Hail to the Queef

Inauguration Day 2005.

And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well as 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.
--G.W. Bush, Inaugural Address

When my words were honey,
Flies covered my lips!
--Mahmoud Darweesh

There was very little one could disagree with in the President's Inaugural Address . Rather than that being a sign of good political thought however, it is a sign of its poverty. Just as bad science is unfalsifible, if one can't take issue with the points in a political speech it, it hardly seems to have a point.

Yet it is worse than pointless. With his vaulted language--as if his second term was the second coming of some avenging Messiah of "freedom"--the President has raised expectations so high that the reality will never be able to match them. Without a substaintial volte-face change in U.S. foreign policy, the President's crusade on behalf of "democracy" will become a crusade on behalf of hypocrisy. But no such change will be forthcoming.

The reality of world politics--and nonnegotiable U.S. national interest--will make hypocrites out of all of us. George W sees this "War On Terror" as a war for freedom, of course, but essential to prosecuting this war are alliances with, and aid to illiberal regimes (to put it euphamistically) in Pakistan, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Indeed the President's aides, as well as his own father, have said that this speech marks no real change in U.S. policy. Given the soaring altitude of the President's rhetoric and the reality of how little actual policy will fundamentally change, the U.S. can only lose additional international crediblity, while charges of hypocrisy will resonate--whether they deserve to or not--all the more. Flies will cover our lips.