US Declaration

The framers of the US Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in asserting their rights to sunder their connection with Great Britain and become an independent entity, chose to frame their preamble in general terms. In doing so they established the absolute right of peoples to overthrow any government that is governing without the consent of the people, but is governing with the power of despotism and duress.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Note that there is no talk here of King George III or of tea taxes, etc. Such specifics to the American case at that time and place were reserved for the next paragraphs. But, here in the preamble the general case is made based on ultimate truths applying to all men and all times. One hopes that the rioters in Cairo and Tripoli are aware of this, and also hold these truths to be "self-evident" and not related only to the American revolution. Perhaps this should make them pro- rather than anti-American.

However, while they are actually responding in a very similar way to demand their rights and to achieve freedom, because they come from a completely different cultural background, i.e. not the Judeo-Christian one that lead ultimately to Western democracy, they no doubt think differently about it. It should be remembered that the first foreign "entanglement" that the newly founded USA engaged in was the war (actually two wars) with the Barbary pirates, which resulted in the founding of the US marines who actually attacked Tripoli to release American hostages (I wrote about this in my review of Michael Oren's book "Power, faith and fantasy") So it is possible that the US will once again become entangled in the "shores of Tripoli."