It seemed strange on Independence Day to see the paper criticizing a
Spanish family now suing the US military for the assassination of their
son, who was also the editor's colleague. Since there was no
fighting
in the area at the time, a single shell fired at the hotel, which the
shooter and everyone else in the army knew to be occupied by
journalists, was plainly a message to the independent press.
But then
the Spanish family, like the rest of the world, saw the tape, which
the
"independent" press here suppressed.
On Independence Day an independent press should resent seeing its
colleagues shelled and killed to shut them up. Instead of arguing
that
reporters are fair game because in a war zone, you might argue that
the
press has a right to be there, and that we have a right to their
witness, so that as citizens we might know what our government is up
to. You would have written differently, I think, if one of Saddam
Hussein's tanks had fired upon the press in the same way.
The truth told by independent journalists is not the enemy, and neither
are they. Had America listened, we would not be reading in the
papers
now what can no longer be hidden - that the occupation is turning
increasingly ugly, the Iraqis increasingly resentful and the American
troops increasingly cruel in response. This is how it went for
Israel
in South Lebanon 20 years ago in its own wanton aggression. Was
I an
enemy because I warned months ago in these pages that this would happen
to us?
I reflect today that by abhorring independence in any nation but its
own, and by loathing independent thought in its own citizens, this
nation has made its Independence Day altogether hollow. To love
freedom
is to want others to have it, not to want to dominate the world in
order
to do what we want and to make sure that no one pays us back for our
evil.
I learn from Jesus and the prophets that success in the end is to those
who love truth and get wisdom, not to those who love deception and
clothe themselves in violence. God calls His servants to independence
from the lies our neighbors love, and form those we love ourselves,
through dependence on God's word. Such independence demands self-denial
for the sake of truth, not imperial domination of others, and so America
cannot celebrate this true independence today.