Hope has triumphed, and with it the confidence of the American people in the values and principles on which our shared civilization on both sides of the Atlantic is based. George W. Bush decided to respond to totalitarian terrorist attacks with a return to basic principles. He could have chosen appeasement. He could have opted for mere rhetoric. He decided not to do so. He decided to oppose brutality with steadfast conviction. Now a wide majority of his people has backed this policy. It has confirmed that there is hope in our way of life, a form of hope that derives its strength from its essential convictions, a hope that is manifested in the desire to defend freedom above all else.
Just one comment about the article itself. Just what "totalitarian terrorist attacks" is he talking about? "Totalitarian" usually refers to a country. There was no country launching terroism, of course. This guy Jose Maria Aznar seems to have swallowed the Administration line whole. Yes, it is more than the 40+% percent of Republicans who believe a lie that Saddam was involved in 9/11. It is also political commentators who have such faith, regardless of facts.
It would serve well if someone were to write a history of the Wall Street Journal, identifying just when they succombed to faith over fact. 1980? 1990? Or was it sometime during the Clinton years?
