Call to Duty

Mike Burleson

After his fervent plea for aid for the people of Iraq before the United Nations, many world leaders, aided by a belligerent media, consider President Bush as a moocher and a failure. “ He went into the country without our authority,” they say, “now he wants us to bail him out.”

It would be folly for the world to continue in this false assumption. Bush’s plea is not for a handout to Iraq but a hand up. It is a call to duty for the defenders of democracy and all who desire world peace, to come to the aid of a country recently in bondage. Iraq is now free from her brutal dictator, but the rebuilding must continue.

There have been many calls to duty in world history. In ancient times Greece withstood a mighty Eastern conqueror intent on subjugating the rising new nations of the West. At Marathon and Salamis the Persians were defeated, and today we reap the benefits of modern medicine, arts, and science.

In the Sixteenth Century, Spain was bent on enforcing Catholicism on the entire world. One woman upheld the right of freedom of religion and for people to govern themselves. Elizabeth I, and her loyal followers, defeated the Spanish Armada and paved the way for the British Empire. Today most nations, including the US, base their own form of democracy on that of Great Britain.

There are other examples. Joan of Ark alone defied the enemies of a free France. Washington, despite the odds, held his ragtag Army together at Valley Forge, and saved the youthful American nation. Haille Sallasie, seeing his country overrun by Fascists conquerors prophetically warned, “Now it is us, soon it will be you”. Winston Churchill was a “voice crying in the wilderness” against the Nazi rise to power.

We have read all these tales before, and cheer when the underdog has his day. Why is Iraq, which Bush calls "the Central Front of the War on Terror" any different from past crises?

In the battle against terrorism there are no clear boundaries, set piece battles, or invading armadas. They hide in all nations, sowing anarchy, fear and death. For them, winning is to cast doubt on our goals and to divide long cherished alliances. It is less a war of nations than and battle of ideologies.

The President’s cause, which should be the goal of all free men, is being tried in the fire in Iraq. The defenders of the right will ultimately be victorious, whether we are alone or with our friends in the family of nations. Now is the time for people to help, and set aside the petty differences that divide us. It is time to shake off the bonds of lethargy and reach for that most noble desire of all: freedom from fear and oppression.

Mankind has seen the end of dictators before, most recently with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. After every great victory there is always the hope for an everlasting peace. Yet each generation must make a stand and renew the fight for freedom. Will the democracies of the world answer the President’s cry, or continue our bickering while the sword hangs above, not just America, but the whole world?

###

Mike Burleson is a freelance writer living in historic Charleston SC. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post and in Sea Classics magazine.
charbookguy@myway.com