The Irish Times & Bush's speech

I had read the full text of Bush's speech before I read Conor O'Clery's report on the speech in yesterday's Irish Times. O'Clery says that Bush "pitched his argument largely in terms of America's national security interests". That's not how I read it at all.

I saw it as a much wider scope than that. Yes, American and western security featured, but really it was about the cause of liberty, the right to it, and the belief it has to be defended. Spreading freedom to others is the best way to secure our freedom. And, the people who live in the Middle East are as entitled to it as anyone else.

What struck me about this report was that O'Clery took my favorite quote, edited it and gave it a different meaning. O'Clery wrote

In a sweeping foreign policy speech the US President focused largely on the lack of democracy in the Middle East, saying that "60 years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom" there had done nothing to make America safe.

Yet, this is exactly what Bush said

Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe

The difference is the "us" vs. O'Clery's "America". I obviously cannot get inside the President's head to decode what he intended, but I read that "us" as meaning the "Western nations", not simply America. Bush was talking to all of us in the west and not just Americans. None of us is safe and we all have a stake in helping the people of the Middle East gain freedom.