteration in "desert of despotism." As an image, that's a twofer: intellectually coherent, but as easily remembered as anything by Jesse Jackson on his best day. Were the president a better speaker, the phrasing here could have propelled him to the oratorical heights reached by Martin Luther King, Junior-- and that's saying something.

Kudos, too, for "their fate will be the same as those who tried before," which is all the more effective for being understated, and as matter-of-fact as most heroes are. Only literate warriors themselves can top the elegant brevity of that hard promise.

Note also the jujitsu in what starts like a concession to terrorist fantasy, with Americans on our knees, but then becomes a celebration of that intrinsically Christian paradox, the triumph of the cross (go read the Anchoress today for more about that).

Not that there's any overtly theological language in the stirring but generically Judeo-Christian conclusion: if anything, it's an homage to the centrality of freedom in America's "civic religion," whch is open to people of all faiths or none. But the speech thumbs its nose quite properly at squeamish groups like the ACLU to ground freedom in the proper existential soil, as a birthright welded in and to human dignity by the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Paul, Augustine, Thomas, and Jerome.