What a bizarre week. It feels like Tuesday or Wednesday rather than Friday, courtesy of our mid-week weekend. Black 47 tonight in Harrisburg oddly enough, thank the good Lord that I can ride along with the Hanover crew and don’t have to haul myself up there and back…I’d never make it…not enough sleep in the past several weeks.
So, I’ve been thinking since last Sunday about the great war to come in Iraq and how the multitudes of usual suspects are coming forth with the usual platitudes against war in any form. It occurs to me that our going to war in Iraq is perfectly consistent with and is the highest application of our founding principles:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Now, of course, the peaceniks will say, “But this applies to the people overthrowing their own government.” Ah ha! I say, just so, but didn’t the colonists in America appeal constantly for external help to defeat their opressors? We borrowed money liberally from the Dutch, received diplomatic, military and financial support from the French. Hell, Frenchmen, Germans, Polish, etc put themselves in harm’s way (and some died) in defense of our liberty. Isn’t it only just that we provide such help as we can to those in the world who struggle alone for freedom?
The bunny huggers always appeal to the brotherhood of man. If there really is such a brotherhood doesn’t it behoove us, as the mightiest power ever to stride the earth, to support our brothers in their time of need? The Iranian people are in a state of near-revolution – shouldn’t we rush to their aid? The Iraquis rose once with our encouragement and then suffered untold horrors when we abandoned them thanks to our State Dept. and our fine now Secretary of State. Shouldn’t we go back to repair the damage we have caused? To lift these folks up, to provide them with their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Are we redefining “just war” theory? I reckon so. We have to be very careful, as we tread on dangerous ground, but I think that America always seeks to do good, even if she does not always succeed and it makes sense for us to carefully apply our power to help those in need. Even the liberals who love the Great Society and the New Deal where our economic power was pressed into the service of those in need should understand applying our military power to help others in need.
Or don’t they believe in the applicability of the Declaration of Independence and our founding principles to all men, everywhere?