Initially wrote this as a comment, but began to realize this was more than a direct response to a loyal reader and good friend. Below is more of a pent up response to much of what I hear come from the Left. While I've tried to keep my anger under control, I suspect I failed miserably. There are few things I'm more passionate about than 9/11, and the necessity of prosecuting World War IV with all the committment and tools in our arsenal. The below is born of that passion. No individual offense to any of my friends on the left is intended. A swift kick in the butt is intentional and done with malice aforethought, however.
The very fact that you are able to write your comment is a direct contradiction of your statement. Please read The Case for Democracy, especially the distinction between a Free society and a Fear society. To honestly say with a straight face that we live in a dictatorship shows a lack of understanding of what the word means. Ask someone who has escaped from Iran, or Saddam's Iraq, or Syria, or North Korea, or China.
Please present your evidence that "Bush Knew!" Even the DNC had to back off of that hair brained idea. There have been at least 4 separate investigations of Abu Ghraib. Each one has been unable to validate your baseless charge. You simply can't find any proof of your charge beyond allegations on fringe websites. Please don't make such claims until you can back them up.
And yes, I can say 9/11. The impact of that day continues to resonate through our political culture, and my own thoughts. In fact, few days pass that I don't think about that morning in September. No event has impacted me more profoundly. The very fact that we don't even have to mention the year says much about it's significance to us all.
We don't fight "made up" enemies in order to draw attention from our own problems. This is a strategy of fear societies. There are over 3000 lives that give the lie to your implication that we focus on terrorism, and the nation states that sponsor it, are somehow distractions. Few books have presented that day more clearly than 102 Minutes.
Can you say, dirty bomb in Los Angeles? How about smallpox in Chicago, or Oklahoma City?
The reason you can't is because of the stand the Administration has taken, including sending terrorists to countries where interrogation can occur. Is this practice what would occur in a time of peace? Of course not. But we are not at peace, and may not be for a long time.
The truth is that if there had been another terrorist attack, you would be whining about how "King George" could have missed all the signs, and how inept he was not to have been more vigilant to prevent it.
The laws on enemy combatants are clear. They are not covered by the Geneva convention in any way, as the Geneva convention applies to armies in uniform, and expressly forbids operating as terrorists, without uniform or country. To seek to apply the rights of our Constitution to these people is at best misguided, and more likely downright dangerous.
If you would like to know about violations of human rights, ask someone who survived Saddam's rape rooms. Ask one of the kids freed from Iraq's children's prisons by what you would call their "occupiers." . Ask the families who found their son, or daughter, or mother or father in the mass graves all over Iraq. Ask the millions who turned out to vote last month rather they would prefer to return to a true fear society.
Compare fear societies to The United States, and then tell me this country is a dictatorship, or an "empire." Such talk is the foolishness of a spoiled teenager born in luxury who turns on his parents because he's never known anything else. The best cure is to send the child to work in a third world country, in order to learn the true value of what he has. We have seen this proven in the faces of freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Ukraine and Lebanon.
It's always fascinating to me that the countries in Europe who call us "Imperialists" are those with no recent history of tyranny, born in the luxury of a Free Society. This luxury was bought at a high price, and the United States has cemeteries in those countries as a testament to that price.
To the countries of Eastern Europe, and to those who still live in tyranny, we are still the Shining City on a Hill. They know what true Fear is, and can therefore appreciate Freedom in a way we can only begin to comprehend. We would do well to remember our Liberty, lest it be taken from us through our own apathy and negligence. Such a fate would bring the darkness of tyrany not just to us, but to those around the world who hope for Freedom from our example.
No comments:
Post a Comment