Questions of Freedom

Here are two questions for all of you freedom lovers out there:

1.Would you risk your life to defend your country from invasion?

2. Would you donate the life of your child to change the style of government in a country on the other side of the world that you had never heard of before?

If you said yes to the first, I agree with you. If you said yes to the second you are a fool’s fool who will believe anything a politician says to you (liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter).
There is something that many Americans don’t have a clue about. You may not believe it but here it is; not everyone on the world wants freedom. Crazy huh? Sounds nutty to us Americans but it’s true. Many people in the Middle East would like to vote. And once they get it they will elect a religious leader who will immediately limit their freedoms and will control them with religious (Sharia) laws. And here’s the kicker: they will like it.
When I was in the army I met otherwise well-adjusted guys who constantly complained about the army and consistently reenlisted. I asked several of them about this and they told me that the army supplied them with a dependable routine, predictable schedules, secure work situation where they would never get fired, always have a meal, always have clothes and, most of all, they were free from having to make decisions about their future. Everything was taken care of for them.
There are many who lived through Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and still miss it after all these years. Things were taken care of; no difficult and stressful decisions to be made and the trains ran on time. Indeed, many citizens in Russia still miss the Soviet Union’s control over their lives and likewise many residents of Iraq are voicing nostalgia for the iron fist of Saddam Hussein.
Americans are a unique breed because of the unique beginnings of our government and because everyone who immigrates here are doing so because they seek a less controlled structure. The rest don’t come here. Since most of us have this characteristic, we can’t, because of our ignorance and arrogance, understand why anyone else would want it any other way.
Well, they do. Let’s stop this notion that we are going to be the good guy and crash around the world like a bull in a china closet and shove “freedom” down everybody’s throat. I’m not talking about isolationism; I’m talking about minding our own business until someone asks for our help and advice. Then, by all means, let’s show them what freedom is, at least as far as it goes.