Posted on 03/12/2003 1:12:39 PM PST by usapatriot28
I believe that the United States of America, is the greatest nation to ever exist. I believe in freedom and liberty. I believe in the promise that all people are created equal and should have equal chance to make their lives the way they want, free from religious, ethnic and culture persecution. That goes for ALL people, not just Americans.
America has always been a leader in freedom. It was America that first embodied the basic principals of self-determination, religious secularism, diversity and upward mobility. Once securing it for ourselves, America then began spreading the beacon of hope and freedom. It spread as ideas to foreign nationals, spawning movements such as the French Revolution and other overthrows of tyrants. It spread as a hope to the people of the world, leading to the influx of hundreds of millions of immigrants searching for a better life. And at times it was spread as military action; to free an enslaved people, to throw off the chains of Spanish Colonialism, to liberate an overrun Europe and tear down numerous unjust and oppressive regimes.
America has shown itself to be a people concerned, not just with their own well-being, but that of all peoples of the world. But doing so requires a certain level of responsibility. A responsibility to stand up for what is right in the world even when it is inconvenient for us. Especially, when it is inconvenient for us! Too often, we have shirked our responsibility to the world. We have refused to take hard stands against tyranny and oppression. We have neglected the principal of freedom for all. We do this for our own self-interest. For our own financial benefit, or to prevent the alienation of "allies", or just because it is too hard. Many times justifying it to ourselves as ignorance.
But our responsibility always comes back to us. Sooner or later we end up with no other option that to do our duty as a free nation and confront the threats to liberty and freedom.
Such is the situation that we find ourselves in now. When the evilest of modern dictators unilaterally invades a neighboring nation, we mount forces and liberate Kuwait. But then we turn our back on the true suffering and the true oppression of freedom and liberty. By allowing Saddam Hussien to remain in power for twelve additional years, WE have allowed countless Iraqis to be tortured, raped and murdered!! WE have neglected our responsibility to secure freedom for the world!!
Only once we realized that the threat from that part of the world is not just abstract and distant, but fully capable of reaching our strongholds of freedom and opportunity, did we begin to wake up. Only then did we confront the responsibility that we have. Yet even now, we placate those who have not woken up. But it is our responsibility, our duty, and the duty of ALL freedom loving nations to secure the freedom and liberty of the people of Iraq.
Anyone that claims that the Iraqi is not deserving of freedom and liberty is themselves an enemy of freedom. Anyone that truly recognized that the Iraqi does deserve freedom can not neglect their responsibility to secure it. It is a responsibility they owe to the Iraqi, to themselves and to the world.
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