While I was reading the excellent book The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America edited by William J. Bennett to my son last night I was struck by the entry for April 15th. It was an excerpt from one of Theodore Roosevelt's speeches that is directly applicable to the current administration's misguided world view, and it's foolishness in foreign policy (moving toward unilateral disarmament) and it's approach to islamofascism (denial) in particular.
"I believe that a man must be a good patriot before he can be, and as the only possible way of being, a good citizen of the world. Experience teaches us that the average man who protests that his international feeling swamps his national feeling, that he does not care for his country because he cares so much for mankind, in actual practice proves himself the foe of mankind; that the man who says that he does not care to be a citizen of any one country, because he is the citizen of the world, is in fact usually and exceedingly undesirable citizen of whatever corner of the world he happens at the moment to be in."
Rather, policies should be pursued that insure a strong and prosperous America. Indeed, a powerful America has intervened repeatedly in the past century to save the world from tyranny and anarchy. Civilization itself may have been extinct by now if it had not been for a strong United States willing to stand in the gap. Retreating from this position now will only threaten world peace and prosperity. Ronald Reagan clearly understood this as he closed his magnificent Time for Choosing speech over 45 years ago.
"We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness."
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