Why We Are Republicans, continued

Republicans believe that the primary role of the Federal Government is to defend America from those who would destroy us. We fought and defeated the Nazis, the Japanese, and the communists; now we must fight and defeat the radical wing of Islam. Just in case you are not clear about the gravity of this threat read the words of an al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahir: "We have the right to kill four million Americans – two million of them children."

Mass murder on this scale requires weapons of mass destruction, thus we must prevent rouge nations from providing those weapons to the terrorists who will use them. That is why we are fighting in Iraq and why we must thwart the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Republicans support our military in this struggle, while most Democrats would have us rely on diplomacy, a policy doomed to failure in a war against irreconcilable terrorists. We despise war but recognize that some despots are evil and cannot be dealt with diplomatically.

Republicans believe that freedom is an unalienable right, endowed by our Creator. All oppressed peoples in the world yearn for freedom and dictators who deny basic, natural rights spawn sociopaths and terrorists. Thus our policy of spreading freedom around the world is an integral part of our war on terror. Since 2001, we have freed tens of millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the citizens of the Ukraine and Palestine have had free elections.

What’s more, the oppressive governments in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East are hearing their peoples’ call for freedom and the patriots have heard President Bush’s commitment to stand with them.

{tomorrow: our belief in Capitalism}