Niebuhrian?

Chrenkoff cites this familiar poem by theologian Dr. Rheinhold Niebuhr as a way to understand President Bush's foreign policy:

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I can't help but agree with Mr. Chrenkoff on this one, though at first blush it seemed ludicrous to me to reduce an apparently complex foreign policy to something so simple. If I were making such an attempt (which never occured to me!), I'd probably have started with the premise of fostering liberty. But this little poem does a much better job of summarizing the strategy (even to a non-believer), as opposed to the objective of spreading freedom.