The State of the Union

Last night, President Bush gave his annual State of the Union address, in which he outlined his agenda for the coming year.

I have to say that it was an impressive speech in many aspects—particuarly the first twenty minutes—but it trailed off at times from there.

On a whole, it was a continuation, of the President's argument that in order to win the war against Islamic Fascism—and totalitarianism in general—we need to aggressively champion democracy abroad.

The key line in perhaps the entire speech was when he bluntly observed that

We seek the end of tyranny in our world

The President deserves tremendous credit for sticking to his guns when it comes to foreign policy, and while he has not always been perfect (the nihilistic absence of policy in regards to Iran springs to mind) he has done more to champion liberalism and genuine republican government than perhaps any President has done before.

For that, we all owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. As President Bush observed last night:

There is no peace in retreat. And there is no honor in retreat. By allowing radical Islam to work its will - by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself - we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals, or even in our own courage. But our enemies and our friends can be certain: The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.