True Colors

I am addicted to the Sunday morning news and talk shows. It is spontaneous discussion, not subject to the careful vetting of other forms of communications. There are more insights into the evils of partisanship than you could get by spending an entire week reading magazines and newspapers.

There was a remarkable exchange this morning between Chuck Grassley, a Republican Senator from Iowa and Charles Rangel, a Democratic Representative from New York.

Here is the final exchange over the Iraq war:

Grassley:The natural goal of people all over the world is simply to be free. It's natural.

Rangel: By American troops?

Grassley: It is in man's basic nature, going back to John Locke, that people want to be free and that they are born free.

Rangel: They don't want their children to die for other people's freedom.

What could Rep. Rangel possibly have been thinking? Taken at its surface, it negates all wars, revolutions and civil actions leading to freedom, including the Revolutionary War which established this country. People's children died in that war establishing the freedoms for the rest of the country. Even if you presume that he meant to indicate that Americans don't want to fight the freedom of people in other countries, it still negates World War I, World War II, Korea, the Spanish American War, Grenada, Panama, Haiti, and dozens of other US military actions.

And, what about the actions of his hero, Bill Clinton, in Kosovo, Bosnia and Somalia?

As a veteran, Rangel must surely realize the cost of freedom is dear. But, his selfish and hopefully, disingenuous, declaration that no American should ever die protecting the freedom of someone else, is an indication of what we all suspect; Rangel and other foolish partisans are not to be trusted with the future of our country.