Freedom on the March

Today is the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was eleven when it happened and I could not believe it. I had grown up during the cold war, and the Berlin Wall was one of the central symbols of communism.

I think it merits reminding people that communism was beaten by a lot of things, central to all man's desire to be free. Communism was an evil system that stole 50 years of progress and life from a large portion of our fellow man. Its end was celebrated around the globe and has allowed life to improve for millions of people and their children.

It should also be noted that there were some Americans, and some who still work in the Senate to this day, who didn't think there was anything wrong with sitting by while millions were deprived, and thousands were murdered during the cold war. Unfortunately some of those same people are now making the argument that we should not interfere with dictatorial regimes in the middle east.

We should also take a minute to put our current situation in perspective. Fifteen year ago we worried about a nuclear war wiping humanity off the face of the Earth. We worried about Soviet armies and nuclear missiles destroying all of us. While today we face a ruthless foe who would like to destroy all of us, the worst they could do would be detonating one nuclear weapon. While that is a terrible thought, it is also a remarkable step forward. While the world is not a safe place, it is a less dangerous place than it was fifteen years ago. We owe this to strong leadership, not acquiescence to foes, and we owe it to progress towards true peace through strength, not through weakness.

Timothy Burger