Onward Together!

Yesterday the British voted and they reelected a truly great man as their prime minister: Tony Blair. Unlike their feckless European brethren, the Spanish, who after the Madrid train bombings voted in a socialist government and proceeded to immediately pull their troops out of Iraq, the British people stood strong for the values which, in substantial measure through philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and the signing of the Magna Carta, they created – representative democracy, free markets, and the common law. While the British people were deeply divided as to whether they should assist the United States in Iraq, they decided to stay the course and we hope and trust Mr. Blair will do the same. In fact, if his words in the excellent Neocon Reader, edited by my colleague at Hudson Irwin Stelzer, are any indicator we have no reason to worry.

Blair writes:

Appeasement does not work. If we let an evil dictator range unchallenged, we have to spill infinitely more blood and treasure to stop him later...We cannot turn our backs on…the violation of human rights within other countries if we want still to be secure.

And Blair explains the reason for this, which Thomas Friedman in his new book, The World is Flat also explains:

Twenty years ago we would not have been fighting in Kosovo. We would have turned our backs on it. The fact that we are engaged is the result of a wide range of changes – the end of the Cold War; changing technology; the spread of democracy. But it is bigger than that.

I believe the world has changed in a more fundamental way. Globalization has transformed our economies and our working practices. But globalization is not just economic. It is also a political and security phenomenon.

We live in a world where isolationism has ceased to have a reason to exist. By necessity we have to cooperate with each other across nations…We are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not. We cannot refuse to participate in global markets if we want to prosper. We cannot ignore new political ideas in other countries if we want to innovate.

Today, we should be proud Britain is our motherland, as we stand together to defend and combat those forces of evil who seek to destroy Western Civilization. Their legacy is ours and ours is theirs. Onward together!