Commentary
Commentary
Battle against tyranny
in Iraq is a just cause
"If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going and I think they should."-- Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.)
The United States is built on an ideal. The people are sovereign, and Americans swear allegiance not to a leader, but to a constitution that puts the people in charge. Our history of involvement in wars beyond our shores is a history of fighting for popular sovereignty. We will go into Iraq because building democracy there helps preserve Israel, democracy's beachhead in the Middle East.
Democratic Congressman Jim Moran is right to connect American Jewish leaders to our fight against Saddam Hussein. Too bad Moran's remarks are both anti-Semitic and insensitive to his party's own idealistic past.
Look at the history of our overseas wars, and look at the idealistic Democrats who led us. Democratic President Woodrow Wilson drew America into World War I to make the world "safe for democracy." Wilson helped win the war, but failed to get America into the League of Nations that followed. Without America, "old Europe" shaped a bitter, vengeful peace that led to depression and another world war.
When Hitler threatened war in 1938, "old Europe" was too afraid to stop Nazi Germany when it had the chance. At the cost of millions of lives, we learned appeasement is wrong, and learned we should stop evil before it grows. But even after Europe fell to Hitler, America was reluctant to go to war. It took Pearl Harbor and another great Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to bring us into World War II.
Finally alert to appeasement, America went to war in Korea and Vietnam to stop aggression. Democratic presidents Truman and Kennedy led the way. Vietnam was a mistake. We built South Vietnam out of the pro-French colonial forces that had lost Vietnam's war of liberation. That meant we lashed ourselves to the wrong side of nationalism, even though North Vietnam, a dictatorship supported by Communist China and the Soviet Union, deserved the opposition America provided.
America in the 20th century was willing to stand and fight for democracy and against evil. Mostly, we prevailed: World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo.
On Sept. 11, 2001 in a new century, evil took on a new form. The terrorists who attacked innocent Americans that day do not belong to any single nation. They come from the Arab world, and they are fueled by hatred of Israel and Israel's major ally, America.
After 9/11, more Americans understand the link between defending our constitutional values and defending Israel. Because terrorists and Saddam Hussein have made both Israel and the United States their enemy, we find ourselves fighting in Iraq to make Israel and the Middle East "safe for democracy."
President Bush is an idealist in the tradition of Democrats Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. Bush is the first Republican president committed to expanding Arab democracy. The horror of World War II led directly to creation of the Jewish state. American support made Israel's existence possible. Now we are fighting to protect Israel by building democracy in Iraq.
Israel's security is under threat because Israel displaced the Palestinian people from their homeland. The lost Palestinian homeland is a bone stuck in the Arab world's throat. Americans, Israelis and many Arab nations now recognize that Israel and Palestine both deserve their own countries. Terrorist efforts to extinguish the Jewish state actually undermine Palestinian nationalism, because a free Palestine depends upon peace with Israel.
Palestine's lost homeland has spawned a series of militant Arab leaders -- now including Saddam Hussein and the terrorist groups -- who have little use for Israel, America, or the Palestinian people. If we fail to act against Saddam, Iraq will become a base for efforts to wipe out Israel and again strike the United States. On the other hand, if we help Iraq use its oil wealth to build democracy and peace, we benefit Iraq's people, our safety and the future of Israel and Palestine.
By now, America has learned 1) we must fight evil when it threatens us, 2) we must help democracies because they prefer peace, and 3) we should therefore expand the reach of democracy, even into the Middle East.
Rep. Galen Fox (R, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako) is minority leader in the state House of Representatives. He is also a former U.S. Foreign Service officer.