Freedom from Fear?

A commentary by Richard Wilde

 

The four freedoms spoken of by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on January 6, 1941, have been an inspiration to the United States and the world for decades. Among them: freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The last is of particular significance.

            To be free from fear seems at best an elusive prospect. Fear is simply a feeling; it is a natural reaction to the world’s ills. Most historians agree that his intention was to express that there was a need to have reduction of armaments and international cooperation such that no prospective tyrant could effectively make war on the nations, as Hitler was doing when Roosevelt delivered his message. Very well, I say, but there may be a larger meaning. Could it be that Roosevelt saw the writing on the wall, and had a more specific threat in mind? Someone who he believed would come along in some later generation? Perhaps even in the African nations that were rapidly gaining their independence? Indeed, in 1939, Britain conscripted a number of Ghanans to fight in the war. They were denied all military benefits when they returned home. No doubt, Roosevelt saw in advance the Ghanan distaste for this setup. Indeed, a strong independence movement sprang up in 1947 and found leadership in the young and educated Kwame Nkrumah. Ghana did achieve independence in 1957. Now that Ghana is its own nation, there have been some interesting problems with how Ghana may be stirring up more anger out of rebels in the Ivory Coast, who accuse President John Kufuor of planning to launch an attack against them.  These Young Patriots, as they are called, who oppose the rebels in Ivory Coast, also blame French peacekeeping forces for allowing the rebels to reach the government territory. This was the main cause for the recent attack on the French embassy by militants supporting current president Laurent Gbagbo. This could be just the first of a number of instances of anti-French militancy by Ivory Coast nationalists. A direct attack upon the French homeland by such forces could spell disaster. While the French welfare seems insignificant to most of the world, we must remember that the NATO charter declares that an attack against France is also an attack against Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

While some may doubt that NATO would have to respond, the attack may be considered an act of war instead of terrorism because the attackers would be supporting President Gbagbo of Ivory Coast himself! This means that a joint attack of NATO nations would descend upon Ivory Coast, obliterating the entire country almost immediately. Anti-industrial terrorism, already prevalent among the Arab nations, could spread like wildfire into sub-Saharan Africa. The US would be the main target, because of its leading role in NATO. Before we realized this, terrorists from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, and other sub-Saharan African nations would stream into the country and attack. Where would they attack? Well, being in response to military interventionism, they would likely attack the symbol of US military power- the Pentagon. If they succeeded in destroying or throwing into disarray the Pentagon’s affairs, the effect on US power in Asia would be deafening. Firstly, China would immediately invade and conquer Taiwan. North Korea, sensing the US peacekeepers’ paralysis, would cross the 38th parallel and surge into Seoul. There would also be nothing stopping Arab nationalists in Iraq and Afghanistan from overthrowing US forces there and establishing radical governments which they would use to exercise still more power over OPEC and use the proceeds to support terrorist organizations.

The new radical Islamic power could then be used to further throw the free world into disarray.  Constant destruction will likely depress the economies of industrialized nations worldwide, so that in addition to the discouraging Asian losses, Europe and North America would likely fall into a deep depression. Depression, of course, is a potent breeding ground for our old friend- COMMUNISM!

Indeed, most people discount the possibility of communism becoming a world force of any considerable magnitude ever again, what with the fall of the USSR.  On the contrary, depressions generally precede communist uprisings, when people start doubting the free enterprise system. Europe, no doubt, would be a prime candidate for communist takeover because they have already experimented with such extensive socialist theory. The Balkans would be the first to fall, followed by northeastern Europe and Russia, which has had considerable trouble converting to a capitalist society and may elect to “reminisce”. Poland, Germany, France, and Great Britain could eventually fall to the communist revolution, putting massive pressure on the US, as the last guardian of freedom in the world.

Roosevelt certainly showed foresight when he spoke of this freedom from fear. Seeing how Britain exercised its imperial powers and the ensuing Ghana-Ivory Coast-anti-French attack-NATO reprisal-Pentagon catastrophe-Asian/Middle Eastern crisis-Depression-communist uprising chain of events, he truly may have been trying to warn us of the consequences of not being vigilant. For surely, there is nothing to fear but communism itself.