Freedom Earned

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
John Quincy Adams
President (1825 - 1829)

Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity.
George W. Bush, President (2001 - Present)
State of the Union address 2003


Freedom is a choice that must be made by those who wish to be free. The sectarian rife that we see in Iraq today is a clear example of a people whom have not yet made the hard choices that need to be made by a society that wishes to be free. The above two quotations, I believe frame the discussion and disagreement between those who believe we should have invaded Iraq to free it of Sadaam Hussein or not.

I will leave aside for this discussion the debate on whether or not there were nuclear weapons there or not and whether Sadaam actually posed any real threat to the United States. Much has been said on this and can be tackled later.

One of the justifications for this current conflict in Iraq used by the current Administration is that America is freeing an oppressed peoples. My real concern is to deal with the notion that we can impose our notions of freedom on a society that has not yet come to the conclusion on its own that they actually desire this freedom. Numerous freedom struggles throughout history have shown us that where there is a will, there is a way.

The colonists that won their freedom from King George III came from different socio-economic, religious, educational, and cultural backgrounds. However, they united in a common struggle against a common enemy because they all felt equally, the oppression and insult of the British monarchy. Their struggle was a military one; their victory was a political one. While the soldiers fought the good fight, the thinkers and future politicians developed a roadmap of what the future nation would look like. During the darkest days of the Revolutionary War, the French came to the rescue, but only after they were asked. America had already made the choice to be free, had been willing to spill its own blood and spend what little treasure it could muster for its desired liberty. Had the French come before the intial struggle of the colonists, they would not have been looked upon as saviours but as opportunists; looking for an advantage in their on again, off again centuries old conflict with England.

India's and South Africa's freedom struggles took an entirely different path. Their struggles used the power of protest, civil disobedience, and the weight of world public opinion to win their particular conflicts. In all of these situations diverse peoples came together to fight for their shared liberty. Even before achieving their goals, leaders in these budding democracies had an ideal that they aspired towards.

One does not find this in Iraq. Indeed, there were many segments of Iraq's population that were severely oppressed. But even they were not able to unite because of their distrust or prejudices towards the other oppresed group. The Kurds in northern Iraq, the Shiites in southern Iraq, and many moderate leaning Sunnis could not crystalize a freedom struggle worthy of any external support.

Even after the United States has commited the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men and women towards Iraq's freedom, Iraqis themeselves cannot agree on a common vision for a free society. They may indeed desire personal freedoms as President Bush assumes; but they nor their leaders have decided that they value the concept of liberty for all of their citizens. We find ourselves in a struggle where our nation is fighting for the freedoms of a nation that does not really exist as a nation, and fighting for the freedoms of people who wish to oppress others that do not agree with them.

This is an inexcusable situation to find ourselves in. We have changed the course of our own history by inserting ourselves into a freedom struggle that did not exist. During World War II our leaders waited until we ourselves were attacked before entering a fight that it can probably be argued that we should have entered sooner. We have shed our historical aversion to becoming overtly involved in other nations internal affairs to to our own detriment and the detriment of the few in Iraq who may have over time been able form some sort of consesus and will amongst their peoples for a more lasting change in their history.

Perhaps if our President and our leaders in Congress had been able to see freedom as something to be earned instead of as a gift to be given, they would have thought twice before sending this nations children to fight another 's monster.