The Spirit of '76
"Afghans approved a new constitution on Sunday, embracing a deal shaped in three weeks of rancorous debate as a chance to cement a fragile peace and push ahead with reconstruction two years after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime," the Associated Press reports from Kabul. Think about this. Here is a country from which, 28 months ago, terrorists launched a brutal attack against American civilians. How does America respond? By bringing democracy to a nation that has suffered through a quarter century of communism, civil war and moonbat Muslim rule.
Similarly, the New York Times reports that "the Bush administration has decided to let the Kurdish region remain semi-autonomous as part of a newly sovereign Iraq despite warnings from Iraq's neighbors and many Iraqis not to divide the country into ethnic states." A stateless people, oppressed in every country they inhabit (Iran, Syria and Turkey as well as Iraq), finally has a hope for self-rule, thanks to the U.S. acting to protect its own national security.
In the 20th century, of course, America also liberated Europe from the Nazis, Asia from the Japanese and (in a more roundabout way) Russia and Eastern Europe from communism--not to mention finally making good on its own promise of equal citizenship. The U.S. may not be perfect, but it's hard to think of any greater force for good in human history.
Best of the Web Today - January 5, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO |
