The State of the Union

I give the president high marks for his State of the Union speech tonight. I thought it was his best SOTU address to date. Some of it I endorsed completely, but I can't say that I was enthusiastic about everything he said.

I believe he is overly optimistic about the motivations behind our enemies (the terrorists). He reiterated in his speech his belief that evil tendencies on the part of terrorists will be overcome by the development of democracy throughout the world. In his view, the lack of freedom is what foments terrorism. I believe, on the contrary, that the ideology is the thing. The London bombings, for example, were carried out by Muslim terrorists who were citizens of the U.K. You can't argue that they were frustrated by a lack of freedom in their society. Similarly, it wasn't lack of freedom in Germany in the 1930's that drove the Nazis to power. Evil belief systems are the problem, and they need to be eradicated in order to achieve victory. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean you have to kill everyone who has wrong thoughts. You do have to overcome evil with good, and there are various ways to do that, but they all begin with recognizing evil and naming it for what it is.

I admire the President, and I very much want us to succeed in Iraq. I believe he is right to send additional troops at this time. His plan is a good one, and I definitely agree that a stable Iraq is better than an unstable one, so I am very much in favor of his program on that score.

Time will tell.