Legacies: Theirs And Ours

No matter how current events play themselves out, in the Middle East and elsewhere, only America will stand with her head unbowed. Those nations and individuals who fiercely oppose the efforts to bring freedom to others will eventually hang their heads in shame. Every effort and national policy that impedes the American efforts in liberating a nation and people from tyranny result in unnecessary loss of life, hope and dignity.

Do those nations and individuals that have benefited from the blessings of a free society, take their own freedom for granted so much, that to delay freedom for others means nothing to them? Does the Would those nations, if oppressed, appreciate a delay in our efforts to liberate them? Would they appreciate our decision to refuse to become involved?

For two centuries, America has been the standard bearer for freedom the world over. This nation, more multi cultural than any other on earth, however imperfect, has always supported the highest ideals of the human endeavor. We are forever examining ourselves, our past and our present, so that we may always find new ways for the lofty and highest ideals and expressions of free men. We have brought freedom to many nations and countless other nations look to us as an example as they define freedom for themselves. As Colin Powell once noted, we have ‘asked for nothing more than a place to bury our dead.’

It is no great honor when America must make the case to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed people by herself.

It is even a greater disgrace when nations that have benefited from American efforts and contributions to their own freedom seek their glory in opposing the American effort to bring freedom to others, wherever they might be.

There are nations and individuals that refuse to stand up to tyranny to satisfy their own selfish short term interests and needs. They excoriate America and Americans because we will stand up and we will do that which is asked of us. In so doing, we highlight the difference between ourselves and those who choose to do nothing- and that is why we are hated.

We are everything they are not and they hate the reflection in the mirror. They have abandoned the principal and moral truth that all are deserving of freedom, and not just when it is politically expedient. Their shameful behavior will be a scarlet letter, always visible and forever remembered, no matter how many times history might be rewritten.

As nations are remembered for their noble deeds, so too are citizens as they make their own contributions to the elevation of man. It not just America the nation that will be remembered for her stand in defense and support of freedom. Individual Americans too, will be remembered and honored for their stand against tyranny. The defeat of Fascism and Nazism in Europe is claimed by the nations that declared war on tyranny. Those great victories can be claimed by anyone that wore a uniform, by every Rosie the Riveter, by every individual  that bought a war bond and by everyone who uttered a prayer for those who would bring freedom and for those who suffered unspeakable horrors.

Of course, not all of mankind’s efforts have been so noble. As the physicists note, for action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The other side of the coin is the legacy of modern Islam, a political virus that and entity that has infected a religion. That political virus, camouflaged as religion, wishes deprive it’s adherents of the oxygen that is democracy, and to replace it with a choking gas of oppression. Clearly, that legacy is one of waste, degradation and hollowness, in every sense of the word. It would not matter if Islam had not had a more noble past. Poison makes no distinction. Of course, there is no way now to avoid the contrast. The Arab world themselves mark the difference. Under the influence of that political virus, they seek a return to ‘past glories’, even as they engage in medieval barbarism. In what is a true mass delusion, they believe that genocide, mayhem and ruthlessness are the path that will lead them to moral equality with western, civilized states. The poison the Arab world has absorbed has deleterious effects.They cannot see the absurdity of those beliefs.

Those who propose the continual adversarial relationship between Islam and the west has already resulted in what is nothing less than a conflict that has correctly identified as the ‘Clash of Civilizations’. Over and over, Islamic leaders have told us that the only way to accommodation is through genocide. Over and over, we see those words as real and not mere rhetoric. Islamic atrocities in Sudan, Algeria, Mauritania, Nigeria and Pakistan are considered ‘business as usual’, with not a peep from Islamic nations.

When they promise genocide, they mean it.

