WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- America is on a mission, President George W. Bush said Tuesday in his State of the Union speech -- to lead the cause of freedom to other lands.
Bush asked Congress to approve more funds for the National Endowment for Democracy, "to focus its new work on the development of free elections, free markets, free press and free labor unions in the Middle East."
He outlined plans for stronger media influence in the Middle East, through the Voice of America and a new television station broadcasting in Arabic and Persian.
"America is a nation with a mission -- and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire," Bush said. "Our aim is a democratic peace -- a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman."
