 Voices For Freedom Read Columns
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
Post Comments Below
© 2007 Daniel J. McLaughlin
A Hard Thing To Say
“It’s a hard thing to say, but we… are loathed abroad because of the damage our generals and officials have done.”
This may sound like a quote from contemporary American headline news. It is, in fact, from Cicero, the roman statesman credited with helping to lay the intellectual foundations for liberty 2000 years ago. He was concerned about the military adventurism of Roman government. In our own time, the United States is loathed abroad. Even in countries that are politically friendly, there is an undercurrent of animosity towards America.
The official line is that radical Muslims “hate our freedom”. Most people recognize, however, that it is not freedom that they hate. The Defense Science Board (DSB), an independent advisory agency to the Defense Department, issued a report in 2004 on Strategic Communication. Regarding the Middle East, they pointed out the “…perception of the United States as arrogant, hypocritical, and self indulgent”.
The report states that “American intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some cases”. The report also points out that “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedoms’, but rather they hate our policies.” According to the report, “the critical problem… is a fundamental problem of credibility. Simply, there is none.”
Presidential candidate Ron Paul has been saying this for the 20 years he has been in Congress. The book, “A Foreign Policy Of Freedom” is a compilation of addresses that he gave in the House of Representatives since the mid 1970’s. It is a chronicle of resistance to foreign policies that have created incredible conflicts at home and abroad. They embody a consistent, principled fight against a foreign policy of making enemies. It is quite evident that the problems in the middle east have their roots in covert operations and political and military interventions since the 1950’s, including significant early U.S. government support for Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. The book is worth reading because it gives a historical perspective to the many problems we now face around the globe. Like Rome in the days of Cicero, America is loathed abroad because of the damage our generals and officials have done.
Unfortunately, the DSB only recommends public relations and media communications to get the Muslim world on our side. The view of American hypocrisy arises from arming both sides of middle east conflicts, continual intervention in the politics of sovereign states, support for oppressive dictators, the overthrow of numerous governments and decades of military presence in Muslim countries.
Americanized television and radio broadcasts will do little to change the perception of arrogance and hypocrisy when the reality of arrogance and hypocrisy faces them every day. It only serves to harden the image that the United States is trying to manipulate the people, install friendly governments and expand its empire.
If it was truly freedom that they hate, they would have attacked us 50 years ago, when we were much more free than we are now. They would also attack Sweden and Denmark and numerous other non-interventionist free countries. Muslims don’t attack those counties now because they are not interfering with Middle East governments or trying to impose political systems on people who see them as corrupt.
They attack us now because, after 50 years of toppling regimes, installing governments and supporting dictators, the idea of spreading democracy has a very hollow ring to it.
American freedom is a radical idea, that individuals have unalienable rights that governments cannot give or take away. Many western countries embraced individual rights to some extent, and it has led to a level of prosperity and freedom that only a fairly small percentage of people have known or will soon know. That freedom is under attack. It is being torn at the seams while we sit by and watch. At home, our freedom is further abused in the name of security, and by growing socialist agendas. Abroad, our military stands ready, with over 700 bases in 135 countries, to impose the will of our politicians on foreign governments and foreign people, whenever it is deemed in the politicians’ interest.
As Cicero felt so long ago, it is a hard thing to realize that the government of the country you love is making enemies for you all over the world. Our politicians are not making the world safe for democracy. They are making it very unsafe for anyone who calls himself or herself an American.
|
|
Daniel Mclaughlin
|
|