Humility in Discourse

I love America. Please know that from the beginning.

What I don't get is how we Americans seem to know when being a rebel is right and when it's wrong. I was talking to my wife last night, and she said how she saw all sorts of contraband weapons when she was in Bosnia. The way I understand it, Bosnia was part of Yugoslavia for several generations because the six regions of the country each produced something none of the others had. So they formed a confederation to supply necessities for survival. However, feelings of ethnic superiority rose to the top, and the Serbs started killing the Bosnians. The Bosnians were only able to fight back because they had buried weapons in their backyards or hidden them elsewhere. According to Yugoslav law, it was illegal to own weapons, and it still is under the new governments. But the Bosnians know that there will be another war to reallocate resources, so they stockpile weapons to be ready for it. In my view, these freedom fighters could be seen as pretty noble. They're simply defending their Creator-endowed inalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (though I'm not sure the Creator endowed those rights on them since they seem pretty barbaric and haven't codified that endowment into a constitution or other declaration—that was sarcasm by the way). I also know that this nobility is repugnant to the Serbs. Their attitude seems to be "Won't they just hurry up and die already!"

Every culture seems to have freedom fighters who will take up arms to protect "freedom" from time to time, whether it's Contra rebels that America supported against the Sandanistas or Saddam whom America supported against Iran or the Taliban America supported against Russia or the rebels nobody is supporting against the demonic Janjaweed or our own forebears who supported themselves against the majority populace in the fight against taxes without having a representative in Parliament. Oh. Now that fight is starting to sound a bit silly compared to people who are trying to not die long enough to grow a little bit of crops to eat so they can not die. Regardless, there are people around the world fighting for freedom as they define it. There are some Muslims who see freedom as having their land not be occupied by non-Muslims. We call them terrorists. We invaded Iraq to make it safe for freedom and democracy and keep it from being a haven for terrorists. I've never seen a better terrorist haven! The terrorists seem more entrenched now than ever, and they're very motivated. Is it safe to define "terrorist" as a person who is a very motivated freedom fighter who will resort to any means to make it safe for their way of life? I seem to remember that the British were rather peevish that the Americans didn't line up to get blown up like civilized soldiers.

I guess what I'm saying is that today's America seems very self-absorbed with an inflated self-importance. We seem to define other people's priorities for them, with the major criteria being what's best for us in the moment. (See, for example, our policies in Iran and Iraq in the last forty years. Those are coming back to bite us big time.)

What I am advocating is that America stop playing Omniscient, Omnipotent Nation and in humility seek to serve the nations of the world. I know that silly attitude got one particular wise teacher crucified, but the last post talks about his vindication. And ours if we serve him and live like him.