Why We Went to War With Iraq- February 19, 2003
| 
| Hits: 3931
s
Why We Went to War With Iraq
By Stanley Zir
February 19, 2003
What is the origin of our current conflict with Iraq? Is it biblical? Cultural? Or is it just about oil, money and power? Is the United States just one of many morally equivalent players in this melodrama, acting cynically in its own quest for world domination? To witness the behavior of many of our supposed allies, one might believe this to be the case.
The European Union bobs up and down on the waves of indecision. Some of our NATO partners retreat as the nations of tyranny and terror advance. Peace demonstrators hold hands with dictators, joining with them to accuse America of causing the poverty and terror born of tyranny\'s bosom. Reporters dash madly around the globe in a never-ending (and seemingly futile) quest for the significance of every event. And many latter-day Neville Chamberlains remain in denial, ready to let evil rule the world.
It\'s time to put an end to this hysteria. This conflict points directly to the dawn of liberty\'s rising where the tide that launched our odyssey of freedom is now coming in. We are the defenders of liberty, democracy and the rule of law in the world, and must not be deterred from our just purpose and destiny. We fired the original shot that arrested the advancement of tyranny in our victorious War for Independence. The line was drawn.
The conflict between the nations of tyranny and our nation of liberty was set in motion. Being at cross-purposes, neither force can long coexist with the other. How could it be otherwise? One system sustains freedom, and the other, submission. One supports an open market of ideas, the other persecution and murder for dissent. One achieves peace and unity through a democratic and constitutional balance of power, while the other accomplishes a mockery of these virtues through the absolute subjugation of the individual human spirit to the will of the most ruthless contender for power.
Only one of these forces can ultimately survive, and history has validated our destiny. A civilization incompatible with slavery purged itself of this evil in the Civil War. In the twentieth century, we were repeatedly drawn into the world\'s great conflicts, called according to our nature to defend liberty and oppose tyranny. The malfunction of secular tyrannies in Germany and Japan, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, were characterized by economies that replaced competition and free exchange with confiscation, redistribution, and therefore destruction of wealth. The underlying ideologies, achieving their goal through the sacrifice of individual expression, were fully exposed with their defeat in their war on democracy.
For all practical purposes today\'s remaining secular tyrannies are doomed as well. But only half the battle has been won.The current generation\'s moment of truth came on September 11th, 2001. On that day, the boundary restraining the two opposing forces was breached as our founding fathers\' pledge against despotism collided with the present critical mass of tyranny. Now the founders\' vision functions to identify the real enemy we face and reveal our true purpose as a nation.
The key to understanding the conflict America is now facing is that our system of democracy was originally triggered from the Puritans\' encounter with religious persecution. This key provides us with the missing link that ties all the loose ends of this world conflict together. The Puritan\'s quest for religious freedom and their choice to settle in America set in motion a current of thought and action so compelling that it not only became the driving force for the development and character of American society, but it also became the impetus for spreading human rights and democracy worldwide.
Why was the force of this determination so powerful that nothing could stop it form gaining its own resolve in the human spirit? The Church of England attempted to persecute the individual for his personal spiritual beliefs, his private domain, the province of life where all people inquire about their own existence. It tried to imprison his mind, the discerner of good and evil, the seat of judgment. The Puritans\' movement for individual rights set in motion a chain of events that molded the American psyche and became a driving force in history, setting a new standard for governmental behavior which has inspired freedom-seeking peoples the world over.
Since that time the quest to secure liberty, as the foundation to insure the protection of people\'s fundamental rights against all forms of tyranny, became the crest on our shield. The seed was planted and since then the inalienable right of the individual to stand up and defend himself against any force or system that would subdue his rights has been acknowledged. This phenomenon, where noble ideals continue to rise up even from the ashes of our own indignities is uniquely American. The fact that we continually champion the cause of individual rights under almost any circumstances is what makes our struggle so important to the world\'s social structure and its future. The fact that we have freedom of choice defines the soul of our nation and its mission in this world.
There can no longer be any doubt that the leading cause for the incubation of terror that has progressed to infest the sovereign nations of Middle East, has one root cause, the loss of fundamental rights and freedom. This has been sustained through the absence of balance between religious and secular establishments in their ruling governmental institutions. As a result of this continuous imbalance, in the face of advancing civilizations, we are now facing vast populations who are mistakenly driven to think they must defend their faith from destruction, against the very thing that would liberate them from their oppression and protect the true purpose of faith, not destroy it: freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
With the emergence of nations of religious tyranny of the Mideast appearing on our radar screens, we will sail though the last storm of destruction and return to the original point of our departure where the quest for liberty first started. Once we understand liberty\'s grand design, we see clearly the connection to our present conflict with Iraq and her impending defeat. It is simply her date with destiny. With our imminent final victory over the cycle of tyranny we can fully display the triumph of democracy. Then the conditions will have ripened for the release of individual rights for the awaiting world\'s populations.
The momentum gained after two hundred years of sacrifice to secure this glorious dream of freedom is about to trigger a force of righteousness and compassion so powerful that it will literally destroy the remaining walls of tyranny\'s obstruction, securing the eternal sanctuary of liberty and freedom from fear.
That is why America must stand alone in the world in her fight to preserve liberty. We learned democracy from the ancient Greeks, and British common law, and the Puritans, and now we are its stewards. Democracy is our child. We know how and why we must defend it. With the disease of tyranny now advancing, the rest of the free world is faltering, but America is the land that stands ready to take on the final onslaught of tyranny and protect the freedom of all.
