April 23, 2004

Blood for Oil

I’m so glad that we’re in Iraq & Afghanistan kicking ass right now. I am enjoying the $1.80/gallon gasoline prices. I imagine that if we weren’t over there stealing all their oil right now we might still be paying those exorbitant pre-war prices of $1.35/gallon.

OK, I admit, the above paragraph sounds pretty stupid. Just about as stupid as the “No Blood for Oil” slogan the left likes to toss around.

The truth is that oil is of vital economic interest to the United States just as it is for every other industrialized nation. So, yes, part of our “War on Terror” is aimed at stabilizing a region that is of vital economic interest.

And while the rest of the world thinks that Americans are driven by their pocketbooks (and admittedly, we are often just as guilty of that as everyone else); what they cannot understand is our collective desire for freedom and liberty.

I firmly believe that they cannot understand the American idea of freedom because they have never experienced it. The countries of Europe have never had the same kind of freedom and liberty that we do as Americans. There are many differences I could illustrate, but most of them are small and seemingly in-coincidental, but there is one example that I believe definitively exemplifies the difference between European “freedom” and American “freedom.”

Guns. Guns represent power. He, who wields the gun, wields the power. Most European countries do not trust their citizenry with guns and do not allow them to posses them.

Our founding fathers though that the right to possess and bear arms was so important that they made it the second amendment – second only to the amendment that outlines exactly what freedom is. They recognized that there may come a day when the guns protected by the second amendment would be required to protect the first. As amazing and incomprehensible as this foresight may seem, the truth is they had just exercised it with the revolutionary war. This is freedom.

And this freedom is the higher calling that motivates Americans more than our pocketbooks.

Many of my fellow countrymen have died as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks. Those that died in the attacks (with the possible exception of those on United Flight 93) had no idea that they were giving their lives for the American idea of freedom. But I have little doubt that any of those servicemen and women who have given their lives since then ever questioned it.

Furthermore, these servicemen and women understand that this idea of freedom is not just for us Americans alone. Sure, peace in the Middle East would benefit the US economically, just as it would benefit the rest of the world, but that is not why we are there and not why they are giving their lives. They realize that if we can successfully promote freedom in Iraq, that it will spread to the rest of the region and that this is the ONLY way there will ever be peace in the Middle East.

The bottom line is that this war is not about money or oil. It’s about freedom. What else would explain why a 27 year old star football player would give up millions of dollars and a successful football career to fight? Go read all of this and tell me how you can come to any other conclusion.

Posted by Clancy at April 23, 2004 3:27 PM