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10 February 2011
By Jacob G. Hornberger On July 4, 1821, U.S. Secretary of State John
Quincy Adams delivered a speech to the U.S. House of
Representatives in which he observed that America was
founded on principles of liberty and limited
government that precluded our nation from going abroad
"in search of monsters to destroy." The idea was that
although people in different parts of the world might
be suffering under the yolk of brutal and monstrous
dictators, it would not be the role of the U.S.
government to send its troops abroad to save them. While President Obama continues his dithering
toward events in Egypt, one thing remains clear: Obama
has no intention of turning off the spigot of U.S.
foreign aid to the Egyptian brutes, including Egypt's
dictator Hosni Mubarak and his right-hand henchman
Omar Suleiman, Egypt's torturer-in-chief whom Mubarak
recently elevated to the vice presidency. Suleiman,
you will recall, is the man who headed up Egypt's
torture program and was, in fact, the CIA's partner in
the U.S. government's rendition-torture program,
before Mubarak made him vice-president. Obama's continuation of billions of dollars of U.S.
foreign aid to the Egyptian dictatorship reflects how
far the statists have plunged America in terms of
moral principles. Neither Adams nor any of America's
Founding Fathers could have ever imagined that our
nation would be converted into one that went abroad
not only in search of monsters to destroy but also
monsters to support. The statists cry, "We have to continue supporting
the monsters with U.S. taxpayer money because ‘our
interests' are at stake." Apparently they are
referring to such things as "our dependence on foreign
oil" or the "safety of Israel." Do the ends ever justify the employment of immoral
means? Indeed, has God actually created a universe in
which it is moral to sacrifice the lives, limbs, and
liberty of innocent people for the sake of political
goals? If an end depends on the employment of immoral
means, then that's the time to either question the end
or come up with moral means to achieve the end. I
submit that God has created a consistent universe —
one in which bad means beget bad ends, in which good
ends can be achieved with moral means, and in which
immoral means can never be justified. For the last two weeks, the rebellion of the
Egyptian people against the monsters who have
oppressed them for 30 years has shined the light on
the U.S. government's support of monsters. The
tyrannical government that the Egyptian people are
trying to topple is one whose power has been built up
over the past three decades with U.S. taxpayer money,
provided by the U.S. government, with the support of
both conservative and liberal statists. The arbitrary arrests in the middle of the night.
The torture chambers, among the world's most gruesome.
The torturers, who are among the finest and most
experienced in the world. The extra-judicial
executions. All bought, paid for, and maintained with
U.S. foreign aid, aid that Obama intends to continue.
While Obama and his people continue their
flip-flops, their hand-wringing, their posturing, and
their straddling over Egypt, it's time for us to
restore a sense of morality to our nation. Turn off
the spigot to the Egyptian monsters, Mr. President. Do
it now and do permanently. Don't set conditions. Don't
negotiate. Just end it. Better yet, turn off the
foreign aid spigot to every regime in the world,
monstrous or not. The time has come to restore our nation's founding
principles. It's time that America stopped going
abroad in search of monsters to destroy and monsters
to support. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The
Future of Freedom Foundation. |