U.S. must help create democracy in Middle East

To the editor:

To all who are obsessing over the Bush administration's policy of military intervention in the Middle East, there is only one democratically free nation in that area: the fragile democracy of Israel.

Israel is surround by at least 23 nations that have various forms of Islamic governments, most of which are strongly opposed to Judaism, Christianity and democratic freedoms. Since the United States is the all-time undisputed world champion of freedom, we are going to stand with Israel. If Israel should fail, it would make the Holocaust seem line a non-event.

The total land area occupied by Islamic nations in the Mideast is 24 million square miles, compared to Israel's 9,000 square miles. Islam cannot tolerate a non-Islamic democracy in its domain. They aim to have an Islamic theocracy in every nation on earth, including the United States. They use terrorism to accomplish what they cannot attain through peaceful means. It would be foolish for freedom-loving peoples to ignore this or pretend it could not happen to us.

To say that we are taking on military battles we cannot win sounds like the naysayers prior to the American Revolutionary War. When fighting for freedom, any effort is worth whatever it takes to win. We must stand fast for the formulation of democratically free governments in Afghanistan, Iraq and nations which have never known democracy and freedom before. If you want to call it nation building, then so be it.

The alternative to liberty is the oppression of slavery to cruel taskmasters.

RAYMOND EPPS

Jackson