Today, I came across my response to an Australian in 2003 who was opining that America's war on terror was ill-conceived and that Bush had made serious in invading Iraq.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are the tenets of America's Declaration of Independence. However, I submit that people in today's Western culture, including Australia, America's strong ally, now subscribe to what was then a radical notion that spawned a war(and the French were on America's side). If we can agree we have these shared values, we can certainly disagree on the means to preserve them.
However, millions do not share these values, particularly extreme Islamists, who instead are driven by a radical theocratic worldview that believes America, and by implication the Western world, must be brought to defeat by any means possible.
While we can disagree on the means to preserve our shared values, if we truly believe that they undergird our cultures, we should be able to keep ourselves from each others' throats.
Many of us who have served in the military or traveled extensively realize that the democratic values we share are not self-sustaining. They require vigilance, action, patience, strength, perseverance and, yes, even war.
We cannot change the world of fanatics to our views by reasoning and dialogue alone. In fact, it's foolish to think the world will see things our way. The differences in history, culture and religion are much too stark, not to mention the evil that lurks in the hearts of ALL men (and women).
Nevertheless, when our values are threatened as they surely are now, we must act to preserve them. This is not a political argument, it is a cultural and societal imperative in the face of terrorism by those who would destroy us.
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