A messiah with clay feet

Some people never learn. It's bad when one of those people is "The Decider."

Here's President Bush from tonight's State of the Union address:

This is the business of our Nation here at home. Yet building a prosperous future for our citizens also depends on confronting enemies abroad and advancing liberty in troubled regions of the world.

Our foreign policy is based on a clear premise: We trust that people, when given the chance, will choose a future of freedom and peace. In the last 7 years, we have witnessed stirring moments in the history of liberty. We have seen citizens in Georgia and Ukraine stand up for their right to free and fair elections. We have seen people in Lebanon take to the streets to demand their independence. We have seen Afghans emerge from the tyranny of the Taliban to choose a new president and a new parliament. We have seen jubilant Iraqis holding up ink-stained fingers and celebrating their freedom. And these images of liberty have inspired us.

In the past 7 years, we have also seen images that have sobered us. We have watched throngs of mourners in Lebanon and Pakistan carrying the caskets of beloved leaders taken by the assassin’s hand. We have seen wedding guests in blood-soaked finery staggering from a hotel in Jordan, Afghans and Iraqis blown up in mosques and markets, and trains in London and Madrid ripped apart by bombs. And on a clear September day, we saw thousands of our fellow citizens taken from us in an instant. These horrific images serve as a grim reminder: The advance of liberty is opposed by terrorists and extremists — evil men who despise freedom, despise America, and aim to subject millions to their violent rule.

Since September 11, we have taken the fight to these terrorists and extremists. We will stay on the offense, we will keep up the pressure, and we will deliver justice to the enemies of America.

THE OVERREACHING MESSIANISM of the first part of that quotation from Bush ensures that we will "stay on the offense" for decades to come, because -- as did the leadership and much of the membership of al Qaida, as did the leadership and much of the membership of countless warring Iraqi militias -- people all over the world often choose a future of oppression and violence.

The utopianism of universal democracy spreading across the globe -- across wildly divergent cultures, across staggering chasms between rich and poor, developed lands and backward ones -- denies the reality of the Fall and the sovereignty of God Almighty every bit as much as did the Communist utopianism of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao.

These past five years, our messianic, American utopianism has not fared well against the hard, fallen reality of Iraq -- given free and fair elections, Iraqis did not elect generally secular, generally moderate men and women to high office. They elected Shiite goons, and they reaped nationwide ethnic cleansing and terror.

And we are still there, reaping the whirlwind in an unwise, unjust and unsustainable war.

AGAIN, the President of the United States:

America is a force for hope in the world because we are a compassionate people, and some of the most compassionate Americans are those who have stepped forward to protect us. We must keep faith with all who have risked life and limb so that we might live in freedom and peace. Over the past 7 years, we have increased funding for veterans by more than 95 percent. As we increase funding, we must also reform our veterans system to meet the needs of a new war and a new generation. I call on the Congress to enact the reforms recommended by Senator Bob Dole and Secretary Donna Shalala, so we can improve the system of care for our wounded warriors and help them build lives of hope, promise, and dignity.

Our military families also sacrifice for America. They endure sleepless nights and the daily struggle of providing for children while a loved one is serving far from home. We have a responsibility to provide for them. So I ask you to join me in expanding their access to childcare, creating new hiring preferences for military spouses across the Federal Government, and allowing our troops to transfer their unused education benefits to their spouses or children. Our military families serve our Nation, they inspire our Nation, and tonight our Nation honors them.

SEE ABOVE. How wonderful it would have been if the fool residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. had realized a few cold, hard facts of life.

Perhaps then . . . oh forget it.