If It Weren't for the Facts, They'd Be Right.

I find it amazing how America's liberals hold such a vehement disdain for history. Somehow they are always able to come up with some new way to distort and conceal the truth, often by simply lying. Someone once said something to the effect of "tell enough people enough lies for long enough, and they will begin to believe them." (can someone point me to the actual quote and author?)

The public school system in America has taken this to heart, teaching Evolution as fact. That was unthinkable in Darwin's day, and despite the complete lack of evidence which would even remotely prove Evolution, the public school system has gotten away with teaching a false hypothesis. The same could be said of "safe sex"; it is a baseless idea which has been advocated for so long that many people forgot why they opposed it.

But I'm off track...

Apparently the folks who made this sign were likewise failed by the public school system. Their history class obviously did nothing to further the cause of truth, or foster a love of facts. Even today, kids are being raised to believe that we lost the Tet Offensive and that we did some great thing by simply containing Communism, rather than wiping it out.

Sorry. That's not what this post is about. I must stay focused...

My point is this: What on earth led these poor folks to believe that democracy is best taught by example? There is not a democracy in existence (to my knowledge) that has not been won by the blood, sweat, and tears of the lovers of liberty. Dictators are always reluctant to relinquish command to the people; they will never look at a democracy and think "wow, those guys are doing so good; I should run my country like that!" Instead, dictatorships hate America because it is run by the people, and we out-perform their authoritarian genocide-machines.

It is a fallacy to believe that democracy must be taught by example. How appealing would our democracy look if we walked around flaunting our freedom, all the while turning a blind eye to the brutal, genocidal dictators in the world? In Iraq, we fought to free the Iraqis, and in so doing we got rid of those who would never learn democracy, whether by war or by example.

It is illogical to believe that democracy will form out of a dictatorship when liberty it is taught by example. Dictators will not give up their positions of authority without bloodshed, and their people are rarely strong enough to fight for freedom themselves (remember Tiananmen Square?). Those who are already free need to give a hand up to those who are in bondage.

To teach democracy by example is fine, once the democracy has been established. I pray that Iraq will follow America's example in forming its democracy, even though they are following Islamic law, which has proven to be detrimental to democracy. In ousting Saddam Hussein, however, we were not trying to teach democracy to anyone. Instead, we were trying to establish a democracy which we were then going to teach by example.

Therefore let me offer this summary: We are teaching democracy by example rather than by warfare. We first used example to instill in the people of Iraq a longing for freedom, and then we used warfare to liberate them. They shall now be taught democracy by our example and our guiding hand. Example is the only way to teach a love of freedom, warfare is the only way to gain freedom, and example is the only way to teach freedom.

By invading Iraq, therefore, we were not teaching democracy by warfare. What we were doing is attaining freedom for the Iraqis in the only way possible, considering Saddam's love of his authority and his desire to keep control over the Iraqis. An example of teaching democracy by warfare would be to hold people at gunpoint and force them to go to the polls. We are not doing that. Instead, fought for liberty, and we prevailed, thus liberating millions of Iraqis. These are the ones who fought, not for freedom, but simply to survive. They lived fearful and destitute lives under Saddam, and now they have won their war against death. They survived to see a better day, and even though they didn't free themselves, at least they made it. The Iraqis would have never been able to depose Saddam Hussein. It would have been suicide to attempt such. We have given a hand up to the suffering Iraqis by using warfare to oust their malevolent ruler. Now we shall teach them democracy, and we shall teach it by example.

Peace (through strength), y'all!
Neo