The Last Best Hope of Earth

As the holiday season fast approaches, with U.S. forces in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, I thought I'd take a moment to write about what's good about America. As in so many instances, I turn to an American who understood our exceptionalism and the unique role we play in the world: Abraham Lincoln.

Writing in a different age, and about a different threat (the scourge of slavery), Lincoln sent to Congress a message in the winter of 1862. It was a reminder of America's awesome responsibility. A call for courage:

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history...The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation...

We...hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.

We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

Though he could not know it at the time, in the years since Lincoln's death in 1865 America has been -- and remains -- the last best hope of a world regularly under siege. America has rallied to the defense of Europe twice, first against Germanic aggression and later against the evil of Adolph Hitler. We were instrumental in creating the United Nations, the "Parliament of Man", with every good intention of appealing to mankind's better nature. America came to the defense of South Korea, established a defensive perimeter around Western Europe in the face of Soviet expansionism and saved several hundred million from the grip of Stalinist terror. And in the wake of the UN's ethical and moral failings, America has stepped in to enforce that bodies' own resolutions. Yes, America has made misjudgements -- Vietnam comes immediately to mind; but as a nation, the United States has been willing to come to the defense of those less fortunate, and has spilled its blood on behalf of peoples the world over in defense of liberty. We are a good and noble nation -- not withstanding what the Leftists say about us.

And today, in a world under siege from Islamic fundamentalists, anti-globalists and Hugo Chaves-cloned Nationalists, the United States remains a beacon. It is easy to forget, in the rancor of division over the War in Iraq, that our purpose in condemning Saddam to the "ash heap of history" was filled with good (and just) intent. It was never solely (or even primarily) about finding WMD. It was always about creating a bulwark of democracy in the heart of the Middle East, where freedom could give hope to millions under the influence of shady regimes preaching Islamic hatred. It is often held against us that the purpose of invading Iraq was more about American security than it was about Iraq living in freedom. This misses the point. America always benefits from freedom -- capitalism, open markets and citizens who are engaged in the world economy. And it is not a zero-sum game; that we benefit from such freedom does nothing to discount the value it creates for those now free from Saddam's terror. Free is free.

Of course, Iraq has not gone as planned. But, then again, no epochal change ever does -- the American revolution took a full 13 years to complete, and a full-blown civil war (that left 600,000 American dead) was still to come some 60 years later. The kind of revolution now underway in Iraq has no easy answers -- and we shouldn't expect it to be clean or quick. This does not mean that the US need stay another 10 years to see it through to finality; The Iraqi people ultimately must determine their own fate. But it also does not mean that we should allow fear and fatigue to cloud the critical importance of what we've begun there. This is not a decision for an election season. It is a decision for the ages.

Alas, the world is at a critical juncture -- and it is about more than just terrorism. We face a resurgent Russia again cracking down violently on its own people while supporting totalitarian regimes in Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and elsewhere. We face a new and growing threat to nuclear proliferation, an increasingly unstable Middle East with growing unrest in Lebanon and Syria. And, of course, we face a violent Jihad of Islamic radicalism across the Mid East and South Asia, as well as in the heart of a feckless Europe.

Against these threats America increasingly stands alone. We may find some solace in the courage of the Catholic Pope, Benedict XVI, who clings tenaciously to the notion that religion and reason are not indivisible -- pointing specifically to Islam's use of violence in God's name. But, as courageous as the Pope may be, one cannot help but believe that in the main battleground of a secular Western Europe, fundamentalism will continue to gain momentum. Added to the pacifism in vogue in European capitals today, and you have a recipe for despair.

It has been 144 years since Lincoln saw the promise in America, our exceptional ability to act in ways that can change not only America, but the world. Though he would scarcely recognize the clash of civilizations we are now engaged in, he would find with comforting familiarity the role America is playing. The last best hope of earth.