It Does Tie In

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for temporary security deserve neither."--Benjamin Franklin.
This is probably one of the most cited, and one of the most abused, quotes on the Web today. Franklin was addressing those who would rather maintain the security of British rule than sever ties with England in order to have a voice in government. The attitude of the Colony in Georgia was that independence would ruin the economy of the colonies, that the protection of the English Army would be absent, and that other nations could invade the colonies. Rather than having representation in government, having the freedom to assemble, and other freedoms, the assembly of Georgia, and others within the colonies, balked at the idea of independence in favor of the temporary security afforded by English rule.
Over the past sixty years, temporary security has been maintained in the practice of complacancy in dealing with tyrannical governments. Regimes which rule by fear create the circumstances from which such movements as al Qaeda and the Wahadi Islamist philosophy rise and gain strength. If the United States is friendly to an oppressive regime, the people persecuted under that regime see the United States as an enemy.
This is not just some new idea invented by the current administration--I am using as the basis for this argument the writings and ideas of Natan Sharansky, who experienced oppression first-hand under the Soviet regime. In his book, The Case for Democracy, Sharansky cites the tendency of a "fear society" regime to create an external enemy in order to justify its atrocities against its own citizens. This is the method used by many regimes in the Middle East, where Israel is demonized, even though that country has not demonstrated aggression against other nations except in self-defiensive reaction to invasions by those countries.
In 1997, then Secretary of State Madeline Albright made a much touted trip to North Korea in an attempt to normalize relations with that regime. The trip resulted in acheiving the temporary security of North Korea halting its nuclear arms program, and signing on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The security was temporary, because, in 1998, North Korea denounced that treaty and resumed its nuclear weapons program, using funds recieved from the government of the United States. The people of North Korea continue living in poverty, and even starving, while the regime of Kim Jong Il strengthens its military might and its level of destabilization of Eastern Asia, attempting to use fear and aggression to extort concessions from Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and even the United States.
It frusterates me that people do not understand the importance of establishing democracies in the Middle East in the prosecution of the war against terrorist organizations. It is not the religion of Islam which is the enemy; it is the governments which have brainwashed their people into believing that the United States and its allies are against Islam. A free society would not have these problems, as the government would be dependent on the people to maintain power, rather than the people being dependent on the government to survive. To ensure the survival of the democracies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Isreal, and Lebanon is important in halting the cause of terrorism. Once the people experience freedom, they will not have to revert to dependence on a tyrannical regime for their own security. The terrorist leaders who want to suppress democracy and freedom in order to establish their own wealth and power, will no longer hold sway over those who have a voice in their government. Democracy can only weaken the terrorists, and thus the spread of freedom will suppress the ideology of terrorism. It is important that, for the lasting security of our country, and of the entire world, the new democracies must be supported.