OPINION:
A recent article on China’s attitude toward the North Korean sinking of a South Korean warship is emblematic of the confusion of our so-called wise men (“Admiral irked by China’s response to North Korea,” National Security, Thursday).
Fascism comes in different flavors: communist Cuba and China, socialist Venezuela, nationalist Russia, Islamist Iran and Syria, the personalist fascism of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and the transnational fascism of al Qaeda and Hamas. The indigestion one gets from all of them, however, is the same. There is no free speech, no free press, no freedom of religion or conscience, no freedom to assemble, no representative government and certainly no checks and balances. Claiming that these freedoms exist is merely posturing - to which too many acquiesce.
To expect fascists to do anything that doesn’t advance their national or personal interests is ludicrous. Historic fascists never did anything of the sort, and these modern fascists won’t, either. Let a Dietrich Bonhoeffer or an Alexander Solzhenitsyn or a Dalai Lama, unarmed and principled, stand in their way and watch what happens. Yes, we must deal with them, and yes, we ought to avoid armed conflict, but let’s do it with our eyes open and with a smidgen of honesty.
THOMAS M. DORAN
Plymouth, Mich.
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