Independence Day

There are no parades here today. Hopefully there will be no fireworks tonight. I guess the Fourth is as good a day as any to reflect on what our country is doing abroad and at home to further the spirit of this 'noble experiment' which started over two hundred years ago. I would imagine that if I could still recieve my Economist subscription there would be lengthy articles undertaking a measured examination of American democracy in this week's issue. Freedom has become a buzz-word of the right, used as a justification for unilateral action. Now that I am no longer in the military I can say that we are creating more enemies than we kill, and one day we may pay a real price for our arrogance. Of course, some of my acquantances and family members might uncharitably point out that I am profiting from the role our country has given itself in the world. I remember joining the Marines in part because I'd read John Locke and The Federalist Papers in college, and in doing so had developed a healthy respect for the value of democracy. But I also read Machiavelli, and The Prince more often informed what I saw in the Marines than did The Republic. I guess its hard for people at home to see what's going on in the world, and most of them wouldn't want to if they could. This morning a US Marine was beheaded in Iraq. In remote sections of Afghanistan election workers are being killed and women are being terrorized because the decided to take part in a process that many of us disdain so much we don't even bother to cast our vote. Locke brought forth into the political consciousness of Great Britain the revolutionary concept that government is only suffered to rule by the consent of the governed. If this is true then we are ultimately responsible for what is done in the name of our country. I love my country, and more importantly I love the principles upon which it was so imperfectly founded. I think that we have grown as a nation, and made progress towards an egalitarian society even though we have also faced setbacks in civil liberties at home and abused our power abroad. I see a lot of xenophobia from many Americans over here but that is not the full story, either. I'm not going to express my opinion on what we are doing here in Afghanistan, I haven't yet been here long enough to form an educated one. But I do have an absentee ballot coming to me here, and I will be voting. When you watch your fireworks tonight, remember that part of the Star Spangled Banner about the land of the free and the home of the brave. Ask yourself if that's true today.