JUST BECAUSE I'M A LIBERAL DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M A FAN OF TOTALITARIAN REGIMES

JUST BECAUSE I'M A LIBERAL DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M A FAN OF TOTALITARIAN REGIMES

Read this interesting story about American GIs who deserted to North Korea in the 1960s and discovered that life there consisted mostly of indoctrination and beatings. While these four fellows were apparently surprised, few of us would have been.

For the Bill O'Reilly fans out there, however, let me make a note of why people like me can't stand the current Administration. We see our freedom being taken away by George W. Bush, all the while he is waving the flag of freedom as his reason for being in Iraq and wherever he's going to drag the American military in the next four years.

He says he is bringing liberty to the world. But he's doing it at the barrel of a gun, which means he isn't much different than anybody else spreading his or her particular brand of thinking by blood... whether communism or Islam or Christianity. Like all zealots, he won't see the comparison, and nor will 51% of Americans.

The irony, of course, is that there was a time the Republican Party wanted nothing to do with overseas adventures. The Republicans wanted nothing to do with World War II as it waxed in the 1930s. Now they're driving the US clear into the same thinking that Abu Bakr seized as he began to conquer lands to spread the word of the Prophet back in the 7th century.

To me, there is nothing more wrong than a religous war. It seems counterintuitive and oxymoronic. Likewise, what sense is there to spread freedom by forcing people to take to it? Are we all better off in freedom? Ultimately, yes. But while freedom may be good, I think we would all see the folly of giving complete control to a six-year-old, and culturally, some of the people we intend to deliver are the same.