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Our Right of Pre-emption
By Curtiss Wikstrom
Those of us who believe in liberty have a right to
join together with anyone else anywhere in the universe who also believes in
liberty to defend that liberty against those who would take it away from
us. In reality we are not imposing our views on others. We are simply
willing to use force to prevail over those who would use force to impose
themselves, their systems, or their beliefs on us.
But when does the right to use force to defend
ourselves kick in? Do we have to wait until we are sure to lose before we
fight back? Of course not. There are many stories of pacifists who
finally try to defend themselves when they are confronted with the consequences
of their inaction. When they see their daughters and wives raped and
enslaved, and see their sons taken into captivity to be trained to be brutes and
killers, they finally see the evil in their inaction and belatedly try to do
something, usually with the result of being beaten and enslaved or killed
themselves as well. Failing to plan ahead to defend one's family from abuse by
others is a serious breach of duty.
We have a right, and a duty, to plan ahead to defend
those we love. And we have a right to combine with others in a common
cause to defend ourselves from those who would use gangs, groups, majorities, or
governments from depriving us of our liberties.
We have a right to strike as soon as others plan to
hurt us, our loved ones, or our allies. Planning does not mean thinking
about it. But it does mean taking some action to carry out those thoughts.
Talking about it may not be enough. But asking others to do something which
would result in harm turns talk from thinking to action. All civilized societies
have laws which make it a crime to plan to hurt, especially kill another.
These laws permit the government to pre-empt the killers and save our lives.
Once the officials have enough evidence to show a murder is being attempted, or
there is a conspiracy to commit murder, the offender can be arrested, tried, and
put in jail (or executed) if convicted. It is our individual right to kill the
other person before they kill us. However, we transfer this right to the
government so as to assure that this defense of persons is logically thought
through, and given due process. [Unfortunately, government officials often
assume we have relinquished the right, rather than transferred it. But that is
not true. If the government won't protect us, we have a right to pre-empt
a killer from killing us, and we should not be punished for it so long as we can
prove that we were right.]
When it is a foreign national who wants to kill one or
more of us somewhere in the world, then it is our federal government's duty to
kill them before they kill us. We use our right to plan ahead for our
safety to grant this authority to our government and make it the legitimate
purpose of our government to become expert in protecting us, or failing that, to
avenge our deaths, so as to either deter the killers or bring them to
justice. If our federal government can
determine that someone in a foreign country is planning to kill one of us, they
have a duty to strike first. Once again they should not go just by talk,
unless that talk is to carry out plans or incite parties to take action to
achieve those goals.
Aiding and abetting someone who wants to kill us is
just as bad as killing us. Those who aid and abet a murderer are punished in all
civilized societies. Governments that provide refuge, material, and safe harbor
for international killers is aiding and abetting them, and our government has every right to
punish the agents in that country or topple the government of the country.
A government that provides refuge to a group of people who have killed our loved
ones is also guilty of those crimes. They know the crimes are going to
take place, or have taken place, and they either assist those who do them or
give them a place to hide so they are not brought to justice.
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