Monks show how U.S. can challenge its own tyranny

Posted: October 1, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


Monks in Burma, Photo courtesy of Telegraph

The brave protest by the monks of Burma during the last month has captured the world's attention. Unarmed, standing in front of the Burmese military's guns with only their religious faith serving as their shield, they have not only shamed their dictatorial repressors, they have made a powerful statement that has resonated in even cynical hearts.

It's very moving. But more than that, it is food for thought. This – these monks staring down the guns – presents a problem for a militant secularist in the Dawkins or Hitchens mould. I'd submit, as an irreligious bystander, that one of the things that helps those monks hold the line is faith. The form that their resistance takes is shaped by that faith – and it is uniquely powerful.

– Sam Leith, "The power of faith against the bullet"

One of the things for which these Buddhist monks are demonstrating is for the Burmese people to have a voice in their own governance. Like the thousands of young Chinese who were murdered by their own government at Tiananmen Square in 1989, the monks are calling for freedom and democracy. Unfortunately, as is becoming abundantly clear in Bush-Clinton America, freedom and democracy are not synonymous; moreover, what often passes for democracy is by no means an indication that the will of the people will be respected in any way.

After five years of U.S. military occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq, 60 percent of the American people favor ending the occupation and withdrawing our troops from Iraq. This is not just a majority, in electoral terms it is a massive one; in his historic landslide election in 1984, Ronald Reagan won 58.77 percent of the vote. The will of the people is clear on this, as genuine conservatives, the libertarian right and a broad spectrum across the left are all vehemently opposed to spending American blood and American taxes in support of the Islamic regime that has replaced Saddam Hussein's secular dictatorship.

An even more overwhelming majority, 69 percent, wishes to see the millions of illegal immigrant invaders deported from the United States. And while 71 percent of Israelis want the U.S. to attack Iran, only 9 percent of Americans support military action against Iran now, less than half the 21 percent who were open to it last summer. It is intriguing to see that the more George Bush and his faux conservative cabal beat the drums for invading a third country in the Middle East, the less the American people buy into their deceptions and justifications.

It's bad enough that the president has so little respect for the will of the American people, of course, the feeling is mutual as the American people have seldom, if ever, harbored so little respect for a duly elected president. What is more troublesome is the way in which the Democrats are making it clear that the concept of representative democracy is all but dead in America. I am no fan of the leftist die-hards that make up MoveOn.org and the other Democratic Party organizations, but it cannot be denied that they are wholeheartedly opposed to the administration's military misadventures in Mesopotamia or that they labored hard to help the Democratic Party reclaim the House of Representatives and the Senate specifically in order to bring them to an end.

But just as George Bush stabbed his conservative base in the back, promising a "humble" foreign policy that somehow transformed into the ironic and ideologically arrogant policy of "world democratic revolution" once in office, Democratic politicians have pulled a treacherous bait-and-switch on their liberal base. Hillary Clinton has made it very clear that there will be war whether Democrats want it or not, and that not even a Democratic sweep of the White House, House and Senate will be enough to bring the occupations – which by that time may include Iran – to an end.

In most European "democracies," one can either vote for the pro-EU party or the other pro-EU party. The anti-Eurofascist vote, which in a growing number of countries is the majority of the populace, has no effective representation. In what now passes for American "democracy," one can choose between the pro-war party and the other pro-war party, or if one prefers, between the pro-migration party and the other pro-migration party.

We should all pray that those courageous Buddhist monks are successful in their efforts to topple the Burmese dictatorship and bring democracy to the Burmese people. If they're interested in an encore performance, we could certainly use them over here.

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