Homespun Symposium IV - The Divide
Old divides expand and become more readily apparent when issues of significance are presented on the world stage. It has been a common thread of this blog to discuss the divide between the United States, and its allies in the fight against Islamo-fascism, and the European and other nations who feign contempt for Islamists, yet are unwilling to stand against the terrorism, dictators, economic impoverishment and the religious leaders holding a vast portion of the world hostage. It is exasperated when the U.S. determines to hold not only those who’ve attacked the U.S. responsible for their actions but to move against those who through anti-U.S. or anti-Israeli sentiment may lend their power to those who are willing to die in an attack on the U.S. And as a final inflammation, the divide swells when economic advantages and exploitations are exposed linking those who oppose our efforts directly with the oppressor mistakenly believed to be under “united” scrutiny and constraint.
The divide isn’t new. It is as old as jealousy, and as rampant as the hypocrisy of secular humanism, socialism and moral relativism. It’ll last so long as hypocrisy does, only moving between nations as their understanding of liberty, and the sanctity of life, shifts over time. Our role is clear. We must remain vigilant at home to refrain from becoming a member of the clan of the corrupted, and seek at all times to expand the coalition of the courageous.
Of particular interest for those who recognize the divides around the world should be the risks associated with our continued support of the enabling organizations associated with the spread of, and possible encouraging the spread of, the moral and political worldviews behind anti-U.S. policy and public opinion. This week the Bush Administration announced their continued support for Kofi Annan. It is one thing to hold out hope for the United Nations, although this blogger maintains no such delusions, it is reprehensible that we continue to support the leadership of the UN that has presided over it during the most egregious corruption and feeble execution of justice.
Congress and the President should move immediately to withdraw U.S. financial support of the UN and to withhold support until such time that full disclosure and transparency takes hold in the office of the Secretary General. It will not happen until Annan is no longer UNSG and that will not happen until the taxpayers of the U.S. withhold our support for the UN.
Pragmatically it is understood that we are unlikely to take a stand on all the issues of injustice or immoral action around the world. This does not excuse us from the responsibility to choose those where we will have the most impact in preserving what remains of liberty and moral affirmation of life. The UN should be our next target or as we’ve seen in the Sudan, and much of Africa, death and destruction will continue at the hands of those in power while those who proclaim the role of protector of the innocent, meek and unheard masses are impotent, an impotence that grows from within, not from lack of resources, understanding or alternative courses of action.
In this week’s Homespun Symposium our question was posed by Arthur Chrenkoff, it has been answered by others, all of which are worthy of our thought and discussion.
Others responding:
Mud and Phud
Dagney's Rant
Mad Poets Anonymous
A Physicist's Perspective
Bunker Mulligan
Chrenkoff
The Commons at Paulie World... by Nathan Hale
The Radical Centrist
The Redhunter
