[IMC-Editorial] America's Non-Resolve to Fight Evil

[ARI Media]

Dear Editor,

Please consider for publication this Op-Ed submission from the Ayn Rand
Institute.

America's Non-Resolve to Fight Evil

By Ed Cline

The "Bush Doctrine," presented to the world shortly after 9/11, has
collapsed. What happened to those "self-evident truths" about what we'll
do to those evil nations that support terrorism? Those truths have been
all but repudiated, lost in a morass of evasion and accommodation. The
United States has become a paper tiger, engaging in a parody of warnings
followed by. . . more warnings. Predictably, we have encouraged rather
than frightened the villains.

It wasn't this way when our nation began. In 1800, shortly after he took
office as President, Thomas Jefferson had to decide what to do about the
Barbary pirates, who were raiding American and European shipping in the
Mediterranean and exacting tribute from Western governments. At first,
Jefferson tried the short-range pragmatic policy of  paying that
tribute. But when he saw that the looting beys of Barbary would not
honor any agreements they signed with Washington, he sent in the Navy to
deal with them. During his--and James Madison's administration--the
Barbary States swore off a policy of extortion, ransom, and the seizure
of American merchant vessels. European powers were left to make their
own decisions regarding the pirates.  For the Americans, there was no
hand-wrenching, no need for "coalitions," no fear of international
opinion, no concern about our "image."  Just self-confident, decisive
action, employing the method chosen by the pirates: physical force.

Jefferson and Madison’s response was partially the result of the
important lessons they learnt in the struggle between the colonies and
the British government. As far back as the 1740s, Americans tried to
reason with the mother country. Every argument that colonial thinkers
offered in defense of life, liberty, and property was either ignored by
London or answered with attacks on the character and motivation of the
colonials.  Every act of defiance by the colonials was met by another
repressive action to "exact due deference."  Americans accepted the
obvious: The British government was not open to reason.  American force
was the only response to British force.  "Toleration" and compromise
would work only to defeat the colonists and more firmly establish
British tyranny.  Freedom and tyranny cannot co-exist.

The Founders then pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor,"
declared American independence, and faced the 18th century's greatest
"super power."

Today, the United States is the only super power on earth, yet it is
losing to a motley collection of "Barbary pirates" and an international
cabal of dedicated killers. America's political leaders, educated in
20th-century universities, are stubbornly certain that one can't be
certain of  anything, that there are no "self-evident truths," nor any
immutable facts and that no culture is better than any other. There is
no right and wrong, no good and bad. Tyrants, Bush believes, can be
cajoled into becoming benevolent leaders, and bomb-producing metal shops
transformed into soup kitchens. The nearest thing to a "truth," to our
policymakers, is a consensus, a constantly shifting collective opinion
about facts and morality.

The self-evident truths that President Bush struggles to evade are that
Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are our mortal enemies, to
whom death, blind obedience, and self-sacrifice are the sole immutable
truths, and that these countries should be dealt with as Jefferson and
Madison dealt with the beys.

Saddam Hussein, Yasir Arafat, Kim Jong Il, and the ayatollahs have
repeatedly demonstrated that they are not open to reason and that they
are determined to impose tyranny outside their realms. Arafat wants to
destroy Israel.  Iraq plays the equivalent of a three-card Monte game
with U.S.-approved U.N. weapons inspectors. North Korea, emboldened by
the irrational and pragmatic policies of the United States, has
announced that it will become a nuclear power, and threatens the United
States. Saudi Arabia is exposed daily as the enemy it has always been.
Iran pursues its own nuclear arsenal, actively supports terrorists and
prepares to execute a man because he called for the separation of mosque
and state.

Every one of these facts should have been acknowledged. Action should
have been taken.   It was within the military capabilities of this
country. Yet, moral self-doubt and squeamishness about the "arrogance"
of defending this country have simply prolonged and aggravated the
crises.

Americans deserve courageous leaders, but President Bush and his
advisors are cowards. They have been disarmed (morally and literally) by
pragmatism, subjectivism, and non-judgmental humility. The Founders had
principles and were moved by moral and factual certainty. Our present
political leaders have none of that. Afraid of being condemned for
"arrogance" (i.e., self-assertion), they are moved only by
range-of-the-moment pragmatic diplomacy. It is a policy that can
guarantee nothing but this country's suicide.
________________________________________________________________________
_________
Ed Cline is a novelist who has written on the revolutionary war period
and is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute (www.aynrand.org/medialink)
in Irvine, California. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the
philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Send comments to reaction at aynrand.org

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