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The earliest cave man must have been convinced
he was right and his neighbor was wrong.
Maybe one worshiped fire. The
other, thunder. Each tried
to convince the other his culture, his belief was the correct and only
way to believe. So it has been done through history.
Each person sees the world through his own eyes and cannot see
through another’s eyes. His
beliefs become paramount and he must change the beliefs of others to
conform to his own. If reason would not prevail, force of arms might
be resorted to. Religion
particularly has been the cause of many conflicts.
Wars fought over religious beliefs are as old as the hills.
Political systems would come in a close second on the conceived
reason for beginning a war. Satirists such as Jonathan Swift tried to poke
fun at our compulsion to make others conform.
His “Gulliver’s Travels” had two nations at odds over the
way to handle an egg. His
genius for showing ridiculous reasons we use for killing each other were
wasted on the lust for changing the world. As soon as travel methods caught up with their
zeal, religious missionaries began to span the globe, going into the
jungles of Africa to spread the word.
Columbus journey to the new world was closely followed by the
church. Cortez carried the
priest with him as he brought Christianity with him to the Aztecs to end
their bloody religion. No
matter that his method was brought home at the point of a sword. Communism had a field day during the poverty of
worldwide economic depression and the corruption of governments.
It promised a paradise for the working class.
No matter that it never delivered.
It was a dreamed Utopia of promise.
Its expansion reached a peak during the time of Joseph Stalin and
his immediate predecessors. The spread was checked by force of arms as the
forces of capitalism—championed by the United States and
allies—matched arms against arms.
The failure of communism came not from the dropping of a nuclear
bomb but from something so simple as a radio or a telephone.
Communication let the people wading through the poverty of the
failed Soviet system see how the free world lived.
They wanted a piece of the pie. Old systems of religious and political tyranny
have hung on. North Korea
has built a wall around its country to keep the people enslaved mentally
and physically, captive to the only system they have ever
known--communism. American leaders in their misguided logic have
done the same thing for Cuba and Castro.
By building a floating wall around the island, the United States
has ensured Castro and the Cuban people will continue with communism.
Opening the doors to free exchange of goods and ideas would make
a difference. One must
wonder what would have happened if Ronald Reagan had gone to Key West
instead of Berlin. Consider
if he had said, “Washington, tear down this wall of blockade!” Americans are convinced that Democracy, which is
best for this country, must be best for the world.
The goal is perceived and launched to spread democracy around the
world, whether nations and people want it or not.
It’s a national pastime to meddle in the political affairs of
other nations. We shout foul when another nation tries to
influence our elective processes. But
it’s a different matter when we try to shift power in other countries.
The Ukraine is a good example of Washington being involved in the
politics of another country. However well meaning the interference is on the part of
Washington, the warning signs are there.
After a generation lived through a cold war with the Russian
powers, our leaders seemed anxious to begin the standoff all over again.
More and more Russia is being hemmed in, and feels threatened. Bin Laden brought his relatively small band of
fanatic thugs onto the international scene with the attack on the World
Trade Center. He wanted a
holy war, religious and political.
He got it. President
George W. Bush retaliated with force, first in Afghanistan and then
Iraq. The initial reason
for a preemptive raid on Iraq was fear Saddam Hussein would destroy the
world with his “weapons of mass destruction.”
That fell apart and the public was fed the line that we were
there to free the Iraqi people. Invading Iraq to snuff out terrorism was like
throwing gasoline on a blaze to put out the fire.
Where only a few terrorists commandeered airplanes for suicide
attacks, hundreds are lined up now to be suicide bombers. Where the number of those classified terrorists were only a
few thousand, the number has swollen to many times that number. Democracy and “free elections” are being put
on the Iraqi people. It
matters not that they may not want democracy or be ready for it.
The missionary crusade to spread democracy around the world must
be satisfied, no matter how many lives it takes on both sides. The more power an individual, a family, a
company or a nation has the more carefully it must use it.
America today is at the zenith of its military power.
The missionary urge to spread democracy to a sometimes reluctant
world must be tempered with wisdom and patience.
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