Mitch Lewis

One more reason for the nation to give thanks on this Thanksgiving Day, 2008: the Iraqi parliament's approval of security agreements between Iraq and the United States.

The United States and other coalition nations have been assisting the Iraqi government under United Nations mandates (and at the request of the Iraqi government) since June 2004. The United States and the United Kingdom stopped being "Occupying Powers" under international law on 28 June 2004 with the transfer of authority to the Iraqi Interim Government. See U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1546, 1637, 1723, and 1790 adopted under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

The security agreements between the United States are another significant step in the young nation's growing strength and independence. The counterinsurgency strategy and surge of forces implemented under General Petraeus are partly responsible for this step forward, but even more so are the efforts of Iraqi government, military and civilian leadership - and the Iraqi people themselves.

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On Thursday we will observe the national Thanksgiving holiday. Why? What does it mean?

Traditional practices are associated with the Pilgrim feast of 1621 which took place long before the birth of the nation. While the Pilgrims provide the trappings for Thanksgiving, most of us don't have a very direct connection to Plymouth plantation. I wrote about the Pilgrims and their thanksgiving here.

Congress proclaimed a day of national Thanksgiving in 1777 and repeated that act on several occasions through 1784. You can find the Continental Congress' several Thanksgiving proclamations here.

The United States, in its current form did not come into existence, however, until the Constitution went into effect on March 4, 1789. President Washington issued a proclamation in October of that year calling for a national observance of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. Washington did not issue another Thanksgiving? proclamation until 1795, and the nation only sporadically observed days of Thanksgiving until 1863. President Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation began an unbroken string of annual observances that continues to this day. Congress wrote Thanksgiving into law in 1941; the text of the law is found in 5 U.S.C. ? 6103. What does the law say Thanksgiving means? The law says nothing about its meaning. The law simply lists the "Thanksiving Day" as a "public legal holiday" and states that it will observed on the fourth Thursday in November. So if there is a public meaning for Thanksgiving Day, it is found in the presidential proclamations. You can find all the Presidential proclamations from 1789 onwards here. As you read these proclamations, however, you find that each president took a different approach to the day, although they do share some common elements.

From my point of view, the two best have been Washington's first in 1789 and Lincoln's first in 1863. I wrote about about Mr. Lincoln's 1863 thanksgiving here.

So, here are a few thoughts from Washington's 1789 proclamation. He begins, as did Congress' proclamations in 1777 and 1782, with what today would be considered a rather striking proposition:

It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor

It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge God and submit themselves to his will. Indeed it is.

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Pictured above is the memorial tablet one sees as one enters Soldier Memorial Chapel on Camp Walker in Daegu (or Taegu), Korea. It may look like just another memorial plaque, but here on this land U.S. forces made a real difference for the 50 million people now living in the Republic of Korea (ROK). If someone asks if the use or threat of armed force ever does any good, one need look no further than the Korean peninsula.

After the U.S. liberated Korea from a half-century of Japanese occupation at the end of World War II, the Soviet Union made a land-grab to gobble up as much territory as it could in the Pacific. Soviet forces entered the northern half of Korea and effectively divided the nation at the 38th parallel. Stalin trained and equipped the army of his hand-picked dictator - Kim Il Sung - to dominate the region. Unsurprisingly, in June 1950 the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) invaded the unprepared and virtually unarmed republic to its south.

Were it not for the combined efforts of the armed forces of the Republic of Korea, the United States and the fifteen other nations of the United Nations Command that defended against North Korean (and later Chinese) aggression, South Koreans would be living in the same state of starvation and virtual slavery that North Koreans endure today. See, for example, here and here. The Republic of Korea has the tenth largest economy in the world, rising literally from the ashes of its post-war world. Its citizens today enjoy true freedom of expression and political association.

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Does democracy make the world more peaceful? Not if ?democracy? simply means voting. There is not a straight line from the ballot box to world or regional peace. At least two other components are required: the ability to enforce the will of the people and a commitment to the principles of liberty.

Every democratic state must be able to control its borders and maintain order. If a state has no power to defend itself, its territory and its people, it cannot survive. If it cannot enforce its laws, it will be swallowed by predators who exploit the state?s weakness.

Similarly, the people of a democratic state must be committed to the principles of liberty. It is very possible for people to vote themselves out of a democracy. Some of the values associated with western institutions are essential to democratic states. The majority of the people must buy in to principles such as freedom of thought, association and expression. A democracy cannot survive where there is no respect for basic human rights.

So then, we have a situation in which the power of democracy depends on both the coercive power of the state and the people?s commitment to liberty. That calls for quite a balancing act.

Does democracy make the world more peaceful? In the long run, democracy is one of the components required to bring a measure of peace to the world. Strong, liberal democracies seem to get along in the world better than autocracies centered around despotic individuals or ideologies. As we continue to see, however, the power to choose means little without the force of law or the love of liberty.