But I will comment on historical precedent. What President Bush talked about throughout this speech is a defense of freedom and liberty. And this struck a chord with me and I had to ferret this out of the history books.
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change
-- in a perpetual peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions -- without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
To that high concept there can be no end save victory.
From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I.
Those are the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In this modern struggle we are faced with the same stark choices. Either we fight for freedom of speech or such as the Taliban or the radical Shias of Iran will have the secret police knock on our doors in the dead of night because we dared to stand up. We fight for freedom of religion or we shall all pray five times a day to Mecca with a rifle pointed at our heads. We fight for freedom from want because we want things better for our children - in a centralized society, as envisioned as the Caliphate, this means whatever a person receives will be determined by the Caliph or his Vizier, the person will have no say. We fight for freedom from fear or we shall experience the dreaded knock in the night followed by being dragged to a dungeon cell and execution. All these abuses we in the Free World are opposed to. To support in any way the enemies of these four freedoms in deed or word means death to these freedoms.
4 comments:
Amen!!
The survival of the American way of government should be bi-partisan as the speech of FDR shows. But alas the likes of Reid and Dean do not see it that way, all they want is power at any cost.
I had a very long comment on this that blogger/booger apparently ate.
So I will say it short:
Pearl Harbor galvanized and united the country for war.
Five years after September 11th we find a vocal minority still oblivious to the danger.
Imagine what we could do if we were united?
Mike, Iran would be Amadjihadi-free zone if that was true.
In five years have we experienced what our parents or grandparents experienced in WWII? The War bond Tours that raised almost $200 billion in 8 tours. Not a whisper. Rationing of gasoline [A, B, and C stickers on windshields]? Nope. Scrap metal drives? Nada.
Sometimes I think we are fighting this war while still half-asleep. And the likes of Reid and Pelosi want us to stay asleep.
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