Steyn, the eve of destruction and liberty

Mark Steyn (whose columns I do not read nearly often enough) is fun to read even when he is not saying anything in particular. Here is his latest in the Chicago Sun Times:

I picked up the Village Voice for the first time in years this week. Couldn't resist the cover story: ''The Eve Of Destruction: George W. Bush's Four-Year Plan To Wreck The World.''

Oh, dear. It's so easy to raise expectations at the beginning of a new presidential term. But at least he's got a four-year plan.

And there is substance, too:

Sept. 11 demonstrated that the paradox of America -- the isolationist superpower -- was no longer tenable.

That was what Bush accomplished so superbly in his speech: the idealistic position -- spreading liberty -- is now also the realist one: If you don't spread it, in the end your own liberty will be jeopardized. "It is the policy of the United States," said the president, "to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." By the end of his second term? Well, not necessarily. But what matters is that the president has repudiated the failed "realism" that showers billions on a friendly dictator like Egypt's Mubarak and is then surprised when one of his subjects flies a passenger jet into the World Trade Center.

Gee, blogging is much easier when you just stick to quoting others.