Why I am a NeoCon, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dick Cheney
I formed my poltical beliefs pretty early on. I knew I liked staying as close to the Constitution as near as possible, I enjoyed personal liberties, and believe the government should keep its paws off my income as much as possible. From the time I was young, I never liked Clinton, but always liked to listen to Newt Gingrich. I did not like that Clinton was sending our troops to places like Bosnia and Kosovo to nation-build. It seemed pointless and a waste of life. I believed that the United States should have returned to pre-WWII isolationism after the Cold War as much as possible. I still like NATO more than the UN, but that's another story.
I was perfectly content with this worldview until the morning of Septemeber 11th, 2001. On that morning, not for the first time, mind you, the United States was attacked. This time however, it was here, in my backyard (I lived in Philadelphia before I came to University of Delaware, so New York, D.C. and Western PA are relatively close). I realized, like so many of my countrymen, that the United States was systematically being attacked by Muslim extremists. These people would stop at nothing to destroy the United States and everything she stands for.
Becuase of this, I looked to see the response of great men like the President and Rudy Giuliani. I was relived to see them usher America forward, to call her out of the smoke and the fire, out of the darkness, to rise up once again in the face of a new danger, as we had in the 20th Century with economic harship, fascism, and communism. America was facing a new age. The lone superpower, the hegemon in this "New World Order," had an enemy, one not as poltically strong as the USSR, but one that hates us so much that it is willing to sacrifice it's own soldiers to kill our civilians.
The President called for us to avenge the deaths of our fallen, to bring those repsonsible to justice. We went to Afghanistan, we ousted the Taliban, and continue to dismantle al Qeada. We then went into Iraq, to find what weapons we thought were there, and to bring a dictator who had defied international authority for too long threatening the security of the world. The Iraqis are now free, and will choose democracy over dictatorship. The War On Terror has been effective so far. We are establishing democracy in places that have never seen it, reducing state sponsors of terrorism with both military might and diplomatic pressure. Even Woodrow Wilson saw the need to "make the world safe for democracy." We need to do the same. The War on Terror is not preemptive. America was attacked first, but we need to make sure that we are fighting terrorists in Kabul and Bagdhad and not Topeka and Toledo. We must contiune to fight them, showing them that terrorism will never bring the United States to its knees.
This is why I am a neoconservative.
I was perfectly content with this worldview until the morning of Septemeber 11th, 2001. On that morning, not for the first time, mind you, the United States was attacked. This time however, it was here, in my backyard (I lived in Philadelphia before I came to University of Delaware, so New York, D.C. and Western PA are relatively close). I realized, like so many of my countrymen, that the United States was systematically being attacked by Muslim extremists. These people would stop at nothing to destroy the United States and everything she stands for.
Becuase of this, I looked to see the response of great men like the President and Rudy Giuliani. I was relived to see them usher America forward, to call her out of the smoke and the fire, out of the darkness, to rise up once again in the face of a new danger, as we had in the 20th Century with economic harship, fascism, and communism. America was facing a new age. The lone superpower, the hegemon in this "New World Order," had an enemy, one not as poltically strong as the USSR, but one that hates us so much that it is willing to sacrifice it's own soldiers to kill our civilians.
The President called for us to avenge the deaths of our fallen, to bring those repsonsible to justice. We went to Afghanistan, we ousted the Taliban, and continue to dismantle al Qeada. We then went into Iraq, to find what weapons we thought were there, and to bring a dictator who had defied international authority for too long threatening the security of the world. The Iraqis are now free, and will choose democracy over dictatorship. The War On Terror has been effective so far. We are establishing democracy in places that have never seen it, reducing state sponsors of terrorism with both military might and diplomatic pressure. Even Woodrow Wilson saw the need to "make the world safe for democracy." We need to do the same. The War on Terror is not preemptive. America was attacked first, but we need to make sure that we are fighting terrorists in Kabul and Bagdhad and not Topeka and Toledo. We must contiune to fight them, showing them that terrorism will never bring the United States to its knees.
This is why I am a neoconservative.
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