Posted by
Harry E. Hallett on Friday, May 02, 2008 12:00:00 AM
William Jennings Bryan
was once severely criticized because, while he was a staunch
anti-imperialist and spoke against the imperial designs of the worlds
major powers of the time, he supported the ratification by the United
States of the Treaty of Paris
which ended the Spanish-American War and placed Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam
and the Philippines under U.S. control (Cuba became independent in
1902, the Philippines became independent in 1946, Puerto Rico and Guam
remain U.S. territories by choice.).
When
accepting the nomination to be the Democratic candidate in the
Presidential elections of 1900 Bryan addressed such criticism by
stating "I
thought it safer to trust the American people to give independence to
the Filipinos than to trust the accomplishment of that purpose to
diplomacy with an unfriendly nation (Spain)."
Let's fast forward to the present day. The United States is now engaged in battle with unfriendly forces, in the form of Islamic terrorists, for the continued freedom and the eventual full independence of the people of Afghanistan and of Iraq.
There
are those who say that the U.S. conquered two sovereign nations in the
names of oil and of imperialism. But at no time do those who make that
claim present evidence of any policy, plan or legislation of the U.S.
Government to do anything other than to turn full control of those
nations over to the Governments that were freely elected (Afghanistan's
first free election was in June of 2002. Iraq's was in January of 2005)
by the people of those nations once those Governments state that they
are ready to take control.
Contrary to the opinions of those who
would prefer to see nefarious purpose in the presence of American
troops in Afghanistan and Iraq it is quite readily evident that the
intention of the United States and of the other members of the
multinational coalition is to "pick up our toys and leave" once the
home team says they're ready to run solo with the ball. It is true that
there may be some U.S. or NATO military presence left in those nations
after their Governments take full control but it will only be with the
permission of those Governments just the same as it is in Germany or
South Korea.
I think it is far "safer
to trust the American people" to support and to recognize the freedom
and independence of the Afghanis and Iraqis than to trust the
accomplishment of that purpose to the good will and peaceful intentions
of Islamic Terrorists.