Responsibility

Do you know what noblesse oblige means? If not, the basic definition is that it is the duty of the noble to help those who cannot help themselves. For the United States, we take this particular duty seriously. While there are those out there who might think otherwise, the reality of the situation is that we do more for the world than we are accredited for. The United States sends more money and aid into Africa. We allow thousands of people to enter our country for a better life. Our businesses and industry are found around the world and provide countless numbers of people with jobs.

When it comes to security, the United States is the nation the United Nations calls on to send peace keeping troops into a country in order to stabilize a situation. As the War on Terror continues, the United States leads the charge in trying to defeat terrorists, who’s sole desire in the world is kill, maim, and attempt to restore the plant back to the days of the 12th and 13th centuries.

However, there seem to be those who have this overwhelming sense of guilt when it comes to our role of protecting the world. As reported on the Drudge Report and also in the Washington Post, a CIA officer, identified as Mary McCarthy, was fired for leaking information to media sources. The information that was leaked includes information dealing with CIA run prisons in Eastern Europe. The information was given to Dana Preist, who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting of this particular case. According to Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., people who report information which allow citizens to keep their government accountable for its actions. Downie also went on to say , “The reporting that Dana did was very important accountability reporting about how the CIA and the rest of the U.S. government have been conducting the war on terror. Whether or not the actions of the CIA or other agencies have interfered with anyone's civil liberties is important information for Americans to know and is an important part of our jobs.”

Although the Washington Post plans to stand next to its reporters for their information, the Administration has launched campaigns to stem the tide of leaks to the media. Some in the media see this as a worsening of relations between the White House and those who work to provide the news to the American people.

Fact of the Matter

The fact of the matter on this situation is this: responsibility is a word people often times use to explain their actions, despite not always knowing what the word actually means. For instance, how many nights have you, the reader, lost sleep thinking about how Intelligence officers gather information from terrorists as to what their next possible strike might be?

We see in the news that Iran has enriched uranium and hopes to have nuclear power. While there are those who believe this may be true, what will happen if Iran creates a nuclear bomb? Sources indicate that the Bush Administration is created a nuclear defense against Iran. Some believe this is bad. My question to these people is what will we do if we find out that nation has a bomb, sells it to a terrorist, who then decides to the test it out on Israel or even worse on us?
As for leaking information, feeling that it is necessary for one’s sense of guilt to release this information to the press will clear their conscience is not always a good thing. By releasing this information, countless numbers of lives are being placed in danger because now terrorists will begin to look at these nations as enemies. We seem to forget that TERRORISTS SEE EVERYONE AS ENEMIES! There is no such thing as a safe country.

The responsibility of the world today is to eradicate the menace that is terrorism. The world united to fight Hitler. The world united to fight communism. Now the world must unite to fight terrorism. So if people want to leak out information to the presses, then they need to remember that THEY are AIDING the TERRORISTS and are, in my opinion, COLLABORATORS and TRAITORS to the nation.