The War on Terror


 

The War on Terror

The American people are at basic odds with Liberals over the war on terror. They sense that we need to take this war seriously, and object to the "political correctness" of liberalism that doesn't take the enemies of freedom seriously.

There was a time in our history when we were less squeamish about war. We had a Department of War. In 1947, the name was changed to the Department of Defense. While I don't disagree with that move, it signaled the sprouting of "political correctness," which now hampers all our efforts to defend ourselves.

Human history is characterized by a succession of tyrants on the world stage. It is extremely naive to think that human nature in the 21st century is fundamentally different. There are thugs that thirst for power and want to control other people. It's a sad reality that defending liberty requires the use of force, and force isn't pretty.

Our Declaration of Independence begins with a fundamental declaration of humans rights: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But in order to establish those rights, we had to shed the blood of the British who wanted to subject us. In other words, we had to violate their rights of life, liberty, and their pursuit of happiness in order to establish ours. That's how it has always been. That's how it continues to be.

Civil Liberties and the War on Terror

I have struggled trying to figure out why so many Liberals have sympathies with our enemies. They don't want to speak out against human rights abuses in Iran. They express admiration for brutal thugs like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Mao Tse Tung. They seem willing to accord more rights to terrorists than to conservatives and American patriots. I don't know that I have the final answer to that. In some ways, it seems that they feel some affinity with our enemies in their hatred of the United States, as one of the tenets of the modern Left is their anger at our society. But they are characteristically weak in fighting against our enemies.

So they complain about the waterboarding of terrorist conspirators, the indefinite detention of enemies captured on the battlefield, and the government wanting to monitor their phone calls. I'm sorry, people, but war isn't pretty. And the more we try to make it so, the longer we drag it out. And the full maturation of this "political correctness" will be our demise as a free people. We simply won't be able to stand up against these thugs.

The War on Terror and Airport Security

At the same time, many Liberals want to subject our own citizens to what seem to me to be unreasonable restrictions and indignities. The recent use of naked body scanners and pat downs that include groin checks seem to me to be examples of government-imposed security run amuk.

I heard someone once tell about the difference between our airport security procedures and that of the Israelis. They said that here in the United States, we look for weapons. In Israel, they look for terrorists. That is the difference. This speaker said that Israel's system works very well.

I would ask, how safe do you feel knowing that no one else on your flight has any tubes of toothpaste in their carry-on?

If we can't get rid of these ridiculous rules for airport screenings, then how about letting people pay money for a background check, and then, assuming they have no suspected terrorist connections, they can be given a card which will allow them to breeze through security?

And how about an armed air marshall on the flight? And maybe a little profiling really wouldn't be so bad after all? Better than groin checks, in my opinion.


“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”—Edmund Burke