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How Bush has changed the meaning of victory and freedom
The Israelites won their freedom from the Pharoah when God destroyed the Egyptian army and led the Israelites through the sea on dry ground. The Greeks won their freedom from the spectre of Persian domination when they defeated the Persian empire at Marathon and Salamis. The Franks won their freedom from the terror of Moslem conquest when they defeated the Moslem army at Tours. The English won their freedom from the fear of Spanish conquest when they defeated the Spanish Armada. The Americans won their freedom from the British crown when they defeated the British army in the War of Independence. Europe won its freedom from Napoleon when Wellington and Blücher defeated him at Waterloo and he was imprisoned on an island in the middle of the Atlantic. Europe won its freedom from Hitler when the allies defeated and destroyed Nazi Germany and captured and killed all the top Nazis.
Freedom follows victory over the forces that threaten freedom. Bush and his chorus of supporters have changed this fact of political life, or imagine that they have done so. They drink to the “freedom” of Iraq, they bathe deliciously in the “freedom” of Iraq, they rejoice in the indescribable exhilaration of the “freedom” of Iraq, even as the undefeated enemies of Iraqi freedom freely mass murder Iraqi civilians and freely kill our troops throughout the central part of that country. Email entry |