President Bush then spoke frankly about the disturbing change in the country's attitude toward freedom and democracy abroad. "I am concerned about isolationism," he said. It was a reifying moment to hear the president so closely associated with the promotion of freedom and human rights state plainly that we must "fight off isolationism," which is making a return in the public consciousness and policy circles. None of the "false choice," gray-area equivocation that we've come to hear day in and day out over the past year. "If we allow isolation to become a dominant philosophy we forget our own past," he said. America's long-active role as engine and projector of freedom abroad is indeed being forgotten with news of each cynical "reset" and every panicking ally.