Topic: Politics
When There is Nothing Left to Fight For, Who Will Defend Us? If Americans had no idealogical reasons to fight for Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Communist China or Russia, North Korea, or North Vietnam, and when our policies resemble the rule of those nations rather than the United States of the past, will we rise and defend it? Or will there simply be nothing left to fight for?by EJ Moosa
(libertarian)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Eleven years ago, I stood upon the beaches of Normandy, France, and looked up one of the many hills our American soldiers climbed with heavy backpacks and under German artillery fire. They climbed the hill anyway. I wryly remarked that I did not think you could get 100,000 Americans to storm such a hill under such attack again.
The American soldier of the 1940's had something to fight for. Regardless of their situation, they all were able to share the American dream. They dreamed to come home, start a family, and perhaps a business as well. They would come home to an America where only their imagination would set the limits of what they could accomplish. Optimism was never higher.
The year is 2009. The place: United States of America. Today's soldiers are coming home to a very different United States. Their government is doing everything to limit their possibilities. Planning to start a business? Here's what you will pay the employees at minimum. Here's the insurance you must offer or face penalties. Here are the volumes of codes and laws you must comply with to run your business. If, when all of those rules and regulations are followed, and there is any profit left, we will tax that profit at rates their World War II counterparts would not believe.
Today's soldier may want to start a family. But that soldier will be told what shots their children are forced to have, including an HPV shot for the daughters, despite their objections. The schools will decide the course curriculum, even if the parents disagree with the content. And to remove their child from public schools for home schooling may find them in violation of the law.
And when that soldier needs to take a family member to the doctor, it will no longer be as simple as calling and making an appointment. They will find they must wait in a long line of patients, many who have not contributed to paying the costs with this "better" system, and find that a panel of bureaucrats will need to meet and decide their fate before his children can get the necessary medical tests needed to determine the best course of action. Mimicking what the liberals have always hated about capitalism, cost will be the only deciding factor.
"Best" has also been redefined. It now will mean in the "best interest of the state" rather than the "best interest of the patient". Yet they will be told that this is a small sacrifice to make for the greater good. Those same politicians, will, of course, have their own medical plans that exempt them from the same systems you and I must utilize.
So when 2015 rolls around, and our nation has a threat that must be addressed, who will step up and fight for us? There will be little if anything that separates our nation from those we would never consider sacrificing ourselves for.
If Americans had no idealogical reasons to fight for Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Communist China or Russia, North Korea, or North Vietnam, and when our policies resemble the rule of those nations rather than the United States of the past, will we rise and defend it?
Or will there simply be nothing left to fight for?
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The views expressed in this
article are those of EJ Moosa only and do not represent
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"If Americans had no idealogical reasons to fight for Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Communist China or Russia, North Korea, or North Vietnam, and when our policies resemble the rule of those nations rather than the United States of the past, will we rise and defend it?"
Hi EJ, I didn't realize we ever had idealogical reasons to fight "FOR" any of those nations? and if our policies begin to resemble the policies of those nations, why would we want to rise and defend it, as you suggest?
You seem to believe that "ideaology" of a State is something to "fight" for or against, something to take or lose lives over? I don't really see how any idea can be more important than life itself. If we do not value life above all else, what value are ideas?
There is never a "nation" worth sacrificing lives for, only a life is worth a life. The means do not justify the ends, the means must also be just.
Let me try again. We did not have reasons to fight for those nations. They were the polar opposite of what we were supposed to be. As time has passed, however, we have found our nation more like those very same repressive nations we fought against.
I am also not supporting that we fight for the "state". But the defense (and I emphasize defense) of this country and the people who live here is important to me. So when the next threat comes, and it will, can we expect our military to defend us as they have defended freedom in the past, if there is no freedom left here at home?
We are probably defining "defense" differently. We have a right to defend ourselves, here, on our land from invasion by force. Any attempt to "defend" ourselves on foreign lands is simply disguised aggression.
Any army can use that excuse of "defense" to attack any nation they want. We have a right only to protect our own country.
I can't really think of any real "defensive" war that we have fought. the bombing of hawaii by japanese fighters is certainly agruable but not a simple as it seems.
Of course, everyone has a right to define defense as they wish, but the broader the definition, the greater the application of force not only upon foreign and sovereign nations, but on our own citizens. Iraq is a great example of a war that was "forced" not only upon the citizens of Iraq but also upon us. This is the State using force for its own benefit or the benefit of those its wishes to benefit, not for defense.
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