Joy wants to know “Why did Bush have to have so much protection when he went to South America?”

I’ll tell you why Joy: The people of Latin America are not free because they do not have access to information, they do not have economic freedom and they do not have a free press. They do not have political freedom. No matter what people like Hugo Chavez try to tell you about their electoral processes, the people of Latin America are not free.

The majority of people in Latin America hear only what their leaders want them to hear. They don’t all have internet access at home or at the local library. They don’t all have televisions and access to ABC news every night to learn about what goes on in the world. People who cannot freely access information can not be free. They hate Bush because they are told to hate Bush. They hate America because they are told to hate America. It really is that simple.

Rosie O’Donnell then interjects her comments on President Bush’s trip to Latin America: “Why did we not see one protest? All over Latin America there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting in the streets and it was not covered on any major news network.” She goes on “He is loathed, this President across the country and across the nation.”

Rosie should actually watch the news. I typed a few words into a search engine and up popped pages of links to news stories describing the protests in detail. Here are just a few examples:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/03/08/bush.protests.ap/index.html

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_latest/~3/100310020/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17515421/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/08/world/main2546575.shtml

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2937197&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030900405.html

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=nation_world&id=5105970

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0727513320070308

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4990070

http://www.nbc15online.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=cd6f9a5b-0acc-49cf-93e3-84e3cec5a3e1

The vitriol in Latin America may seem to be targeted at Bush but in fact there has been “hatred” of America since well before 2001, long before Bush became President. Anti-American sentiment has been strong around the world for decades because we are the best. America is the leader of the free world. Americans have a better quality of life than people anywhere on the planet. Americans have access to more luxuries every day than most people in the world can possibly imagine. The poorest in America live better than most people around the world. One only has to watch the poor children of the inner cities listening to their iPods while they walk around in $100 sneakers. Our success, our wealth, our boldness and our strength make us the envy of most of the world.

The U.S. GDP per capita in 2006 was over $43,000. Few countries in Central America have a per capita GDP of $10,000. In South America, the wealthiest country is Argentina with a GDP per capita of $14,000. Many Latin American countries have GDP’s per capita of barely $5000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_South_America#GDP_ranks_as_of_2005

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_North_America#Economy_by_country.2Fterritory

The people of these countries want our money. For many of them, their only hope is to come to America, generally illegally, to benefit from our economy. And while many of them hate Bush and America, they risk their lives to come here because of our economic opportunity. Sadly, they are coming here illegally and they are destroying communities in America. They are hurting our education, health care and our social service systems. Many of these people come here not to assimilate and live their own American Dream, but to leech.

They have been taught they have the right to take from those who have because there is a presumed injustice in any disparity of wealth. Forget hard work, forget making responsible choices. Americans do not have the right to hold onto the wealth that has been created through the strength of our free markets and the executed principles of capitalism.

And by the way, liberals who continue to place people like Hugo Chavez on a pedestal, even after he came to our country and referred to our President as the Devil, do not help our country improve its image in the world.. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/index.html)

People could visit any university in the country and view countless t-shirts and posters with images of Chavez, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. If people in America can be so easily manipulated, the poor folks in Latin America are really vulnerable. Liberals like Rosie have tried so hard to poison the public’s mind about the President and about our country, that the battle to turn the sentiment around is fierce.

Joy goes on to express her dismay that people are no longer happy to see our GIs like they were after WWII, when the troops liberated the persecuted. Rosie interjects you won’t see it because it has been 6 years since we have acted like Americans.

Sadly, the American people are denied access to information about the positive reaction of the Iraqi people to our GIs. We have a free press in the United States. That means the press is free to report on what it wants to report, which often means that these embedded reporters choose to show us the stories that undermine our success in Iraq, rather than encourage continued progress. Why would reporters want to slant the information? The obvious answer: politics.

Joy, go to the following websites to see pictures of our GIs being welcomed by Iraqi people and then ask yourself why you haven’t seen these pictures before:

http://www.pbase.com/kburch/the_picture_from_iraq_you_wont_see_in_the_news

http://devildog6771.wordpress.com/2006/08/03/pictures-of-us-troops-in-iraq/

And by the way, teacher’s institute just opened with the help of our military: http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom2/FrontPage%20Stories/Teachers%27%20Institute%20Opens%20in%20Rasheed.aspx

Any information the government, conservatives or the despised Fox news might mention is immediately dismissed as political propaganda. Sadly, the left has created a no-win situation for America. This does not mean the democrats are undermining the United States, it means the leadership of their party and the vocal far-left is undermining the security of the United States.

Many democrats (and republicans) are oblivious to these issues. In fact, many in America are so disengaged from politics they couldn’t find the Middle East on a map for $1,000,000.

The emotional rhetoric of the left has got to stop. Women like Rosie and Joy need to stop listening to the sound bites and the talking points and spend some time learning about these issues and thinking about the long-term consequences of a weakened America. They need to consider that maybe their negativity, and the negativity of the press, scares people around the world into believing the West cannot be trusted to fight the good fight anymore.

The only country in the world with the ability to protect and defend freedom around the globe is the United States. I am not advocating the United States involve itself in every skirmish around the world. Please note: if tyrants around the world fear we may get involved, we shouldn’t have to get involved. If these tyrants believe we will not get involved, we may have no choice.

As Ronald Reagan warned:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”