Independent Thoughts

"The Iraqi people have decided that they want a unified country"........Joe Biden

Gee Joe, what a novel thought.........Do you think this unification obsession might also include yearning to be free from an oppressive and intrusive government? Is this “decision” even possibly inherent in most civilized societies when they discover that a representative government means each individual has a say in how they will be governed? Does “we the people” ring any bells? Further, did the Iraqi people also have “an enlightenment” when they realized that an embraced religion could be a matter of choice, and not a mandate by their government? Could other neighboring societies such as Afghanistan and Iran also be looking inward to ask similar questions about how their futures could look like? Lastly, did George W. Bush possibly facilitate his own version of Reagan’s vision to “tear down these walls”?

That it can be argued, (as our dear liberal friends on the left profusely perfected), that “we” (our government), should not be in the practice of “nation building”--while using terms such as “occupiers”—doesn’t our own history of leaving “conquered” governments, (that were oppressive to its people and other nations), back into the hands of its people? Does the perfect examples of liberated countries like Germany and Japan, (two nations that transformed themselves into relatively peaceful democratic societies), after they were crushed by a determined American army hell bent on ending their oppressive and destructive governments? Or are words like liberty and freedom only reserved for the elite left who think other societies and governments should be left alone to fester their oppressive tendencies? Reagan saw the Soviet Union breaking down from within, and, (without firing a shot), he built up our defenses in a “race” he knew the Soviet government could not win, but felt compelled to participate in. By shifting precious, (and limited), economic resources the Soviet government destroyed their infrastructure preparing for a battle that would never come to fruition. And the people of the Soviet Union trusted their leadership in this decision through a state run media that had no input or dissenting opinion to change the course. The rest is history.

Are there any similarities here where a government, (who clearly has an overly zealous media that inhibits impartial judgment) is embattled in a philosophy/ideology that it is the governments’ sole responsibility to provide every need of its people? And are we dangerously ceding* too much control and power to this government to the point where reliance becomes outright dependency? The “shifting of resources” from a private market system, (capitalism), to a government run entity, (dare I say embracing socialist tendencies), may be enticing and appear to have good intentions, but at what point did “we the people” decide to cede* our independence, liberty, and freedoms, (where we proclaimed individual responsibility, and rights endowed by our creator), to our government?

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

On this “Declaration of Independence Day”, perhaps “WE THE PEOPLE”, should revisit the separation our forefathers intended between a government and its people where the delicate balance may be dangerously shifting too far in one direction.

*(special thanks to "lefty" in comments for correcting my grammar---seeding/ceding)