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This letter was sent today to the editor, The Ottawa Citizen and to the author, Susan Riley.

Her column today titled Canada in dangerous world is available here:

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/index.html

The article is a bit of a ramble over a variety of issues facing world leaders as they try and deal with the reality of the Islamo-fascism in a post Sept 11 world.

While she is able to correctly observe that all of us (I guess she meant those of us lucky enough to live in Western democracies), oppose the fascism that put Canadian hostage James Loney at even greater peril because he is gay, all she can muster up is this lament, "But how do you defeat an idea with an army."

Pathetic and typical of liberals who just don't get it.

Tony Blair addressed the issue of freedom before the US Congress in the summer of 2003:

"There is a myth that though we love freedom, others don't; that our attachment to freedom is a product of culture; that freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law are American values or Western values ....Ours are not western values, they are the universal values of the human spirit. And anywhere, any time ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police."

"Good Morning Ms Riley: Your article today in The Citizen exceeds even your most excessive ubër-liberal/NDP screeds. Congratulations!

That you ask the question, "But how many want the same liberties we enjoy?" is typical of the cadre of anti-democrats who think that it is only us in the West who desire freedom or, to use your word, liberties.

What colossal arrogance and what a dead giveaway as to your dead-end thinking! While the Afghans may not, as you seem to suggest, decide to embrace Western style gay rights, that specific question is really beside the point.

The reason we and others are in Afghanistan that you seem to have missed, is to help create the conditions for Afghans that will permit them to choose the freedoms and human rights that they determine are appropriate for them as expressed through a democratic process. You must recall the fierce determination of Afghans to vote when given the chance.

It is entirely possible that not all of the particular liberties we enjoy would, in the end, be acceptable to Afghans. But, that is for the Afghan people to decide, not the fundamentalist clerics or al- Sistani.

What we are trying to achieve is a political/social/religious environment that allows for the free expression of the will of the people, not the imposition of any particular Western liberty.

Perhaps you should read Nathan Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy particularly, chapter I - Is freedom for Everyone?"

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