In today’s climate of political theatrics it isn’t very easy to figure out where right stands versus wrong. As Ron Paul points out at The Daily Bell, the Benghazi fiasco pretty much amounts to an illustration of the folly of the American government’s unending involvement in foreign affairs it should stay out of. The way the Obama Administration works hard to obfuscate its role, how it seems (at least to me, who has been trying to follow the mess) to conduct foreign policy that reminds one of the three stooges, seems to be designed to operate like a magician who wants the audience to focus on distractions, never on essentials.
The idea that occurs to me when confronted with the mess is that those who have even the mildest concern for rhyme and reason should press the Obama people on one central topic: Do the rights of individuals concern this government in the slightest? Obama & Co., appear to view the Benghazi disaster as some kind of game, never mind deaths, casualties, professional responsibilities, etc.
The fact that four individuals were killed appears to be beside the point, merely a move on a chessboard. And that itself appears to me to be the implication of this government’s disinterest in the most basic duty of a free government, namely, to secure the protection of the rights of the citizenry. Certainly no one in Washington appears to care about this. Every press conference evades the issue; it seems that the president just wants to wash his hands of any taint of failure, wants to make sure that the opposition party cannot find anything to criticize about his teams conduct in the affair.
What should matter in all this is whether the mandate to the government, contained so clearly in the Declaration of Independence, that government is instituted so as to secure our rights is being properly fulfilled. It seems clear to me that it isn’t. That’s basic and very regrettable.
May 14, 2013
We are delighted to present Lessons in Freedom, essays by Dr. Tibor Machan, for your pleasure.
Dr. Machan holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics & Free Enterprise at Chapman University's Argyros School of B&E.
It is a systemic failing with the United States, its government and its people that to them no other country’s freedom to choose their options in development and methodology it as good as or has any value unless it is like that of the U.S. Other countries find this offensive and try to educate the U.S. on the importance of differences and laissez faire, but it falls on the deaf ears of those with the largest military arsenal and the childish thinking that their way is the best and only way. As soon as the resentment is backed by some come uppance by aggrieved countries or groups it is seen as a threat to their way of being and rather than trying to understand – retaliation comes in the forms of direct attack militarily and/or financially, trade and border reviews. The best thing is to be neither an enemy – or an ally of a country which revels in this mentality.