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the real enemies of America
US Senator Dick Dubin of Illinois, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, recently compared the US military at Guantanamo Naval base to Hitler, the cruel Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, and Stalin's Soviet gulag prisons. Hitler murdered two million Christians and six million Jews. Nearly two million prisoners died under the most deplorable conditions imaginable in the Soviet gulags. And Pol Pot slaughtered as many as ten million people mercilessly for suspicions that they were not on his side of the political spectrum.
What were the terrible conditions that led Dubin to make such outrageous comparisons? American troops on occasion turned off the air conditioning system, or left it on too long, and in one documented case had their rap music turned up too loud, making it hard for prisoners to sleep.
It amazes me that an American politician can attack his own country so boldly and foolishly, putting the very people who voted for him in harm's way. I doubt he has ever set foot outside his own country to see the good that Americans and American troops are doing for the world at large.
On a recent trip to Europe, I was appalled at the amount of anti-American sentiment, much of it coming from young people. As they sat in their Levi's jeans and Nike shoes, sipping Starbucks coffee, they attacked the very people and structure that made their way of life possible. While I'm a proud Canadian, I recognize that it was America, not Canada, that drove our consumer culture to a point where we can enjoy affordable automobiles, air travel and technology. The Internet was not driven primarily by Europeans or Asians. It was mostly America that made it possible for us to view web sites like this, to create them almost effortlessly, and even to utilize the computers that make it all operate.
It was American capitalism that makes it possible for these young European America-bashers to fly at very low cost to their holiday on the French Riviera. Sure there were early European airlines like KLM, but Europeans didn't fuel the aviation industry, nor the automotive industry. Without American enthusiasm for transportation, a flight across Europe today would cost about $100,000 and a typical car would run upwards of a million dollars. Commercial television and radio would exist, but not with the variety that we have today, nor the quality. You might be lucky to have two stations, run by the government. And just imagine what it would cost for a TV set. It was American consumerism that created such demand for technology that variety, quality, and prices continue to improve -- even as I write this.
It was the American constitution that set the tone for governments around the world to establish a system of self-governance that actually works. And it was for the most part American men and women in uniform who defended the right for people to govern themselves all around the world. Had it not been for Americans willing to die for the sake of freedom, these young people who today so callously bash America would not have the right to speak out fearlessly. They would probably be living under a dictatorship where every word and thought would be carefully guarded.
How can a US Senator compare the military men and women -- who put their lives on the line to protect his lifestyle -- to the most evil, murderous regimes of recent history? Has he forgotten the contribution his country made to world peace and progress? Or did he never appreciate it in the first place?
It seems that the real enemies of America are people like him who fuel anti-American sentiment around the world. I'm not suggesting that American politicians can't speak up about things that need to be fixed. One of the things that makes America great is the passion its people have for the freedom to speak. But with freedom comes responsibility, and Dubin has clearly gone too far with his outrageous comparison.
