On Thursday, January 20, 2005, George W. Bush laid out his agenda for the United States of America during his second term as president. This is far and away the best speech he has ever made. However, the pretty words raise a lot of questions. I would like to offer my opinion about some of the things he said.

Early in the speech he made the following statement: "We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world."

I respectfully disagree with this thesis. After all, freedom and equality are somewhat antithetical. For example, the Bush administration is held tightly in the grip of the corporate world and the wealthiest individuals in America, who have the freedom to increase their wealth virtually unimpeded by law. This has caused a condition where extreme wealth and extreme poverty are both on the increase. This works against economic equality.

In the name of security, constitutional rights have been thrown to the wind. The Patriot Act has eroded our freedoms as citizens more than anything in my lifetime. As a result, we are not equal under the law. From the opposite perspective, we can only achieve equal rights under the law when the will of the majority is constrained by protection for the minority. By its very nature, that limits the freedom of all individuals.

What is the point of this comparison of freedom and equality? If we look back across history, it is not the lack of freedom that has led to war. It is the lack of food, shelter, education, and the basic needs of human existence that have led to most wars. On top of that, the greed of men and of nations has exascerbated conflicts between peoples and between nations.

My question is, "How will George W. Bush achieve this concept of world-wide freedom?" He says, "This is not primarily the task of arms." His actions speak much louder than his words. His first attempt at achieving this goal was to invade and occupy Iraq. What a disaster that has been. We are one day away from the speech, and already V.P. Cheney has declared that Iran is at the top of the list for conversion to an American style democracy. Are we going to wage war on Iran in the model of Iraq? We have not achieved our goal in Iraq. How could we achieve it in Iran? Who is going to pay for this? Our economy is already bankrupt. We're going to cut taxes even further. That should help. We're going to privatize social security. Where will we get the billions needed to do that?

So, where do we find a hope for world peace? Why not take the money necessary for waging war and use it to educate the masses, heal their diseases, and fill their bellies? George W. Bush says he is motivated by his faith. The Jesus that I follow turned his back on violence. He took on the domination system of his day by loving his enemies. His model of non-violence has worked in our lifetime. Such great men as Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandella used the principles of nonviolence to free their people, and lead them toward economic justice.

No, peace does not come from hatred and the waging of war. Peace comes when human beings love other human beings, including their enemies. It comes from giving what we have to help those who have little or nothing. No, the attempt to force freedom on the rest of the world will only result in chaos out of which the warlords and power brokers of the world will have free reign to suppress us all. I am not optomistic about the next four years. We are headed for disaster.