What do these images have in common?
The Soviet Kara-class guided missile cruiser Petropavlovsk menacing U.S., Korean and Japanese ships searching for remains of Korean Air Flight 007 in international waters off the coast of Moneron Island in September 1983.
(U.S. Navy photo by the author)
A satellite image showing construction of the tunnel entrance to the underground buildings of the Natanz uranium processing plant in Iran. (Courtesy of DigitalGlobe and GlobalSecurity.org)
One of 12 cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in October 2005 when a Danish author complained that he could find no-one to illustrate his book about Muhammad.
One of many protest signs in London after two Danish imams traveled to the Middle East with copies of the published cartoons — and several more offensive images they added to the mix — to incite a reaction.
So, what do these photos have in common? Each represents a threat to freedom. They also represent a threat that was not accurately reflected in the mainstream media even though most Americans recognized the threat.
At 7:45 a.m. Sept. 2, 1983, I called my wife from the office and asked her to pack my seabag with cold-weather gear and I’d be by to pick it up on my way to board the USS Sterrett. I couldn’t tell her when I’d be back or where I was going, though she could probably guess by the morning’s news. Korean Airlines Flight 007 had disappeared after crossing Soviet airspace the night before.
Trucks from the Naval Magazine were loading Sterrett when I arrived. Marines guarded the trucks, a sign of their unmentionable cargo and the seriousness of Sterrett’s mission.
President Ronald Reagan called the downing of a civilian aircraft a "crime against humanity [that] must never be forgotten." Six months earlier, on March 8, 1983, he correctly labeled the Soviet Union an Evil Empire.
Our mission turned from rescue to recovery, then to showing the flag. Ultimately it was the latter that was most important. The airliner had crashed between Moneron and Sakhalin islands in Soviet territorial waters. At the time Soviet aggression and the spread of communism, though very real threats through the mid-1980s, were seen by the media as something only right-wing nutjobs worried about. The reality I had witnessed from the decks of our ships and in many other encounters proved otherwise.
The U.S. task force stood fast in the Soviet’s back yard. Our ships were outnumbered and overflown daily by Soviet military aircraft. There were tense moments when violence seemed eminent but we didn’t back down.
On June 12, 1987, Reagan, standing at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin said:
There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!As news of that speech ran on CNN some fellow journalists at the paper where I worked ridiculed Reagan and expressed their belief that communism will always be with us. I dissented and received a measure of the ridicule heaped on Reagan.
Reread or listen to that speech now and hear truth born out by the passage of years. The wall did come down. Millions are now free. Communism is in decline. Reagan and the United States took a stand against tyranny and for freedom.
On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian students under orders of Ayatollah Khomeini seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran and held 52 Americans for 444 days — until the day Reagan took office. One of the ringleaders was Iran's current president.
In 2002 an Iranian dissident group revealed Iran’s progress toward attaining nuclear weapons including a vast uranium procesing plant at Natanz. Their claims and others’ call for action were muted in the press and little substantive action has been taken. Nuclear weapons in the hands of the world’s leading terror sponsor should concern everyone and should be prevented even at extreme cost.
When Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons depicting Islam’s founder there was some short-lived protest but nothing compared to the large-scale demonstrations that spread over the Muslim world in January and February. Threats were made, embassies burned, people died.
Unless the world’s citizens learn the lessons of the past and stand firm for the cause of freedom this sign will be the future.
The warning voice has been raised. History shows freedom can be won and must be preserved. It’s up to the people to listen and act.
About 2,100 years ago an inspired man had this to say about people power:
“It is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.”
