Slaying monsters in the name of "Freedom"

A friend recently sent me a link to this homemade McCain ad. I will give its creators credit for putting it together well, and I will further credit the veteran pictured in the ad for his willingness to follow his convictions to the point of risking life and limb. I must, however, state that his convictions have been misguided and his trust in McCain misplaced.

I continually hear supporters of the war in Iraq assert that we are fighting for freedom. As sour a pill as it may be to swallow, and as unpopular and even painful as it may be for me to point out, just as the veteran did in the ad, I must act on my convictions and point out that we are doing nothing of the sort.

My reasons for saying this are various, and I will attempt to list a few of them here.

1. While we have established a democratic system in Iraq, Democracy is not the same as freedom. See some of my other blog posts for an explanation as to why this is. Otherwise, suffice it to say that democracy only says who makes decisions, but it does not stipulate the character of the decisions made. Decisions made by a million tyrants are no less tyrannical and oppressive than those made by a solitary despot.

2. Freedom cannot be imposed. It should go without saying, but imposing freedom is a contradiction in terms.

In the above two points, I am obviously referring to the idea that we are supposedly fighting for freedom for the Iraqis. However, also implicit in the video linked above is the notion that we are somehow fighting for our freedom as well. This is also not the case, and indeed the opposite is true. As John Quincy Adams predicted, if we attempt to champion the liberty of others abroad, we will inevitably undermine our own liberty at home:

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.

She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
-John Quincy Adams, 1821 (emphasis added)

The attentive reader will note that each prediction has come to pass. We are now involved abroad beyond extrication and it has indeed usurped the standard of freedom. The maxims of our policy have certainly shifted from liberty to force. We have indeed become the "dictatress of the world" (commonly referred to as the sole "Superpower"). And owing to our deep entanglement through foreign alliances, the United Nations, and other treaties and agreements, we have ceased to be the ruler of our own spirit.

And while we are allegedly bringing freedom to the Iraqis in contrast to our Constition and our founding principles, we are giving up our freedom here. What freedoms, I dare ask, have we secured to ourselves in the prosecution of this war?

Freedom of speech? I dare say not, for our every conversation can now be recorded and monitored under the color of law, not to mention the raiding of homes and "preemptive arrests" as of the likes we witnessed in Minneapolis BEFORE the Republican National Convention had convened.

Freedom of assembly? Surely not as the PATRIOT Act and other such laws are now used to charge with crimes those who might assemble for a redress of grievances.

Economic freedom? Since entering Iraq, our currency has been increasingly debased, talks of "windfall profit taxes" are on the lips of even Republicans, oil is now more expensive than ever, Sarbanes-Oxley imposes crushing accounting regulations on business, and every business which can be contrived to be a financial institution is now subject to secret, warrantless siezure of records for the sake of "national security".

The right of habeus corpus? Certainly not! This war and the fear that has been cultivated around it has lead to the passage of the Military Commissions Act which effectively suspends your right to a trial, meaning that you can now be imprisoned indefinitely without trial and without legal recourse. It is sufficient to simply be designated as a "terrorist" to have your rights stripped away along with any possibility of defending your innocence.

Yes, in view of things, I think rather than having successfully fought for freedom, I can find only examples of it being ceded away bit by bit to a National Security state. If history teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that war is the health of the state (goverment) and that it is always attended by a curtailment of liberty.

What is harder to swallow still is the notion that John McCain would be the champion of our liberties. After what I witnessed first-hand in St. Paul, I can tell you conclusively that McCain is no friend of freedom, and the thought of his presidency genuinely frightens me for the future of our Republic.