What are we willing to fight for?
The situation as it has developed between Russia and Georgia has brought into focus a very important question. For what are we willing to fight and die for? On an individual and national level this is a question, the answer to which, will define our character. At what point do we step outside ourselves and reach out to our fellow man and offer a helping hand, especially when that offer of help may entail real sacrifice.
In America we have a national myth often played out in our movies of the hero who helps the helpless, who risks all to stand against the bigger and stronger oppressor. Think of movies like “Braveheart” or “300” or even look to our own history where a small group of colonies stood up to the greatest empire on earth for the ideals of freedom and self determination. We have been known as one of the most generous people on earth but there has been a change in our national character that has made us considerably less so. Sure, we still give money and there are those among us that sacrifice their time and go to the sites of natural disasters and get their hands dirty but things are not the same as they once were.
We shall return to the Georgia conflict shortly but I will point out two incidents that I have recently seen that demonstrate our self absorption and lack of compassion. One was a robbery at a convenience store that I saw on the news. One man was attempting to pick the pocket of the customer in front of him. No professional, he was very obvious as he stooped down and began rooting through the man’s pants. What caught my attention was the woman standing to the side who simply watched the whole thing unfold and never said a word. I wouldn’t have expected her to physically intervene but a word of warning would have been appropriate. Just a small incident, certainly, but ask yourself, would you have said anything? Would you have been afraid?
The second was the horrible hit and run in New England that I believe most of us are familiar with. An elderly man was hit by a car in the middle of a busy street. He remained unmoving in the road as the car that hit him drove off, other cars drove around him without stopping and pedestrians looked at him and kept walking. We all were horrified when we saw this tragedy unfold but the people in that town were just like us. They were busy, they didn’t want to get involved, they may have been afraid of lawsuits if their assistance didn’t help, it was none of their business, someone else would surely stop soon. Is the Good Samaritan dead in America? Perhaps not quite, which is why we treat them as extraordinary when they act. But are we not all our brother’s keeper? Is not the health and morality of a society judged by the way it treats the helpless?
I believe that there are two major shifts in our culture that have contributed to this trend of self absorption and fear of acting against injustice or even offering a helping hand to a injured man on the street. One is the emasculation of the American man. All the psycho-babble that has infiltrated our collective consciousness for the last fifty years has tried to soften men, making them sensitive, teaching them conflict resolution. We have been taught to be pacifists, that the solution to every problem is talking. When our children are small we teach them to talk to the bully or run away. What happened to dignity and pride? What happened to men who defended their honor and the basic respect we are all due by taking a swing at the one who would dare impugn either? Men who speak their mind and didn’t worry about being politically correct, who mean what they say and say what they mean? They are rare indeed for they buck the cultural tide but it is such men and women who form the backbone of any successful society.
The second is our attitude that every problem is to be solved by governmental authority. I am sure that as you have passed the panhandler on the street you have thought, as I have, that there are a plethora of government programs paid for by my tax dollars that are there to help him. Our charity is forced by government and it has made us callous as individuals. It is no longer we who are our brother’s keeper, it is the government that is our brother’s keeper. This abdication of personal responsibility has afflicted every area of our collective consciousness. Having the government take our wealth and provide for everyone’s needs makes us obdurate. Having our needs provided for by the government makes us lazy, self absorbed and irresponsible. All of this make our culture, society and nation weak because when we are only concerned about ‘getting ours’ we resist any effort to upset the gravy train or take the risk to emerge from our comfort zone.
So what does this have to do with the Russian Georgian conflict? Everything. Putin’s Russia stands for everything we abhor. It is an autocratic, aggressive country that obviously has territorial ambitions. Georgia is a western oriented democracy led by a man believes in freedom and capitalism, has rooted out corruption and leads people who are proud of their accomplishments since they have come out from under communist oppression. They are where we were two hundred twenty years ago. Russia is the bully, a bully thirty times the size of little Georgia yet the Georgians are defiant, they are not going to bow to the pressure. But in this case, if Putin decides that Georgia is going to be part of Russia, there is nothing five million Georgians are going to do about it.
