Coming Attractions

I've focused pretty heavily on the Social Security part of President Bush's State of the Union and other appearances lately. But perhaps I've been over focusing. According to Tony Blankley (who you can soon see on Left, Right & Center, maybe), President Bush pretty clearly laid out our future foreign policy.

There is only one word that describes each of those two statements: Ultimatum -- a final demand, the rejection of which will end negotiations and cause a resort to force or other action. The president has not left much to talk about, other than the technical procedures by which the uranium programs and terror support programs are to be dismantled.

The only other thing missing from President Bush's statement is an express deadline by which his demands must be acceded to. But, given that the Iranians have not denied the existence of their nuclear programs, and given that the world can observe the terrorists activities of Syria and Iran, the implicit deadline for action must be measured in months, not years.

Of course it's hard to determine if Mr. Blankleys interpretation of the State of the Union is the correct one. Certainly the President had some hard words for both Iran and Syria, but were those really a sign of imminent military actions against those nations? Our military is stretched pretty thin (just ask a national guardsman you know), and Iraq continues to keep us pretty busy.

Still Mr. Blankly and President Bush swim in similar intellectual waters; what might seem far-fetched to us, might make perfect since to them.