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Jewish World Review Jan. 26, 2005 / 16 Shevat, 5765 Free ride By Michael Graham
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Well, he may not have been nominated for an Oscar®, but Michael Moore has at least one big-time fan.
Belarusian President Alexander G. Lukashenko-known to his friends as "Europe's last dictator"-celebrated George W. Bush's inauguration by broadcasting Fahrenheit 9/11 on state-run television.
This is not surprising given the dictator's political attitudes: "Suppose someone or other didn't really want such 'freedom,' soaked in blood and smelling of oil?" Lukashenko wondered after hearing Bush's inaugural address.
The dictator may or may not have been quoting Michael Moore directly.
There was a time when I assumed that coming out in support of freedom and democracy was like being for more childhood vaccinations and fluoridated water: Only kooks were against you. After the reaction to President Bush's second inaugural address, it turns out that promoting democracy is like testing for steroids in baseball: As long as you're not serious about it, it's OK.
Two centuries after the founding of America, freedom and liberty are still radical, subversive ideas in places like the Middle East, most of Asia and American public school system. It's not just European dictators who dismiss "freedom" with scare quotes and eye rolls. Talk to any Democrat about America's mission in Iraq and the first mention of "freedom" or "democracy" will be met with an exasperated sigh.
It's not our job to spread freedom, they will tell you. Iraq will never have a real democracy. Or worse, they will elect a mullah-dominated terrorist regime. And then there's the "hypocrisy" argument: Unless we invade China and Pakistan tomorrow, everything President Bush says about democracy today is a lie.
Well, the last point is ludicrous on its face. The Declaration of Independence only applied to white males when it was written. Was it a mistake? What do liberals attacking President Bush's supposedly "empty rhetoric" have to say about Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation-which only applied to slaves in the states Lincoln didn't govern, and not to the slaves held in the North?
Of the many dumb, anti-Bush arguments, the insistence that we must fight every battle for liberty at once or else fight none at all is one of the dumbest. It's like arguing that Eisenhower was a failure for invading Normandy on June 6, 1944, instead of Berlin.
But as Afghans and Palestinians and (as of this writing) Iraqis participate in their first-ever legitimate elections-with Lebanon and possibly even Saudi Arabia (!) moving in that direction-how do Bush's opponents continue to side with the dictators and against the oppressed?
Some liberals insist that the war in Iraq isn't really about democracy, but is instead a war for oil and a new American empire. Their evidence for this is sketchy at best—it would be nice if the "No War For Oil" crowd would announce when we are going to finally get the oil-and their argument is even rejected by the terrorists in Iraq.
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the most famous (and deadly) of the terrorists operating in Iraq states the mission of the insurgency so plainly even Barbara Boxer can understand:
"We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who follow this wrong ideology….Islam requires the rule of Allah and not the rule of the people or the majority…All those who vote are infidels." The infidels, Al Zarqawi adds in the name of G-d, shall be killed.
How ironic that the terrorists would issue this plain, unvarnished threat to the fundamental ideas of the modern world the same week that the U.N. is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. German fascism was also a threat to freedom and democracy, and members of the John Kerry "global test" crowd are elbowing each other for a chance to denounce it.
But today, while Iraqis are running a gauntlet of bullets and car bombs to cast their first truly democratic ballots, where is the U.N.? As Sunnis risk death at the hands of the same Ba'athists who ran torture chambers and rape rooms in Baghdad, where are the French, the Germans, or the American Left?
(I could make a snarky comment here about how the French cooperated with the Nazis in 1940, so why wouldn't they support the Islamo-fascists today, but that would be a cheap shot. Accurate, but cheap.)
The Iraqi "insurgents" have made it clear that they are fighting a war against democracy. They're targeting their fellow Sunni citizens, not American soldiers or British tanks. But most of the world has turned their backs on these dead Sunnis because their hatred for America far exceeds their commitment to freedom.
Sixty years from now, will the United Nations commemorate the fall of Saddam's regime and the beginning of a new age of freedom across the Middle East? And if they do, will they even invite the United States to the ceremony?
My prediction is that they will, and the U.N. will invite just one American to attend: a very aged Michael Moore.
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© 2005, Michael Graham | ||||||||||