Georgia is not stupid, they know this. That is why they sought to ally themselves with the west, seeking NATO membership and orienting themselves toward the free societies of Europe and America rather than those of their oppressive Russian and Muslim neighbors. President Saashvilli stated that the United States was his country's inspiration, that we had a common bond in our love of freedom. Russia is the bully and he has dragged our little brother into the alley and has started beating the snot out of him. He is crying out for help. He is looking to his bigger brothers in Europe and the biggest brother of all, the United States. There is no question that we could drag the bully off (and beat the snot out of him if we wanted to). The question is, will we? Are we simply going to try to reason with Russia, are we going to bring all our skills at conflict resolution to the table? Are we going to say “Pretty please Mr. Putin, let them alone”?
Words don’t work from a position of weakness and that is the question before the world right now. China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, they are all wondering if the decadent West can muster the courage to stand up for its principles and ideals. Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile crisis and even the first Gulf war demonstrated that we were willing to do more than just talk about them. Like it or not, we are it. God has blessed us with the resources to do more good in the world than any other nation in the history of the world. Europe has become weak, the French are not going to stand up for anyone. We can’t pass the buck; when freedom and liberty are threatened we are the “go to guy”, we are the goal line defense, there is no one behind us if we fail. Let me say at this point that I am not advocating a "Shoot first, ask questions later" approach. As with he bully and the younger brother, all the older brother has to do most times is show up and the bully scurries away. But he only does so because he believes that if he stays and ignores the warnings, he's going to get the snot beat out of him. If the big brother is known, however, to be all talk, he looks like an impotent fool and the little brother get beat up.
The question is, what will the world look like if we are too weak to exercise the responsibility to which God has entrusted us. We are still the premiere economic and military power in the world. There is no question that we could punish Russia economically and militarily if we so chose. Would it hurt us? Sure, I’m sure oil prices would go through the roof for a while. Our prosperity would be diminished in the short term. In the long term, freedom would have been preserved in another country, hope and courage would be given to other struggling democracies, capitalism and prosperity will spread and the bullies in the neighborhood would have been rendered impotent. If we allow Russia to go forward with no significant consequences, Georgia will be gone and there is no question Putin and Co. have their eyes on other, larger prizes. China and Iran will be emboldened and our world neighborhood will begin to deteriorate even further. The struggle between right and wrong, liberty and tyranny, life and death are eternal in this life. Each generation must choose for itself what liberty is worth and what kind of world we are going to live in. For the last hundred years America has been a beacon of hope for people all over the world struggling against oppression. Our grandfathers defeated the Nazis and our fathers defeated the communists. The question is, does America still retain the courage and fortitude to back up her principles?
In America we have a national myth often played out in our movies of the hero who helps the helpless, who risks all to stand against the bigger and stronger oppressor. Think of movies like “Braveheart” or “300” or even look to our own history where a small group of colonies stood up to the greatest empire on earth for the ideals of freedom and self determination. We have been known as one of the most generous people on earth but there has been a change in our national character that has made us considerably less so. Sure, we still give money and there are those among us that sacrifice their time and go to the sites of natural disasters and get their hands dirty but things are not the same as they once were.
We shall return to the Georgia conflict shortly but I will point out two incidents that I have recently seen that demonstrate our self absorption and lack of compassion. One was a robbery at a convenience store that I saw on the news. One man was attempting to pick the pocket of the customer in front of him. No professional, he was very obvious as he stooped down and began rooting through the man’s pants. What caught my attention was the woman standing to the side who simply watched the whole thing unfold and never said a word. I wouldn’t have expected her to physically intervene but a word of warning would have been appropriate. Just a small incident, certainly, but ask yourself, would you have said anything? Would you have been afraid?
The second was the horrible hit and run in New England that I believe most of us are familiar with. An elderly man was hit by a car in the middle of a busy street. He remained unmoving in the road as the car that hit him drove off, other cars drove around him without stopping and pedestrians looked at him and kept walking. We all were horrified when we saw this tragedy unfold but the people in that town were just like us. They were busy, they didn’t want to get involved, they may have been afraid of lawsuits if their assistance didn’t help, it was none of their business, someone else would surely stop soon. Is the Good Samaritan dead in America? Perhaps not quite, which is why we treat them as extraordinary when they act. But are we not all our brother’s keeper? Is not the health and morality of a society judged by the way it treats the helpless?
