Promote democracy, but defeat terrorists first.

Submitted by Raymond Kyle (United States), Nov 15, 2003 at 14:34

I find President Bush's commitment to transforming the tyrannical regimes of the Mideast into governments dedicated to the welfare of their citizens intriguing, but believe the United States and her allies in the War on Terror must first win a decisive victory over gobal terrorists and their state sponsors. Representative government and political opposition will not be allowed to exist as long as those opposed to secular rule have a monopoly on violence in the region. Human rights, peaceful debate, and acceptance of electoral outcomes depend on an environment secure from harassment and intimidation, and the U.S. and its friends around the world must demonstrate the ability to defeat the forces that work against such an environment.

In the President's remarks, there is a wonderful position of moral clarity. Much as Lincoln used the Emancipation Proclamation to define the U.S. Civil War as a battle against the evil of human enslavement, so Mr. Bush has defined the battle against terrorism as a battle against fear and oppression. The leader of the free world has taken the simple eloquence of Todd Beemer's "Let's Roll", and turned it into a clarion call for universal human dignity.

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