Freedom Shouldn't be a Lottery
It's very clear from the events of the day that most Americans don't adequately appreciate our gift
Let’s start with a few points.
Freedom is not man’s natural state.
The maintenance of freedom requires constant effort.
Most of the people who are free in the world today are free because they got lucky.
The United States of today is like the 4th generation of a wealthy family squandering the wealth.
One of the United States’ most important vulnerabilities for decades has been that we don’t have a clear doctrine that governs our use of force. So often our “interest” is at odds with our values, yet our whole system is built on the opposite concept - that the ends do not justify the means. From the Shah to Batista to Iraq and Afghanistan, every time the US stands with corrupt tyrants, we show every person put upon by those tyrants that we are hypocrites, who don’t really believe in the ideas behind which we so haughtily stand.
Ukraine is different. Why didn’t the Ukraine experts in the Biden family have an accurate picture? Who knows? Clearly, if there was ever a moment where we could stand with foreign citizens in a fight that is totally consistent with our values, it is right now. Why are we still buying Russian oil? “Crippling” sanctions? As long as they don’t cripple us? We need to airlift the Ukrainians weapons. We need to help them with intelligence. We need to provide them with drones. We need to do for them what a person would do for their child who is being beaten by a cruel bully.
It is a sad state indeed that one of the few points on which our bitterly divided politicians can agree is that we should not involve ourselves in this conflict. Just as we make everyone wear a mask or stay home regardless of their risk of contracting or spreading covid, our “one size fits all” society can’t distinguish when a fight is actually worth fighting.
While the US has focused on the strawmen to whom the left directs our attention - climate and race, the US has suffered a moral and ethical decline from which we may never recover. Consider the example of the Ukrainians. Is there anybody in the US who would have the courage to stand up to overwhelming force, or the ability to enunciate the value of freedom like thousands of ordinary Ukrainians have?