Nation building

Nation building is the use of military force to establish a representative government. I am against nation building for two reasons.

The first reason comes from my reading of history. Armies and navies perform at their best when their job is well-defined. It should be obvious that the most important measure of performance for any military should be its ability to kill the enemy and destroy his armaments. The ability to police a country, build schools, establish relationships with local residents - all of these are noble, but they are hardly good measures of an effective army or navy. However, it is for these things that the brave men of the United States military are being praised.

My second reason to oppose the use of military force to establish a representative government stems from my reading of the Bible. Current theory on nation building insists that if you provide the proper environment - schools, jobs, security - that people will naturally want a representative government. This is a fallacy. The Bible teaches us that men and women are naturally and desperately wicked. There is no sense in trying to establish a truly representative government without the moral foundation that the Bible provides. The Father of our nation wisely said, "It is impossible to rightly govern ... without God and the Bible." But that is exactly what we are expecting people to do in such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq. We provide the soldiers who will provide security, provide the resources to rebuild the infrastructure, provide the guidance to set up a government elected by the people, and then expect that the nationals will want and support a democratically-elected government that governs in a way that Americans approve of.

When George Bush ran for president, it was my understanding that he too did not believe in nation building either. In his debate with Al Gore, he said: "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building." I thought to myself, "This man has my vote." Since that time it has become apparent that either he has changed his mind or that we have drastically different definitions of nation building.

It's a fallacy to think that if our troops just stay in Iraq long enough, the Iraqis themselves will "see the light" and decide to act responsibly. As long as Iraqis are without God and without respect for His word, there is little chance that they will change.