Posted on 05/06/2003 10:01:31 AM PDT by freeforall
Submitted as an article
AMERICA’S FINEST HOUR
America has been so maligned by the rhetoric of the Left and their anti-war movement that one begins to wonder where on earth they learned their history lessons?
How many times have we heard it, that the Americans are rampant capitalist imperialists who want to dominate the world, never mind the middle east! That Americans want to control the Iraqi oil fields for their own selfish interests. That there are no links between Osama and Saddam and terrorism.
Saddam was a terrorist in his own country -- a brutal dictator and a traitor to his own people. This fact alone was enough reason to have him eliminated, but let us look at some facts.
In Hussein’s all too many years in power, well over a million Iraqi citizens suffered unnatural, premature and needless deaths. Over 500,000 troops died in his senseless wars with Iran and Kuwait. Hussein exterminated over 200,000 Kurds with his ethnic cleansing. His execution rate averaged 100 people per day, for every single day he'd been in power for the last 24 years! His regime was noted for its terror, torture and executions and his brutality knew no bounds.
Why and what was the Left defending here?
Compare this to the Americans spending, on average, five million dollars on years of legal death sentence appeals before executing even a single convicted criminal. Everything else in America is done with aim of enhancing and preserving life.
Saddam's environmental terrorism during the first Gulf war ranks as the ultimate in senseless, man made destruction, waste and environmental degradation the earth has ever endured. None of it was accidental, all of it was maliciously planned and executed.
Black, acrid, filthy dirty air from 758 deliberately set oil well fires plagued the entire Middle East region for well over an entire year. Millions had no choice but to breath in the stench. There remains to this day over 250 square miles of 3 foot deep oil lakes sitting atop the Kuwaiti desert. The Persian Gulf is still recovering from the millions of gallons of oil that Saddam deliberately dumped into it.
Hussein was also a financial terrorist. He had with the point of his guns, been systematically stealing and squandering his countries vast oil wealth for his own selfish aggrandizement and his sick terrorist schemes, while most of his people suffered in abject poverty.
How can anyone rationally claim this madman was not a threat after he had repeatedly proven himself to be the "mother of all terrorists?”
To the charge of U.S. imperialism -- give us a break! Historically, the U.S. has gone to war only in self defense. Did it not take three years to get the Americans involved in W.W.1. Did it not take two years and an attack on Pearl Harbor to get them into W.W.ll.
America has always repatriated defeated countries not only in Japan and Europe but also in Korea, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, just as they are now doing in Iraq. No other superpower in history has in victory, been so noble and generous to the vanquished. No other victor has ever had an "Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance." Right behind the troops , America in all her wars, brings relief assistance. They bring not only food, fuel, housing and health care but also hope. Hope for a better future! They not only help to rebuild countries but they also help to pay for it all! Compare that magnanimity to the jackboot of repression traditionally demonstrated by history’s conquers.
The U.S. enjoins wars not to subjugate and dominate but to preserve, protect and promote democracy and freedom and for no other reason! All of the present destruction in Iraq could have been avoided by Saddam simply going into exile so who was really to blame for this war? Just like Hitler, Hussein wanted to destroy his own country and he wanted the Americans to do for him until he died! Don’t ask why? Why did he want to murder hundreds of thousands of his own people? It’s simply unfathomable to an educated mind!
If a child is physically or sexually abused or killed by a father in the privacy of his own home, should this provide him immunity from prosecution for breaking the law? Of course not! As a neighbor who knows the facts, you are morally and duty bound to report him to the proper authorities so justice can be served and evil punished.
Why should an abusive government be treated any differently than an abusive father or any other criminal organization? Just as the walls of a house do not protect the perpetrator from the law, sovereign borders should not protect illegitimate or undemocratic governments from international law and common human decency. Illegitimate sovereignty should no longer be considered sacred and it must become an outmoded concept --- if it protects evil!
The United Nations was originally envisioned to be a world force for peace. Sadly, it has turned into an elaborate debating society full of pompous windbags who solve nothing and accomplish little. For nearly sixty years the U.N. has failed to police the world. It has stood idly by as millions have died at the hands of tyrants and in unnecessary wars. The gas chambers aren't there but the slaughter continues. From the killing fields of the Khmour Rouge and Rawanda to Uganda, Kosovo and recently southern Iraq, the U.N. has repeatedly demonstrated it's impotence and inability to protect anyone.
After repeated terrorists attacks on the U.S., including the U.S.S. Cole, the American- African embassy bombings and September 11th, again, in self defense, it was incumbent that the U.S.A. take the initiative and usurp the role of the U.N. Hasn’t the time come to impose democracy, truth and justice on a war weary world!
In all of recorded history, war has never been initiated by a democracy -- only by undemocratic regimes run by dictators, despots and tyrants. In self defense, what’s wrong with outlawing such regimes just as we have outlawed organized crime?
After 10,000 years of civilization isn't it time for our small global family of nations to grow up? Isn't it about time to start imposing democracies instead of standing idly by while almost 3/4 of the worlds people suffer in daily agony and degradation while awaiting deliverance from their oppressors?
If the U.N. won't do it why not the U.S.A.? There is no country with better credentials to lead such a charge for change. Not until now have the special conditions existed to allow for such a dramatic shift in paradigms. For the first time ever, it may actually be possible to rid the scourge of “ man's inhumanity to man “ from the face of the earth.
The U.S. is singularly qualified to lead this renaissance in liberty! It is the one and only superpower that has the unique political philosophy that compels it's laws to protect individual rights and private property rights. It is “ freedom of choice” that distinguishes humans from the other species. Every individual, no matter where they live, deserves to have it!
We should all be thanking our lucky stars that it is the U.S.A., Britain and the Coalition of the Willing that has picked up this torch. Hopefully, Iraq is just the beginning. By finally imposing democracies where required, as the allies and America did in Europe and Japan after W.W.ll and are now doing in Iraq, could we not eventually achieve world peace?
Paradoxically, it may take a few small wars to get there. Isn't that better than another millenium of uncertainty, insecurity, United Nations bafflegab and rogue states justifying wars as a pretense for diplomacy? Liberation, human decency, democracy and freedom is the answer! It is the pro-active approach that oppressed people around the world have been waiting forever for!
We must find a way to live in a world of peace and we must rightfully be lead to it by the most noble, the most peace loving, the most generous and the most industrious people on the planet. Although not perfect, the U.S. of A. has always been about freedom. Her lantern of liberty has always been held high for all to see. Though most yearn for it, few have been able to embrace her. With the beginning of this new millenium it is finally time that Lady Liberties light was allowed to shine on all the individual citizens around the world who yearn for her blessings. In this her finest hour, America is helping to spread that light!
Robert Smink Mr. Smink is a freelance writer. Graduated H.B.A. philosophy & history University of Waterloo 1974.
Indeed!
In the U.S. public school system. The texts used present a very negative picture of this country, and many (no, no all) U.S. history teachers hate this country.
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