Submitted by Don Carlson, Jan 15, 2008 11:25

That an ignorantly reviled and unjustly despised people might find protection in the world only through the establishment of their own nation and armed forces is both an acid comment of the nature of human beings and a frightening predictor of a violent future for the world.

America has long insisted on its own exceptionalism, regarding its projections of power as projections of axiomatic, humane principles rather than self-aggrandizing subjugations and expressions of superiority, but this is now denied even by a near-majority of Americans, the same population that insists on the moral equivalency of America and every other nation. These Americans are less American than they are 'citizens of the world.'

Today, every people begins to believe its worth is dependent on its power to enforce an intolerance of others. As every nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, regional type, and tribe is freed from geographical limits and obeisance to encompassing authority, the world is in danger of devolving into a murderous collection of ideologies and "faiths," each determined to be the last alive. If Americans cannot accept or fight for those broader principles from which their nation was born---the primacy of the rule of law and the freedom of the individual---how are those ideas to live in the world? How is anything we value to be preserved?

It is good that we recognize that Israel is essential to the survival of the Jews, and that America is essential to the survival of Israel, but we should also see that this is a truly regrettable reality.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.