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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeuspaul who wrote (135227)	6/2/2004 12:11:07 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

"O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her.... O receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind!" - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1775 “All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke, British political writer, 1729-1797 "[The authors of the Declaration of Independence] meant to set up a standard for free men which should be familiar to all and revered by all, constantly looked to and constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere." - Abraham Lincoln, 1857 "The United Nations are fighting to make a world in which tyranny, and aggression cannot exist; a world based upon freedom, equality, arid justice; a world in which all persons, regardless of race, color and creed, may live in peace, honor and dignity." - Franklin D. Roosevelt The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.---Ayn Rand And a few articles I found that essentially agree with my view that we have an obligation as a nation to use every legitimate means to spread liberty and freedom throughout the world?: bennett.com heritage.org And a particularly good one: bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu policyreview.org We have an obligation to spread democracy?...by force????? No. And it might be construed as immoral for us to do so, although I personally believe that all tyrannies are a danger to existing democracies, just as anti-matter is eventually destined to destroy matter. But lest you have forgotten, we were attacked by an non-state entity consisting of individuals all following a similar militant religious ideology. And if existing totalitarian regimes are subject to either making alliances with this entity, or eventually falling prey to their growing influence, then I have no problem using force to spread liberty and freedom to the people governed by such an illegitimate government. If anything, it prevents the enemy from controlling a particular geographic region and denies them the financial and human resources they require to advance their aggression further. We did the same thing with Vichy France, a neutral nation, by invading its N. African colonies. And btw, overthrowing Saddam WAS legitimate. 17 binding UNSC resolutions, requiring use of all necessary means to restore peace and security to the region, made it legitimate. But do we have an interest and obligation to use non-violent means to spread democratic ideas of liberty and freedom? Absolutely. We'd be crazy not to.. Hawk