The Arab nations chase nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, so that they too, might be counted among ‘the mighty’ nations. It is clear that these countries do not realize that to be a ‘mighty nation’, is to be a society and culture that embraces arts and letters, pluralism, science and education. It is a clear truth that there are no longer such cultures in the Arab world.  The UN puts the Arab world level of education just above the bottom of the barrel, with Mein Kampf and The Protocols as perennial best sellers within a society that barely publishes and translates books.

While the Arab world wants to prove ‘equality’ with the western world and assert herself militarily, her warriors are illiterate and without finer sensibilities. Burning books and claiming that the murder of innocents is in service to the ‘Glory of Islam’, does not make the Arab Islamic world equal to the rest of the world. There will be no great Islamic legacy as long as children are taught to hate and worship violence. There will be no great Islamic legacy as long as atrocities go unchecked and are even encouraged, with genocide endorsed in media, school curriculum’s and from religious pulpits, preached by ‘religious authorities’ paid by the regimes they serve, not the people they lead.

The Arab populations demand power, even though they don’t understand what power really is. Power is the ability to change current realities.

The Arab world sees power and mistakes it for great might. They do not see that power is derived first and foremost from great societies, educated and always in the pursuit of knowledge, willing and wanting to adapt to the world around them. This is not a rejection of treasured or sacred values. Adaptation is bringing those values forward, to make them meaningful and relevant.

The Arab world, already decades (if not a century) behind, sees knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge as a confrontational process. They respond with suspicion- they really are afraid of the empowering effect knowledge might have on each and every individual. Deceived by their ‘leaders,’  they have come to believe that knowledge and insight are for the few privileged. They have been so beaten down, they believe that God wants everyone else to be no different than a cow.

Free people cherish learning and the free exchange of ideas, the source of all real power. That free exchange is a life long pursuit, a true passion. That free exchange of ideas defines us- indeed, it is at the core of our being. We are free to pursue as much knowledge as we wish, without being impeded in our efforts. A powerful nation is one where all citizens benefit and profit from learning and achievements.

That is why much the Islamic world hates what the west really represents- the freedoms and power that are shared and the belief that each individual is entitled to pursue his or her own potential to the best of their ability and in the manner they see fit for themselves and to seek out and acquire knowledge. Today, masses of Arab Muslims remain illiterate. So called Arab institutions of higher learning fear outsiders, and so they close their doors to the free exchange of new ideas and thoughts fearing an infection that might weaken the hold of the despots.

The damage done to Arab nations, societies and cultures by dysfunctional and tyrannical leaders will take generations to repair. Those societies will have pay for the hubris and evil that is perpetrated in their name. In fact, they are paying for that hubris and evil now. Those once great nations are seen as barbarous and evil that seek only to plunder wealth and live by the sword or the constant threat of violence.

In time, Muslims will ask themselves to what end their beliefs- and leaders- have served them. They will want to know why they are pariahs, not ever really taken seriously on the world stage or by those in the west. The honest among them will point to this time, and to the likes of Osama bin Laden and Yasser Arafat as large part of the reason the Arab world suffered so great a downfall. As the 20th century was winding down, many oppressed nations and peoples reached for freedom. The Arab world chose the opposite-  they embraced and worshiped more tyranny.  It was those tyrants that were to destroy any hopes of Arabs that were desirous of shedding the yoke of oppression.

The legacy of current day Islam will prove the fears and weaknesses of modern day Islam. Rather than engage in debate, there is the need to destroy those who question and seek answers. Of course, there can be no winning debate that justifies tyranny over freedom. The Arab world may find sympathy among the uninformed and the dishonest, but that is all. They can never influence free and educated peoples.

Their legacy of the modern day Arab world was assured long ago, when tyrants were forced to destroy bodies, in the hope that ideas of freedom and justice would die with right along with those who championed those truths. There was never any real hope that they might convert those people and societies free to their ideas- and darkness.

The entire world can see the legacy of the modern Arab world exactly for what it is.

It is also  very evident which nations who have chosen to stand up for those who have been oppressed and poisoned with hate, racism and bigotry for far too long.