For my entire life, the United States has stood for individual freedom and liberty in the world. We fought against totalitarianism for decades until we finally saw the defeat of Communism with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. When Kuwait was overrun by Iraq, we undertook the liberation of that country and, together with many other nations, liberated the Kuwaitis from Iraq. After 9-11, we moved forward with a plan to liberate millions of those who were oppressed by both secular and religious dictators in the Middle East. As a result, nearly 40 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq are now mostly free. I say “mostly” since the fight for freedom continues. Iraq no longer menaces its neighbors. Afghanistan no longer provides safe haven for terrorists who want to destroy all those who do not agree with them. Indeed, until this administration, we have always stood by the cause of freedom and helped our friends who agreed with that cause.
Now, under Obama, the USA is abandoning those principles. Dictatorial ideologues like Chavez in Venezuela are courted by Obama. When the Honduran democracy took legal steps to remove the president of that country, a leftist protégé of Chavez, we amazingly stood with the legally ousted president and against the congress and supreme court of Honduras which was clearly upholding the Honduran Constitution. Democracy and Rule of law was put aside in favor of helping a leftist who was seeking to overturn the Honduran constitution.
When Argentina threatened the Falkland Islands as it had in the 1980’s, we no longer sided with the UK. Indeed, we ignored the votes of the Falklands’ residents in which they declared that they wanted to remain part of the UK. Instead, we suggested negotiations to the Brits. Wisely, the British ignored us, but they realized that the USA was no longer an ally upon whom they could count for support.
Then there is the issue of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. This agreement was signed with Colombia in the last year of the Bush administration. The Democrats in the senate, however, would not vote to ratify the agreement. When one looks to see why that is, one finds that Chavez in Venezuela strongly opposes anything that will strengthen the Colombian democracy. Instead, Chavez supports rebels who seek to overthrow the Colombian government. The Venezuelans got friends I the American labor movement to bad mouth the Colombian agreement and it got held up indefinitely in the Senate – to this day.
Next came Obama throwing the Poles, Czechs and Slovenes under the bus to placate the Vladimir Putin and the Russians. Obama agreed not to install a missile defense that would shield Europe from a few renegade missiles launched from Iran or some other rogue state because the Russians wanted no defense to missiles in Europe. The democratic governments in Poland, the Czech Republic and elsewhere went out on a limb to accept these missile installations and in one quick move Obama just pulled out. Obama supported the Russian dictator rather than the Eastern European democracies.
Of course, we have the Israelis and the disgusting way that Obama has treated them. Obama has worried more about whether democratic Israel is building homes for Jews in Jerusalem than whether or not Iran is building nukes. Every dispute involving the Israelis starts with the Obamacrats slanting towards the other side. Indeed, Obama even seems to favor terrorists over Israel.
The strange thing is that Obama is supposed to be well educated. One thing that we all should know from history is that dictators are not placated when they are appeased. When one give in to dictators, be they religious, secular or just crazy (like in North Korea), the dictators break into that song from Oliver. I can hear them all screaming for MORE!
Obama is not only rewarding those who undermine freedom and liberty around the world, he is hurting those who support such causes. No one could name an ally of the USA who has prospered at the hand of Obama – there simply are none. No one could name a place where Obama’s policy has led to the advance of democracy or liberty. Freedom is receding around the globe, and this will continue so long as we do not take a stand against the illegitimate foreign policy of the USA. We need to stand up and support freedom. We need to stand up and support liberty. We need to stand up and move forward with the fight against tyranny.
No comments:
Post a Comment