The third in a series begun here and continued here.
The number of times President Bush used the word "free" or "freedom" in his 2005 state of the union address:
- a free and sovereign Iraq (The very first sentence uses the phrase and links it to Iraq - a pattern repeated consistently in the speech.)
- we must free small businesses
- pass along the values that sustain a free society
- We will pass along to our children all the freedoms we enjoy...
- and chief among them is freedom from fear. (The very first sentence of the foreign policy section contained the word twice)
- that terror will stalk America and other free nations for decades
- the force of human freedom
- America will stand with the allies of freedom
- a community of free and independent nations
- the advance of freedom will lead to peace
- the power of freedom to break old patterns
- we encourage a higher standard of freedom
- open the door to freedom
- depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve
- commitment to the advance of freedom
- victory of freedom in Iraq
- the hopes of Iraqis, expressed in free elections
- Iraqis are determined to fight for their own freedom
- standing for the freedom of our Iraqi friends
- freedom in Iraq
- who died for our freedom
- we honor freedom's defenders
- attack on freedom in our world
- has reaffirmed our confidence in freedom's power
- extend the promise of freedom
- to spread the peace that freedom brings. (Four times in two sentences.)
- It leads to freedom.
"Only" twenty seven times in this speech, though he uses the word in the opening and closing sentences of the speech. The irony of the repeated use of this platitude given the Bush administration's actions continues to stagger me. Appropriate however then that he uses the word 25 times when discussing foreign policy but only twice in the domestic policy section. The inadvertent message? Freedom is something that must be forced upon others overseas, but restricted at home.