Plus, as American citizens, our most basic oath and pledge is to advocate and to advance the most basic principles or values of the system, namely, liberty and justice. Hence, the famous “Pledge of Allegiance” and so forth. If no one is doing what they are able to do in order to promote or advance the most basic principles and values of the system, then it is a treasonous betrayal of the most basic oath and pledge which we have made as American citizens. And as it appears, more than just a few are guilty of this betrayal, and they are guilty of betrayal in a number of ways.
And if America really is the “indispensable nation” which it is thought to be, then it is indispensable because of the indispensability of the basic principles and values of liberty and justice which its citizens have taken an oath and have made a pledge to protect and promote, not because of the people in power and their selfish interests. As John Stuart Mill said:
“In the present age – which has been described as ‘destitute of faith, but terrified at scepticism,’ – in which people feel sure, not so much that their opinions are true, as that they should not know what to do without them – the claims of an opinion to be protected from public attack are rested not so much on its truth, as on its importance to society. There are, it is alleged, certain beliefs, so useful, not to say indispensable to well-being, that it is much the duty of governments to uphold those beliefs, as to protect any other of the interests of society.”
Hence, the advancement and promotion of liberty and justice and the protection of those persons and opinions which aim primarily towards the advancement and promotion of liberty and justice trumps all other interests which government and society may deem important or significant, given that these principles and values are more important than life itself. Moreover, America is where the basic aim and destiny of liberty and justice is to be realized. It is virtually impossible for the basic aim and destiny of liberty and justice to be realized anywhere else in the world, given the cultural and religious factors and realities which exist in other countries. As Walter Lippmann wrote: “The experience of history supports the conclusion that power can endure only if it gives and maintains laws within which men enjoy the liberties they regard as more important than life.” Lippmann added:
“Not all peoples everywhere and always have had the same conception of their essential liberties. But whatever they regard as their essential liberties, be they the liberties of the Christian West or of the Moslem world, or of the Hindus, or of the Chinese, it is these liberties which must be respected under the law if the power behind the law is to endure. Though the world is shrunken, we must not imagine that any system of identical laws can prevail everywhere. The East and the West have been formed in widely different cultural traditions. But what can prevail everywhere, if the alliance holds together, is the universal law that force must not be arbitrary, but must be exercised in accordance with laws that are open to discussion and are subject to orderly revision.”
As Henry Kissinger wrote: “The United States was thus not simply a country but an engine of God’s plan and the epitome of world order.” Hence, America is the springboard from which God’s plan is to be realized, a plan which arguably is constituted by basic concepts, principles, and values such as “liberty and justice for all” and in turn are concepts, principles, and values which are more important than life itself.
Adam A. Azim 