(2002-05-06) i

The Wall St Journal launches a new Western Front column . The main purpose of this column will be to argue for rebuilding confidence in the West's ideal of human freedom--spiritual, political and economic liberty... Now it's time for Western culture to stand up again. Worries about imperialism, especially cultural imperialism, should be cast off. Global free trade isn't imperialistic; it's the spread of a Natural Right (Natural Law), economic Freedom. Demanding that a country respect its people's basic rights isn't imperialistic, and neither is standing for an unfettered media. No one wants to bring back colonial Empire-s. All cannot remain quiet on the Western front. The West, not just America, is locked in a struggle with forces that question its foundation. Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and many others reject the fundamental ideals of Western culture: individual Sovereignty, Freedom of conscience, free interaction among men and the right to the fruits of one's own labor. They reject the Western intellectual framework that has permitted scientific, political and economic freedom and given the world the fruits of unparalleled creativity. These thugs hate Western success and religious Plurality. There's some gobbledygook later, esp about religion. And the harping on the Palestinian Authority as being non-democratic and therefore non-sovereign ignores our history of supporting autocratic regimes when it suited our purposes.