The Cause Of Freedom

From The New Ledger:


The Cause of Freedom
by Brad Jackson

For all his faults, George W. Bush stood for one thing – freedom. As a Texan it was part of his soul, and as the President it was a central point of his agenda. As part of the oath repeated by all Presidents, with one hand in the air and another on the Bible, is a commitment to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” A central and inexorable tenet in our Constitution is freedom. It is the basis of our founding.



On this Independence Day, we remember the many Americans who have paid the ultimate price to guarantee that everyone within these borders, and those who hunger for freedom across the seas, have the opportunity, the promise, the dream of a free and prosperous land in these United States.



That dream has kept many a man or woman alive in treacherous circumstances. Dissidents fighting for freedom under the boot of oppressive regimes, locked away in dungeons, tortured within an breath of their life because of their efforts to break the bonds of authoritarian or socialist rule. Freedoms fighters have had the hope of America that kept them breathing, and inspired them to keep fighting. Across the world those who have fought for the rights of the oppressed, the need of all for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, have had the backing of the world’s largest democracy for nearly 225 years.



They no longer have that support.



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At a conference in Dallas earlier this year sponsored by the Bush Institute at Southern Methodist University, Syrian dissident Ahed Al-Hendi who was imprisoned simply for surfing pro-democracy websites in an Internet cafe, told of the challenges freedom fighters around the globe have faced since the changing of the guard in Washington. Confronting the 43rd President, a man reviled by the left in his own country as a “war criminal,” “cowboy diplomat,” and conservative fanatic, Al-Hendi gave George W. Bush a simple message, “We miss you.” The Syrian freedom fighter told the conference, “In Syria, when a single dissident was arrested during the administration of George W. Bush, at the very least the White House spokesman would condemn it. Under the Obama administration: nothing.”



A man who was imprisoned in China for operating a modern day underground railroad ferrying people out of North Korea, Adrian Hong, shared with former President Bush that he was only released from his captors, “because of very strong messaging from the White House and the culture you set.” A message that has gone silent, and a culture that has undoubtedly changed, with a new resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.



George W. Bush wanted a simple administration, a chance to bring his bi-partisan working ways from the Texas capital to the nation’s Capitol, and achieve some of the domestic goals that Republicans felt were left unattended during the previous eight years under Bill Clinton. Instead, after the tragedy of 9-11, he became a President consumed with the defense of our nation and the ideals for which we stand.



When he became President, Barack Obama was heralded the world over as a beacon of hope and change. During the 2008 election, citizens of Europe, Africa and Arab nations all preferred Obama over GOP candidate John McCain, saying that Obama was going to bring a breath of fresh air to diplomatic relations. His administration has brought a new air of diplomacy to our nations across the globe alright, but that air has been bereft of freedom.



Here at home, Americans have been confronted with more government involvement in their daily lives under this new administration, and the press has been shut out, pushed away from the President who they fawned over so dramatically during the election. At the Nuclear Security Summit this spring, even the Washington Post couldn’t handle the way Obama shunned the press, keeping them behind doors that would not normally be closed. As Dana Milbank said, Obama was, “putting on a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.” Milbank says, with a tinge of embarrassment, “Reporters for foreign outlets, admitted for the first time to the White House press pool, got the impression that the vaunted American freedoms are not all they’re cracked up to be.”



At the conference in Dallas, Marcel Granier, the head of Venezuela’s oldest and most popular TV station, >told of the oppressive restrictions Hugo Chavez’s government has imposed on their media. Granier had employed thousands of people before Chavez revoked the network’s license, and sent his supporters to attack Granier’s home with tear gas. A Democrat, Granier was excited by the ascendancy of Obama, but now is “disturbed by the administration’s silence as his country slips rapidly towards dictatorship.”



Oversees, despotic regimes and longtime American foes have been embraced by Obama. America’s closest friend and ally in the Middle East, Israel, has been shunned, offended and otherwise marginalized in favor of their Palestinian aggressors. In the aftermath of the Memorial Day flotilla incident off the coast of Israel, the Obama administration’s first reaction was to support calls for an international investigation of Israel. They were also quick to assure the international community that they had warned the Israelis to use “caution and restraint” in dealing with the flotilla which was operated by a group known for terrorist ties. In administrations past, the first order of business would have been a defense of our greatest ally in the Middle East, an assurance – not to the “international community” and the arab world – but instead to our friends in Jerusalem that America was here to offer unwavering support of the Jewish state. No longer.



This administration has cut not only rhetorical support for foreign freedom fighters, but monetary support as well. Funds to democracy advocates in Egypt, Jordan and Iran have faced steep cuts in the first year of the Obama administration, suffocating efforts to spread freedom in these countries. As Iran saw an outbreak of violence when its citizens were appalled by a stolen election and a crack down on those looking to lessen the strangle hold that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his tyrannical associates have on that country. The US was absent, ignoring the needs of a revolution snuffed out without the funding, supplies and support that the largest democracy could have offered. As my colleague Pejman Yousefzadeh put it despite the “appalling and sickening events” in Iran Obama’s administration continued to negotiate with the corrupt regime. “How does one discuss human and political rights with the leaders of the regime while votes are being stolen and the skulls of protesters who are rightfully outraged by the theft of the franchise are being bashed in?” Although they could not attend the symposium at SMU, I would imagine that Iranian dissidents would be telling former President George W. Bush the same thing Syrian dissident Ahed Al-Hendi did, “We miss you.”



At his second inauguration, President Bush spoke of the need for freedom to spread across the globe, and break through the dark shrouds of despotic and socialist regimes. Where is this fight for freedom now? As our country spirals further and further into debt, with more and more federal involvement in our daily lives, can we say that we are more free today on these shores then we were just a few short years ago?



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