The right thing
Just a few thoughts on the election in Iraq... This was far more than a massive political victory for President Bush--the election in Iraq represents the triumph of democracy and the power of our fundamental belief in liberty. Democracy is on the march in the heart of the Middle East. Proportionally, as many people in Iraq voted today as voted in the US last November. The Iraqi people, after decades of oppression in every respect, rejected the tyranny and idiocy of terror and embraced the promises that democracy holds--freedom, liberty, and the recognition of human rights.
The Iraqis elected today are now to draft a constitution that the people will vote on in October, I believe. And if all goes well (and today is a good sign that it will) a year from now, Iraq will elect its first government under its new Constitution. Ask anyone four years ago if they imagined anything like this could have happened in the Middle East, much less Iraq, and they would have called you crazy.
Fortunately, President Bush had the ability to see the big picture and to look beyond the stupid petty political infighting that consumes nearly all who come to power in Washington. He realized two fundamental things after September, 11. First, Islamic terrorism is real and dangerous threat to our country. If left unchecked, it will only fester and consume more people and more nations in the Muslim world. Secondly, he understands that the only way to solve the problem of terrorism in the long term is to change the very fabric of those societies that spawn terrorists. The key isn't to accomodate ourselves to the enemey. The answer isn't to attempt to appease the Arab world--a world dominated by corruption and abusive tyranny and grounded in the jihadist mandates of a blood-thirsty religion. The real solution is to plant the seeds of freedom and democracy and let them spread. Let freedom take hold in one country at a time. And over time, the pervasive power of democracy will spread, nullifying the pretenses of terror and moderating what is--at least literally taken--an extreme and oppressive religion.
This approach is blasted in the parliments of Europe. It's castigated in most bastions of academia in the States. Its ridiculed and scorned by those of the liberal persuasion. After all, who are we to impose our will? Who are we to say that we're right and they've got it wrong and by golly we gotta show them the light? What arrogance! What imperialism!
But, I wonder, couldn't it be possible that we are right. And they are wrong. Maybe, just maybe, it's not right that most Arab women are oppressed and at the mercies of their husbands--husbands who have been indoctrinated to believe that women are inferior breeds of humanity, a pollution in the eyes of the Koran, and individuals who aren't to be afforded the same rights that men enjoy. Maybe, just maybe, it's not right that millions of Arabs live in poverty under the auspices of oppressive authorative regimes who routinely torture people at their whim. Maybe, just maybe, the demands of thugs who kidnap and behead the innocent shouldn't really be taken as a legitamite political statement.
Maybe we're right. Maybe after the battles we've fought here at home over women's suffrage and civil rights for minorities, we've come to know that there is a better way--a morally superior way to govern a society. And how could we be so shamed into doubting the power and rightness of our own beliefs that we don't feel obligated to spread them in a world in dire need of freedom and hope? Even more than that, doesn't it become a necessity to spread democracy if the absence of our democratic values proves to be a breeding ground for those who seek to destroy us?
There will never be a perfect Iraq--just like there will never be a perfect United States. Man's inherent sinfulness will, until the return of Christ, ensure that we spend most of our energies solving all sorts of awful problems. And while democracy is a horrid choice compared to the rule of Christ that I look forward to, it is from a human perspective, as Churchill once said, the worst form of government--except for all the others.
Our troops under the leadership of our President, aren't just doing a good thing in Iraq. They're doing the right thing.
The Iraqis elected today are now to draft a constitution that the people will vote on in October, I believe. And if all goes well (and today is a good sign that it will) a year from now, Iraq will elect its first government under its new Constitution. Ask anyone four years ago if they imagined anything like this could have happened in the Middle East, much less Iraq, and they would have called you crazy.
Fortunately, President Bush had the ability to see the big picture and to look beyond the stupid petty political infighting that consumes nearly all who come to power in Washington. He realized two fundamental things after September, 11. First, Islamic terrorism is real and dangerous threat to our country. If left unchecked, it will only fester and consume more people and more nations in the Muslim world. Secondly, he understands that the only way to solve the problem of terrorism in the long term is to change the very fabric of those societies that spawn terrorists. The key isn't to accomodate ourselves to the enemey. The answer isn't to attempt to appease the Arab world--a world dominated by corruption and abusive tyranny and grounded in the jihadist mandates of a blood-thirsty religion. The real solution is to plant the seeds of freedom and democracy and let them spread. Let freedom take hold in one country at a time. And over time, the pervasive power of democracy will spread, nullifying the pretenses of terror and moderating what is--at least literally taken--an extreme and oppressive religion.
This approach is blasted in the parliments of Europe. It's castigated in most bastions of academia in the States. Its ridiculed and scorned by those of the liberal persuasion. After all, who are we to impose our will? Who are we to say that we're right and they've got it wrong and by golly we gotta show them the light? What arrogance! What imperialism!
But, I wonder, couldn't it be possible that we are right. And they are wrong. Maybe, just maybe, it's not right that most Arab women are oppressed and at the mercies of their husbands--husbands who have been indoctrinated to believe that women are inferior breeds of humanity, a pollution in the eyes of the Koran, and individuals who aren't to be afforded the same rights that men enjoy. Maybe, just maybe, it's not right that millions of Arabs live in poverty under the auspices of oppressive authorative regimes who routinely torture people at their whim. Maybe, just maybe, the demands of thugs who kidnap and behead the innocent shouldn't really be taken as a legitamite political statement.
Maybe we're right. Maybe after the battles we've fought here at home over women's suffrage and civil rights for minorities, we've come to know that there is a better way--a morally superior way to govern a society. And how could we be so shamed into doubting the power and rightness of our own beliefs that we don't feel obligated to spread them in a world in dire need of freedom and hope? Even more than that, doesn't it become a necessity to spread democracy if the absence of our democratic values proves to be a breeding ground for those who seek to destroy us?
There will never be a perfect Iraq--just like there will never be a perfect United States. Man's inherent sinfulness will, until the return of Christ, ensure that we spend most of our energies solving all sorts of awful problems. And while democracy is a horrid choice compared to the rule of Christ that I look forward to, it is from a human perspective, as Churchill once said, the worst form of government--except for all the others.
Our troops under the leadership of our President, aren't just doing a good thing in Iraq. They're doing the right thing.
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