Bush Country and Pax Americana

I posted earlier about the excellent article published in the Wall Street Journal - Online Journal by Fouad Ajami, that makes a good case for the premise that "The Middle East embraces democracy--and the American president." On April 21, John Lewis Gaddis gave a speech at Middlebury College titled “The Past and Future of American Grand Strategy” (Thanks to Chap at Chapomatic for the text of the speech, and the commentary, and to Cassandra at Villainous Company for commentary, and the link to Chap). In his speech, from the perspective of an historian, Mr. Gaddis lays out clearly the overarching agenda of the Bush administration, and hence the United States, in promoting democracy and freedom in the Middle East: Bush has now conflated ideals and interests. As he put it in the inaugural: “America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one.” Freedom itself is to be the strategy, not just the aspiration. It may, in this sense, be radical. It is hardly un-American. Ideals and interests, frequently divergent in the past, but being guided by the Bush Administration into one unified force, driving us all towards a new world reality. As Mr. Ajami put it: Bush Country. As I put it: Pax Americana. (Note: Tigerhawk, Roger L. Simon,Classical Values, Donald Luskin, and others have also weighed in on Mr. Gaddis speech.) Tagged as Bush Country, United States Pax Americana, Military, Economic, George W. Bush, Diplomacy, GWOT, Global War on Terror, Middle East, Fouad Ajami, John Lewis Gaddis