In defense of freedom

President Biden addressed the American people from the Oval Office in the White House, behind the Resolute desk and flanked by the flag of the United States. The decision to speak to the country from behind the Resolute desk was intentional, and is usually reserved for the most important occasions when a president must communicate clearly, directly and forcefully. This is the setting where the American president speaks to the American people in times of great danger and tribulation. When the president speaks from behind that desk the whole world watches. This is the seat of American power, and the place where the representative of the American people does the work of preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States. 

President Biden’s address was historic and echoed a similar address delivered by radio in 1940 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. When President Biden called for the United States to be the “great arsenal of democracy,” he was quoting FDR. 

Here is how that speech concluded:

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.

For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.

We have furnished the British great material support and we will furnish far more in the future. There will be no "bottlenecks" in our determination to aid Great Britain. No dictator, no combination of dictators, will weaken that determination by threats of how they will construe that determination. The British have received invaluable military support from the heroic Greek Army and from the forces of all the governments in exile. Their strength is growing. It is the strength of men and women who value their freedom more highly than they value their lives.

I believe that the Axis powers are not going to win this war. I base that belief on the latest and best of information.

We have no excuse for defeatism. We have every good reason for hope — hope for peace, yes, and hope for the defense of our civilization and for the building of a better civilization in the future. I have the profound conviction that the American people are now determined to put forth a mightier effort than they have ever yet made to increase our production of all the implements of defense, to meet the threat to our democratic faith.

As President of the United States, I call for that national effort. I call for it in the name of this nation which we love and honor and which we are privileged and proud to serve. I call upon our people with absolute confidence that our common cause will greatly succeed

He also said this: 

The experience of the past two years has proven beyond doubt that no nation can appease the Nazis. No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender. Even the people of Italy have been forced to become accomplices of the Nazis; but at this moment they do not know how soon they will be embraced to death by their allies.

The American appeasers ignore the warning to be found in the fate of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They tell you that the Axis powers are going to win anyway; that all of this bloodshed in the world could be saved, that the United States might just as well throw its influence into the scale of a dictated peace and get the best out of it that we can. They call it a "negotiated peace." Nonsense! Is it a negotiated peace if a gang of outlaws surrounds your community and on threat of extermination makes you pay tribute to save your own skins? For such a dictated peace would be no peace at all. It would be only another armistice, leading to the most gigantic armament race and the most devastating trade wars in all history. And in these contests the Americas would offer the only real resistance to the Axis power. With all their vaunted efficiency, with all their parade of pious purpose in this war, there are still in their background the concentration camp and the servants of God in chains.

The history of recent years proves that the shootings and the chains and the concentration camps are not simply the transient tools but the very altars of modern dictatorships. They may talk of a "new order" in the world, but what they have in mind is only a revival of the oldest and the worst tyranny. In that there is no liberty, no religion, no hope. The proposed "new order" is the very opposite of a United States of Europe or a United States of Asia. It is not a government based upon the consent of the governed. It is not a union of ordinary, self-respecting men and women to protect themselves and their freedom and their dignity from oppression. It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and to enslave the human race.

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. Indeed. 

Here are Chinese dictator Xi and Russian dictator Putin talking about creating a new world order:

Putin and Xi at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 18, 2023 (Sergei Guneyev/AP)

What do they mean by that? They mean precisely what FDR warned about. These are nations that harvest the organs of their living political prisoners, crush dissent, menace their neighbors, kidnap children by the tens of thousands, and invade their democratic neighbors whether they be India or Ukraine. These countries are deeply connected to a growing alliance of chaos and war that includes North Korea and Iran. This is what President Biden was talking about. A new era is beginning. The old one is over at almost precisely the moment until which the man who created it hoped it would endure.

We stand at the moment that FDR could not see past. He talked often of his vision for a prosperous and safe world that included the grandchildren of that generation of Americans. During the tempest of the greatest war in history FDR imagined a world at peace. He hoped it would last for as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. I have written about this often. 

Last night, President Biden talked about the legacy of that world from the office in which FDR would mix a cocktail for Churchill as he planned the defense of global freedom: 

Good evening, my fellow Americans.

We’re facing an inflection point in history. One of those moments where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come. That’s what I’d like to talk with you about tonight.

Now earlier this morning I returned from Israel. They tell me I’m the first American president to travel there during a war. I met with the prime minister and members of his cabinet, and most movingly, I met with Israelis who had personally lived through the horrific horror of the attack by Hamas on the 7th of October. More than 1,300 people slaughtered in Israel, including at least 32 American citizens. Scores of innocents from infants to the elderly, grandparents, Israelis, Americans taken hostage. As I told the families of Americans being held captive by Hamas, we’re pursuing every avenue to bring their loved ones home. As president, there is no higher priority for me than the safety of Americans held hostage.

The terrorist group Hamas unleashed pure unadulterated evil in the world, but sadly, the Jewish people know, perhaps better than anyone, that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict pain on others.

In Israel, I saw a people who are strong, determined, resilient and also angry, in shock and in deep, deep pain. I also spoke with President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and reiterated that the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and to self-determination. The actions of Hamas terrorists don’t take that right away.

Like so many others, I’m heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life, including the explosion at the hospital in Gaza, which was not done by the Israelis. We mourn every innocent life lost. We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have an opportunity.

You know, the assault on Israel echoes nearly 20 months of war, tragedy and brutality inflicted on the people of Ukraine, people that were very badly hurt since Putin launched his all-out invasion.

We’ve not forgotten the mass graves, the bodies found bearing signs of torture, rape used as a weapon by the Russians, and thousands and thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly taken into Russia, stolen from their parents.

It’s sick.

Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy — completely annihilate it. Hamas’ stated purpose for existing is the destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and innocent Palestinian families are suffering greatly because of them.

Meanwhile, Putin denies Ukraine has, or ever had, real statehood. He claims the Soviet Union created Ukraine. And just two weeks ago, he told the world that if the United States and our allies withdraw — and if the United States withdraws, our allies will as well — military support for Ukraine would have, quote, a week left to live.

But we’re not withdrawing.

I know these conflicts can seem far away, and it’s natural to ask: Why does this matter to America? So let me share with you why making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security.

You know, history has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going. And the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising.

So if we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won’t limit himself just to Ukraine. He’s — Putin’s already threatened to remind, quote, remind Poland that their western land was a gift from Russia. One of his top advisers, a former president of Russia, has called Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Russia’s Baltic provinces.

These are all NATO allies. For 75 years, NATO has kept peace in Europe. And has been the cornerstone of American security. And if Putin attacks a NATO ally, we will defend every inch of NATO, which a treaty requires and calls for.

Joe Biden was one of the children FDR had in mind when he delivered the “Arsenal of Democracy” speech. Born in 1942 during the greatest war in history Joseph Biden of Pennsylvania was destined to become one of Roosevelt’s successors, and like him, he is hoping for peace and understands America’s essential role in advancing it.

Every American president — save one — has understood this since 1945.

Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden have all been the stewards of FDR’s vision and wisdom. Each has understood what the fascist Donald Trump cannot. America is the essential nation. It is freedom’s ballast. It is the guardian against chaos and savagery because that is necessary to protect American freedom.

John F. Kennedy also talked about this when it became time for his generation to assume this burden. His words were clear and vivid:

The torch had been passed as it will again. When it does let us make sure it winds up in the hands of someone who loves freedom as much as FDR and his successors did. All but one, that is. It is important to remember something. Democracy has enemies. There are some who hate your freedom. It only takes a man like Trump, Putin or Xi to take it away.