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Victory, Defeat, Retreat Or Vigilance:
Time To Recall FDR's Four Freedoms

GROUND ZERO PLUS 1216 DAYS,--New York, NY, Monday, January 10, 2005--The New York Times reported today that Washington is talking about withdrawal plans from Iraq, but keeping such discussions in whispers, out of earshot from the White House.

One big reason for planning to "disengage"--a word used by the Times to soften the term "withdrawal"--is the war's cost of some $4.5 billion per month. There is also the number of daily deaths of Americans, the total now soaring upwards of 1,300. In contrast, nearly 3,000 died in the World Trade Center attack.

U.S. Marine patrolling in Falluja

Iraq offers a number of potential results depending on one's point of view: A "disengagement" of any kind from Iraq provides the protagonists and antagonists over America's role to claim the U.S. left in "defeat" or "victory." Someone seeking a middle ground between the two would halve the opposites and claim the U.S. "retreated," or, using the Time's word, "disengaged."

That's the reason a fourth option deserves thorough consideration. That's the Vigilance Option.

America's historic role in helping nations acquire and maintain freedom has been that of Vigilance. America's presence in Asia allowed the seeds of democracy in Japan and South Korea to prosper and flourish. In Europe, NATO has created a fence, a post-World War II barrier, that kept communism at bay during the Cold War and helped dismantle the Soviet Empire.

Vigilance was the reason numerous nations in Eastern Europe are free today to chose their destiny. Standing in the background with a sword and shield ready to protect the weak and helpless, the neophytes of democracy, were allowed them to go from wobbly legs of new independence, capable of walking tall and proud with other nations whose democracies and freedoms had matured.

Iraq should be no different.

Talk of victory, defeat, retreat, disengagement or any other words that suggest some endpoint to the role America has in the future of Iraq creates a false message. The message the United States needs to broadcast is that it will stand as Sentinel of Freedom and Democracy, as it has for more than a century.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the groundwork for America's role as the Sentinel of Viglance over the Four Freedoms

The American public currently sees the only alternatives as defeat, victory, retreat or disengagement. This is only because they haven't been reminded that America's legacy is that of a Sentinel of Vigilance over the Four Freedoms. These Four Freedoms were first presented to the world on January 6, 1941 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In this speech, he spoke not of the dominant role of the United States over other nations, but the right of all people to enjoy these freedoms. He laid the groundwork for America's role as the Sentinel of Vigilance of the Four Freedoms. Below is the end of his speech delivered to Congress following the attack on Pearl Harbor. What is important to note is that the Legacy of Vigilance is not new. Neither is it selfish. If America is a Sentinel of Vigilance, it is one for the world's future more than its present. It is more concerned with the Four Freedom Rights of the children's children's children than the deaths of its warriors to preserve that right.

As you read what FDR chiseled into American history more than six decades ago, ask whether America should be a Sentinel of Vigilance for the Four Freedoms in Iraq. Or, should it erase the words of FDR and the Legacy of Vigilance we have so preciously guarded so the world might be a safer, more prosperous home for its children.

Excerpt FDR Speech January 6, 1941 If the congress maintains these principles the voters, putting patriotism ahead pocketbooks, will give you their applause. In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants --everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb. To that new order we oppose the greater conception --the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear. Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society. This nation has placed its destiny in the hands, heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

 

 

Go To Yesterday's Story: "The Fine Grey Wolf Line Between Terrorism And Vigilance"

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