Lessons from Berlin

Sixty years ago this week the Berlin Blockade began and America and her allies came together to confront the evil of Soviet aggression and refused to see West Berlin fall behind the curtain of communism. In beginning the Berlin airlift, America and her allies accepted the risk of sparking another war so that they could saver the Berliners. In a speech that I saw on C-SPAN 3 from 1998, Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger posed the simple question of whether a similar action would be taken today in response to such an injustice. I believe that the answer is no as we to often use weak diplomatic actions when strength is require, out of fear of upsetting the world order.

I do not advocate that we use military force without discretion but we should go toe-to-toe with any hard line government and show them that we will not stand idly by as they commit terrible assaults on freedom and human rights. Why has the international community stood idly by as Myanmar and Zimbabwe refused international aid for their starving and ravaged populations in order to gain increased control over their people. Whenever we give into these dictatorships we just encourage others to behave similarly. I order for evil to be displaced we must take bold actions to show that we will not stand to negotiate with it or turn a blind eye toward it. We easily could have airlifted in supplies to these countries at little risk but we chose to respect their “sovereignty” and in doing so indirectly recognizing the legitimacy of their government.
As a note, I will be traveling over the next week and a half so my postings may be sporadic.