What Freedoms Are We Fighting for in Iraq?

On Memorial Day 2007 the History Channel is highlighting John Lucas' "Star Wars" production. What?! On what is supposed to be the day of the year that we as a nation are to set a side to pay respects to the many people, military as well as civilian, who have given their lives; and the channel for history can choose no other day to celebrate a sci-fi movie? They didn't know that Memorial Day was coming? More important I think is the deafening patriotic silence from the media industry at a time that one would think that this Administration could use all of the assistance to remind us why are American soldiers dying in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan, in this supposed war.

But wait, as I look around and see masses of unknown foreigners flooding our country -particularly from the south - , with a rubber stamp of approval from the Executive Branch and some members in Congress, the hastily passed PATRIOT ACTs that strips us of many protected Constitutional Rights, the president secretly signing into law, via Executive Orders and Directives, policies that further strips privileges for citizens and bypass Congress in oversight. I have to question what is it that today we are supposed to be memorializing?

Today this nation is facing it's gravest threat not from outside forces, but from within our borders - from the highest elected offices in our great land.

There is little question that America is not totally engaged in this "war", not just as proven by the polls, but our actions. If we were in a war and our complete industry, as in World War II, was tuned to victory in every aspect there is not a nation that could keep us from our objective or victory. That being said, it gives my question even more cause to pause.

The Founders were envisionaries and prophets on an unimaginable scale. And in their revolt against the Crown of Briton they paid highly in personal sacrifice to establish a nation for the world to envy for a fundamental belief in the right of man to be free and self-governed. The one thing that they understood too well was human nature as represent by two of the most relevant Founders, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Ben Franklin in his statement as he left the Continental Congress, after signing the Constitution for the united states for America, "We have a republic, if we can keep it.", and Thomas Jefferson's statements such as, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." also, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be." they clearly recognized that it is in people's nature to become complacent and apathetic. But, they held that man would always choose freedom over bondage.

Today, this great nation is faced with the tragic ripple effects of two consecutive Presidential Administrations who have engaged in massive military interventionism - Clinton sent US forces into Yugoslavia and GW Bush sent forces into Afghanistan and Iraq - neither reasoning had anything to do with a Constitutional breach or immediate threat to America, but United Nation Resolutions. Both presidents held the Constitution in great contempt and took every opportunity to undermine it. And thus place this great nation's integrity and freedom in peril. Mr. Bush has used the distraction of his police action in Iraq and Afghanistan to expand the Federal government's hands into every aspect of our lives, via Executive Orders and Directives, with unabashed disregard to Constitutional protocol or principles. He has initiated a unification of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, via the SPP [Security, Posperity Partnership] that would destroy any and all pretense of our sovereignty - all without any Congressional over site or the blessings of the American people, not to mention the peoples of Canada or Mexico. This Administration has been hell-bent on open this country to cheap goods from China, cheap labor from Mexico, exporting every profitable and sustaining industry to other countries, whether friend or foe, and establish this nation as a place not a strong and sovereign nation since the outset without any regard to the negative effects it would have on Americans.

So yes, I must ask myself can anyone truly tell me what is it that we are memorializing other than to be able to have a paid day off. It sure is not our freedoms and the sacrifice that so, so many have made to keep America free. This day has gone the way of so many days of celebration, like Christmas and Independence Day, few cares of the organic purpose or the reasoning and significance of the day. Few Americans can recite five Amendments of the Constitution, name three of the Founding Fathers, name their State or Federal Representatives, state two reasons for the establishment of government mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution, nor can name the branches of our government and their proper functions. But, they know who won the American Idol competition. How can we honestly celebrate or pay respects to freedom when we can not identify it? How can we honestly pay respects to something that we can't tell that is taken away from us? Edward R. Murrow stated it best, "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."