Safire had a different take on the speech

Interestingly, Safire found only 49 instances of freedom in the inaugural speech. Poor boy must be suffering terribly from something. He points out that tyrants "enslave peoples, start wars and provoke revolution. Thus, the spread of freedom is the prerequisite to world peace." Isn't this the old "killing the village to save the village" line? Couldn't we simply say that Bush, having no mandate and dampening civil liberties, and starting wars, and provoking revolutions at home and abroad, is that tyrant, and that the line could just as easily read "it is tryants who free peoples, start wars, and provoke revolution?"

He also goes on to say that he's a Wilsonian idealist, and that he, like Bush, puts liberty before peace. It seems then that he's turned Wilson's hatred of war inside out. It also seems that war is no longer a last resort to free enslaved peoples, but rather the first option, and that the urge to preserve the peace and prevent war is in some sense evil. If we carried this thinking just a little further, we would say that violent overthrow of the government is to be preferred to a peaceful, diplomatic transition through education and democratic suffrage--this makes Safire tantamount to a national traitor, who is saved from this accusation only by the fact that his boyo is the tyrant de jour. If the opposition ever gains office, they'll know to where to send the jackbooted thugs first in their liberty-driven quashing of free speech.