I have recently argued that US foreign policy was all bark. The recent embracing of Libya leads Plethka and Rubin to argue that matters have gotten even worse and the administration, if not the President, has embraced The Tyranny Doctrine.

It is difficult to argue with them. Follow through has always been W.'s strength and, though many Reagan admirers tend to ignore it, his second term was all about making nice to the USSR. He was lucky not to be dealing with Gorbachev and not Stalin or even Putin. Still, something is better than nothing and, therefore, I am still grateful for the Presidential rhetoric evidenced yesterday in his comments about the UN:

PRESIDENT BUSH: I'd like to see a United Nations that's effective, one that joins us in trying to rid the world of tyranny, one that is willing to advance human rights and human dignity at its core, one that's an unabashed organization -- is unabashed in their desire to spread freedom. That's what I'd like to see, because I believe that freedom will yield to peace.

I also believe freedom is universal. I don't believe freedom is just, you know, a concept only for America or Great Britain. It's a universal concept. And it troubles me to know that there are people locked in tyrannical societies that suffer. And the United Nations ought to be clear about its desire to liberate people from the clutches of tyranny. That's what the United Nations ought to be doing, as far as I'm concerned.

Well said, if not always done.