Heading into Passover – II

George W. Bush spoke today at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. In the Q&A session following his speech, one of the students asked him for advice about making decisions relating to war, in light of his experience.  Here is a portion of his answer:

[T]he September 11th attacks affected me.  It affected my thinking deeply.  The most important job of the government is to protect the people from an attack.  And so I said we were going to stay on the offense two ways:  one, hunt down the enemy and bring them to justice, and take threats seriously; and two, spread freedom. . . .

Some view the attack as kind of an isolated incident.  I don’t.  I view it as a part of a strategy by a totalitarian, ideologically based group of people who’ve announced their intentions to spread that ideology and to attack us again.  That’s what they’ve said they’re going to do. . .

I guess, my answer to your question is, is that you got to be ready for the unexpected.  And when you act, you base your decisions on principles. . . . I want you to understand this principle, and it’s an important debate and it’s worth debating here in this school, as to whether or not freedom is universal, whether or not it’s a universal right of all men and women. . . .  And if you believe it’s universal, I believe this country has — should act on that concept of universality. . . .

And he returned to the same theme in answer to a later question:

[A]s young policy-makers, you need to seriously consider whether or not this country of ours is going to be confident enough to continue to lead. . . .  And this is a serious debate that needs to be taken . . .  And we’ve got to be confident in the values — listen, we were formed on the natural rights of men and women.  Those weren’t American rights.  They were natural rights.  There’s something greater in our founding that speaks to kind of the universality of liberty. 

Bush noted that, during the 2000 campaign, no one asked the candidates about their abilities to confront war.  No one expected war to come.  His words reminded me of a passage in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, in which Lincoln noted that four years earlier everyone dreaded war and sought to avoid it, but nevertheless “the war came.” 

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.  Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease.  Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. . . .  

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.  Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Begun as a war to save the Union (not to free the slaves), the Civil War morphed into something broader, something more fundamental and astounding.  Lincoln saw the hand of God amidst the horrific events of an unexpectedly long war.

A hundred and thirty-five years later, George W. Bush ended his First Inaugural Address by quoting a letter to Thomas Jefferson:

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson:  “We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong.  Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?” . . . 

We are not this story’s author, who fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another. . . .

This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.

In a holiday devoted to our God-given freedom, it may be worth thinking about Lincoln’s Second Inaugural and Bush’s First Inaugural, about Americans as (in Lincoln’s phrase) an “almost chosen people,” and about the current wars in the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur and Israel.

And as we recline, re-telling (in the words of the Haggadah) the story of what God did for me, to resolve to make a contribution to freedom for others — and help direct this storm.