Willing to Change
On my way to work this morning, I heard a U.S.
soldier on the radio, speaking after he had been
wounded during one of those fake-surrender attacks.
His brief words echoed more courage and integrity
than any anti-war protestor I have yet heard. "I've
always thought of America as a country willing to
change for the better, and I think that's worth
dying for."
I don't purport to agree or disagree with any of
the anti-war sentiment. It's not that I don't have
an opinion; rather, it's beyond the scope of this
editorial. The core problem I have with many
American protestors is their rabid exercise of
their rights without taking any of the
responsibilities that go along with them. They
don't hesitate to proclaim the rights granted to
them in the Constitution, but few of them would
consider defending those rights with their lives by
joining the military.
The immediate rebuttals might be that American
soldiers in Iraq are not defending America, our
country is not under attack, Saddam Hussein is not
a threat to the United States, and so on. Leaving
aside such arguments, I can simply say that our
country does not always need to be on the defense
to justify defending our rights. As that soldier
said, our country—represented by opinions
spanning the full spectrum—is one that is
"willing to change for the better." Whatever one's
definition of "better," it seems undeniable to me
that liberating a people from the grip of a brutal
dictator constitutes a willingness to "change for
the better." Only someone willfully ignorant of the
reality of Saddam Hussein's regime over the past
30+ years could disagree.
We have enjoyed the fruits that our Bill of
Rights has borne over the past 200 years. To sit by
and do nothing while the people of another nation
are brutally oppressed and denied the rights we
enjoy does not make us "better." If you do not
agree that Iraq poses a threat to our national
security, then surely you must agree that the
liberation of the Iraqi people is a noble goal to
achieve for a democratic nation with the resources
to do so.
As we as individuals have responsibilities along
with our rights, so too does our country have
duties that come with prosperity. As the sole
superpower on the planet in the coming century, we
cannot deny that we have at least some duty to
improve the lot of those less fortunate than us. We
should not act unilaterally to do so, unless our
security is threatened and we have no other choice.
But I believe we have the duty to provide the
strength, in conjunction with whatever wisdom can
be found within the U.N., to free oppressed peoples
everywhere. As our nation matures, we cannot hold
to the isolationist policies that defined U.S.
foreign policy in the twentieth century and still
hold true to our ideals. To be "a country willing
to change for the better," we need to do just
that.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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Previously...
3/27:
Tropical
Memories
3/26:
Regurgitation
3/25:
Piece
of the Puzzle
3/24:
Echoes
in Eternity
3/23:
Booing
for Columbine
3/22:
Not
Recommending Diving
3/21:
Works
in Progress
3/20:
Three
Rings of Shock & Awe
3/19:
Paris—A
Beautiful Blur
3/18:
Ignorant
Idiot Man
3/17:
The
Pirate Queen
3/16:
To
War or Not to War
3/15:
So
Long, Seau
3/14:
Telemarketing
Pays
3/13:
Free,
For Now
3/12:
Chicken
Little Gets Respect
3/11:
Axis
of Evil
3/10:
Writing
Kept Me From Writing
3/9:
King
Arthur
3/8:
The
Women are Smarter
3/7:
Salt
on Old Wounds
3/6:
3/3/03,
3:33 p.m.
3/5:
Beer
Day
3/4:
Pulling
the Trigger
3/3:
Make
'Em Laugh
3/2:
Whither
Iraq?
3/1:
Strickland
Cellars
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