I believe that there are two major shifts in our culture that have contributed to this trend of self absorption and fear of acting against injustice or even offering a helping hand to a injured man on the street. One is the emasculation of the American man. All the psycho-babble that has infiltrated our collective consciousness for the last fifty years has tried to soften men, making them sensitive, teaching them conflict resolution. We have been taught to be pacifists, that the solution to every problem is talking. When our children are small we teach them to talk to the bully or run away. What happened to dignity and pride? What happened to men who defended their honor and the basic respect we are all due by taking a swing at the one who would dare impugn either? Men who speak their mind and didn’t worry about being politically correct, who mean what they say and say what they mean? They are rare indeed for they buck the cultural tide but it is such men and women who form the backbone of any successful society.
The second is our attitude that every problem is to be solved by governmental authority. I am sure that as you have passed the panhandler on the street you have thought, as I have, that there are a plethora of government programs paid for by my tax dollars that are there to help him. Our charity is forced by government and it has made us callous as individuals. It is no longer we who are our brother’s keeper, it is the government that is our brother’s keeper. This abdication of personal responsibility has afflicted every area of our collective consciousness. Having the government take our wealth and provide for everyone’s needs makes us obdurate. Having our needs provided for by the government makes us lazy, self absorbed and irresponsible. All of this make our culture, society and nation weak because when we are only concerned about ‘getting ours’ we resist any effort to upset the gravy train or take the risk to emerge from our comfort zone.
So what does this have to do with the Russian Georgian conflict? Everything. Putin’s Russia stands for everything we abhor. It is an autocratic, aggressive country that obviously has territorial ambitions. Georgia is a western oriented democracy led by a man believes in freedom and capitalism, has rooted out corruption and leads people who are proud of their accomplishments since they have come out from under communist oppression. They are where we were two hundred twenty years ago. Russia is the bully, a bully thirty times the size of little Georgia yet the Georgians are defiant, they are not going to bow to the pressure. But in this case, if Putin decides that Georgia is going to be part of Russia, there is nothing five million Georgians are going to do about it.
Georgia is not stupid, they know this. That is why they sought to ally themselves with the west, seeking NATO membership and orienting themselves toward the free societies of Europe and America rather than those of their oppressive Russian and Muslim neighbors. President Saashvilli stated that the United States was his country's inspiration, that we had a common bond in our love of freedom. Russia is the bully and he has dragged our little brother into the alley and has started beating the snot out of him. He is crying out for help. He is looking to his bigger brothers in Europe and the biggest brother of all, the United States. There is no question that we could drag the bully off (and beat the snot out of him if we wanted to). The question is, will we? Are we simply going to try to reason with Russia, are we going to bring all our skills at conflict resolution to the table? Are we going to say “Pretty please Mr. Putin, let them alone”?
Words don’t work from a position of weakness and that is the question before the world right now. China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, they are all wondering if the decadent West can muster the courage to stand up for its principles and ideals. Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile crisis and even the first Gulf war demonstrated that we were willing to do more than just talk about them. Like it or not, we are it. God has blessed us with the resources to do more good in the world than any other nation in the history of the world. Europe has become weak, the French are not going to stand up for anyone. We can’t pass the buck; when freedom and liberty are threatened we are the “go to guy”, we are the goal line defense, there is no one behind us if we fail. Let me say at this point that I am not advocating a "Shoot first, ask questions later" approach. As with he bully and the younger brother, all the older brother has to do most times is show up and the bully scurries away. But he only does so because he believes that if he stays and ignores the warnings, he's going to get the snot beat out of him. If the big brother is known, however, to be all talk, he looks like an impotent fool and the little brother get beat up.
The question is, what will the world look like if we are too weak to exercise the responsibility to which God has entrusted us. We are still the premiere economic and military power in the world. There is no question that we could punish Russia economically and militarily if we so chose. Would it hurt us? Sure, I’m sure oil prices would go through the roof for a while. Our prosperity would be diminished in the short term. In the long term, freedom would have been preserved in another country, hope and courage would be given to other struggling democracies, capitalism and prosperity will spread and the bullies in the neighborhood would have been rendered impotent. If we allow Russia to go forward with no significant consequences, Georgia will be gone and there is no question Putin and Co. have their eyes on other, larger prizes. China and Iran will be emboldened and our world neighborhood will begin to deteriorate even further. The struggle between right and wrong, liberty and tyranny, life and death are eternal in this life. Each generation must choose for itself what liberty is worth and what kind of world we are going to live in. For the last hundred years America has been a beacon of hope for people all over the world struggling against oppression. Our grandfathers defeated the Nazis and our fathers defeated the communists. The question is, does America still retain the courage and fortitude to back up her principles?
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