U.S.: Defender of Freedom?

One year ago this week, President Bush visited the tiny nation of Latvia, a nation that was handed over to the Soviets by Churchill and Roosevelt. Bush made a surprising admission -- bordering on an indictment -- of U.S. policy after World War II.

As a consistent opponent of U.S. military intervention, I am often asked, "What about World War II?" I answered this question two years before Bush spoke in Riga, Latvia's capital city. Here's what Bush said:

As we mark a victory of six days ago -- six decades ago, we are mindful of a paradox. For much of Germany, defeat led to freedom. For much of Eastern and Central Europe, victory brought the iron rule of another empire. V-E Day marked the end of fascism, but it did not end oppression. The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable. Yet this attempt to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability left a continent divided and unstable. The captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history.

Then Bush began to spin:

The end of World War II raised unavoidable questions for my country: Had we fought and sacrificed only to achieve the permanent division of Europe into armed camps? Or did the cause of freedom and the rights of nations require more of us? Eventually, America and our strong allies made a decision: We would not be content with the liberation of half of Europe -- and we would not forget our friends behind an Iron Curtain. We defended the freedom of Greece and Turkey, and airlifted supplies to Berlin, and broadcast the message of liberty by radio. We spoke up for dissenters, and challenged an empire to tear down a hated wall. Eventually, communism began to collapse under external pressure, and under the weight of its own contradictions. And we set the vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace -- so dictators could no longer rise up and feed ancient grievances, and conflict would not be repeated again and again.

In these decades of struggle and purpose, the Baltic peoples kept a long vigil of suffering and hope. Though you lived in isolation, you were not alone. The United States refused to recognize your occupation by an empire. The flags of free Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania -- illegal at home -- flew proudly over diplomatic missions in the United States. And when you joined hands in protest and the empire fell away, the legacy of Yalta was finally buried, once and for all. The security and freedom of the Baltic nations is now more than a noble aspiration; it is the binding pledge of the alliance we share. The defense of your freedom -- in defense of your freedom you will never stand alone.

But they did stand alone. For fifty years. The entire U.S. empire was mobilized to fight Hitler, but a monster ten times as evil was ignored. Despite Bush's reference to "airlifting supplies to Berlin," the fall of the Berlin Wall came about without any real involvement on the part of the U.S.

The U.S. opposed the national socialism of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI), but World War II was a victory for international socialism, both in Eastern Europe and Asia. Joe McCarthy was right: the highest echelons of the federal government were dominated by international socialists. The United States is still governed by the philosophical progeny of Trotsky, Roosevelt and Alger Hiss. U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran is designed to culminate in this same internationalist vision.

There is no evidence that our current congressman understands these realities. The Troops Don't Defend Our Freedoms