Great post today by Ed Morrissey on Captains Quarters regarding a speech given by FDR on July 4, 1941. FDR wisely told the American people that America could not survive as an oasis of freedom surrounded by dictators of any stripe, be they fascist, religious, communist....
While I share the frustration many people have with our forgetful and ungrateful allies, Japan, Britain, and Australia excepted, it was still necessary for us to enter WW2. If not for the supreme moral reasons we all know, then out of sheer self interest and survival. I subscribe to both the former and latter reasons.
FDR's main point was this:
" I tell the American people solemnly that the United States will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship."
Fortress America is a myth, and FDR knew it. What did we gain by getting involved and defeating the Nazi's, Fascist's, and Imperialist's? Our freedom. They would have set their sights on America once Russia and Britain fell. Even if we singlehandedly defeated the combined might of Germany and Japan, the cost in lives would have been catastrophic.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"
The defense of freedom is perpetual. We face a similar problem today and future generations will have their tests.
The moral of the story? Freedom is not free.
Happy Independence Day!
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