Matter to America
Why alliances
There are American battlefield cemeteries here and throughout the world — Gettysburg, Normandy, MeuseArgonne and many others. Those cemeteries are different from other military cemeteries because we chose to bury those who had fallen on the fields where they fell, rather than bring them home. That solemn choice was made so that would never forget that we sent our youth to fight for the abstract values of liberty and that all people are created equal.
President Donald Trump confuses our allies with our foes, and elevates our foes to allies. He embraces the odious doctrine, long refuted by our own history, that some people, simply by virtue of their identity, are not entitled to the basic human rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. This doctrine is nothing more than despotism.
Our wars against despotism resulted in the creation of a global system that advanced liberty, peace and equality. At the end of those wars, and for the years immediately thereafter, we did something which had never before occurred. We conquered, but did not act like a conqueror. Instead, we invited the world to help us build a system that has avoided worldwide conflagration. It is a system that was, and remains, imperfect, because human beings are imperfect, yet no reason exists to reject this system.
In rejecting the very system we created, in turning our back on those nations who have long held America in high regard precisely because of our commitment to liberty, peace and equality, Mr. Trump embraces the philosophy of the despot — “might makes right” — and makes a mockery of Lincoln’s reminder at Gettysburg as to why we created those battlefield cemeteries:
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ... that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government ofthe people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish fromthe earth.” ERIC FALK North Huntingdon