The Future Belongs to the Free

From AP:

...Russia's 60th anniversary celebration of its World War II victory with other Allied forces over Nazi Germany - a ceremony that offered a one-sided, rosy picture of the Soviet Union's war legacy - was awkward theater for a U.S. president who has made democracy's spread the singular foreign-policy cause of his second term.

Nonetheless, as Russian President Vladimir Putin's grand World War II victory party went forward, Bush allowed him his day in the global spotlight. The two put aside their public sniping of recent days over postwar Soviet domination and present-day democratic backsliding in Russia.

...Continuing the chummy exchanges that marked their discussions and dinner the evening before, the two smiled broadly when Bush arrived for the parade. As Bush lowered his umbrella, despite the rain, for a snapshot, Putin laughingly did the same. Putin reserved the seat next to him for Bush - whom he called his guest of "special importance" above all others. Later, Bush remained glued to the Russian leader's side as they strolled, red carnations in hand, to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The public niceties might not last long.

...But Bush aims to close out his five-day, four-country European trip Tuesday on a note that leaves talk of the Soviet Union's wartime tyrant Josef Stalin and U.S.S.R. oppression far behind - and may arouse Putin's anger again. In Tbilisi, Georgia Bush intends to hold up the freshly democratic nation as an example for other countries - in Putin's neighborhood and elsewhere.
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While the V-E Day commemoration has been a difficult balancing act for President Bush, he has maintained his equilibrium remarkably well.

The President has the challenging task of strengthening U.S. relations with Putin's Russia at the same time he seeks to acknowledge the decades of iron fist Soviet oppression in Europe.

The chumminess exhibited by Putin and Bush during their public appearances yesterday and today is not an indication of Bush going limp on his freedom campaign. It is diplomacy and, from most accounts, genuine friendship.

The images of the two leaders in Putin's prized 1956 Volga, their smiles and the ease with which they relate to each other, should be viewed positively. Bush is not selling out his firm belief that freedom is the birthright of every human being. Hardly.

In his radio address on Saturday, Bush said:

The defeat of Nazi Germany brought an end to the armed conflict in Europe. Unfortunately, for millions of people on that continent, tyranny remained -- in a different uniform. In Latvia, where I'm also visiting on this trip, free people were taken captive by another totalitarian empire. Germany was split into free and un-free halves. And countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were cut off from liberty by an Iron Curtain. The people of these countries survived the Cold War through great courage, and then they took history into their own hands and reclaimed their freedom.

The result is the continent of Europe, wounded by decades of conflict and oppression, is today whole, free and at peace for the first time in its history. The wave of democracy that swept Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 has now swept to nations like Georgia and Ukraine. And the victory for freedom represented by V-E Day has become a reality for millions of people.

...The new democracies of Europe still have much work to do. Free elections are a significant achievement, yet they are only part of a fully functioning democracy. Democratic governments must be committed to providing full and equal rights for minorities, resolving conflicts peacefully, encouraging a vibrant political opposition, and ensuring the rule of law. As the nations of Central and Eastern Europe work to build up the institutions necessary for a free society, America will stand by their side.

These are not the words of a man who appeases those intent on standing in the way of freedom. Bush makes it clear the U.S. is committed to democracy around the world.

In a real sense, he is continuing on the same path President Reagan set twenty years ago.

As Reagan said in his State of the Union Address, February 4, 1986, "...the future belongs to the free."

Bush gets it and the world will be better as a result.