In case you missed it, US President George W. Bush gave a pathbreaking speech at the University of South Carolina on Friday, a speech that should not be obscured by the minutiae of Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit here today. Let's look at it with the care it deserves.

"In an age of global terror and weapons of mass destruction, what happens in the Middle East greatly matters to America. The bitterness of that region can bring violence and suffering to our own cities. The advance of freedom and peace in the Middle East would drain this bitterness and increase our own security...."

This may be Bush's clearest statement yet linking the Middle East's political dysfunctionality with American security. Note that the word "freedom" comes before "peace." Bush seems to have realized that it is the lack of freedom in the region that fuels radicalism, which in turn produces the hatred both of Israel and America. The Arab-Israeli conflict is an element of the problem; tyranny is its facilitator and root cause. [...]