Later Reflection: The War in Iraq, and Freedom in the Middle East, with Frequent Reference to President George W. Bush's Second Inaugural Adress

Nation building, advancing the cause of Democracy.

All of it was sweeping fun. President Bush's bold declaration:

"All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."

What a noble sentiment. Reading it against makes me tear up.Yet what were we willing to set ourselves up for? By standing for liberty, does that including maintaining a long-term occupying force in nations where the native populations would look on the Americans as encroaching invaders? Consider these lofty hopes of Bush 43:

"The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause."

How considerable is our influence, exactly? As of now, the Middle East is embroiled in Revolution from Tunisia to Syria, with Iran likely waiting in the wings. The United States did not instigate this change, yet for years the United States government supported "stable" dictators who supported a policy that tolerated Israel and beat back Al-Qaeda militants.

It would seem, sadly, that our policy of bringing freedom to the Middle East was inevitably handicapped from the start. Start with another noble declaration in President George W. Bush's second inaugural address:

"America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty."

Yet for years the United States Government for years supported "grudging concessions" for dictators who harassed their own people, irrespective of class, race, or religion. Their blanket persecution was more tolerable to the U.S. Government's foreign policy agenda than securing those rights of "free dissent and participation of the governed."

Now that Arabs throughout the Middle East are clamoring for those same rights, they want to marginalize opposition parties and minority groups. They wish to alienate and isolate Israel, the only liberal democracy in the regime. Iraq, with its troubled parliament, insisted on European model of government which has produced nothing but protracted stalemates and while exacerbating ethnic rivalries, none of which existed before the 2003 invasion.

What has all the United States' Armed Forced blood and treasure accomplished for the desperate nations of the Middle East? For the United States?

Free elections do not a free society make. The world is witnessing the congenial vision of flourishing democratic regimes in the Middle East devolve into a corrupt, violent nightmare. And legislators from both parties insist on plunging our already-depleted resources into this widespread quagmire.

If we really want to promote freedom, protect our borders, and help secure the blessing of liberty for others, the United States needs to concentrate on upholding the Premises of the Preamble to the Constitution for our own people.
"Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self"--President Bush should have turned this trope to managing the affairs of this country with an eye towards balancing the budget and preserving our posterity for future generations.

If we can maintain our glorious shine like a city on a hill instead of letting the imploding dysfunction of government growth ruin our gleam, then our example and our culture may in turn inspire oppressed people to rise up against their leaders and demand freedom for themselves, a sentiment which even President Bush alluded to:

"Liberty will come to those who love it."

In all truth, we can stand with all the oppressed and politically persecuted peoples of the world by advancing our own causes first. Free markets make free people. Free nations have chosen freedom and all the challenges that come with implementing it for all people. But let's abandon the notion that this nation can impose freedom on any other nation. That is simply contrary to the very nature of freedom itself.