"The 'Rule of Law' is dead, but the 'Rule of Man' should take no comfort from it."

Law of the Jungle: Eat or be eaten.

Folks,

I happened across this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Mary Anastasia O'Grady. She asks a good question. You will find my emailed answer to her at the bottom.

Mike
III

JULY 6, 2009

Honduras at the Tipping Point

Why is the U.S. not supporting the rule of law?

Hundreds of emails from Hondurans flooded my in-box last week after I reported on the military's arrest of President Manuel Zelaya, as ordered by the Supreme Court, and his subsequent banishment from the country.

Mr. Zelaya's violations of the rule of law in recent months were numerous. But the tipping point came 10 days ago, when he led a violent mob that stormed a military base to seize and distribute Venezuelan-printed ballots for an illegal referendum.
All but a handful of my letters pleaded for international understanding of the threat to the constitutional democracy that Mr. Zelaya presented. One phrase occurred again and again: "Please pray for us."

Hondurans have good cause for calling on divine intervention: Reason has gone AWOL in places like Turtle Bay and Foggy Bottom. Ruling the debate on Mr. Zelaya's behavior is Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez, who is now the reigning international authority on "democracy."

Mr. Chávez is demanding that Mr. Zelaya be reinstated and is even threatening to overthrow the new Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti. He's leading the charge from the Organization of American States (OAS). The United Nations and the Obama administration are falling in line.

Is this insane? You bet. . .

Predictably, Washington's endorsement of the flawed electoral process was a green light. Mr. Chávez grew more aggressive, emboldened by his "legitimate" status. He set about using his oil money to destabilize the Bolivian and Ecuadorean democracies and to help Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner get elected. Soviet-backed Fidel Castro was able to intimidate his neighbors in the 1960s and '70s, and Mr. Chávez has done the same thing in the new millennium. This has given him vast power at the OAS.

Hondurans had the courage to push back. Now Chávez-supported agitators are trying to stir up violence. Yesterday afternoon airline service was suspended in Tegucigalpa when Mr. Zelaya tried to return to the country and his plane was not permitted to land. There were reports of violence between his backers and troops.

This is a moment when the U.S. ought to be on the side of the rule of law, which the Honduran court and Congress upheld. If Washington does not reverse course, it will be one more act of appeasement toward an ambitious and increasingly dangerous dictator.

Subject:"Rule of Law" is dead, but "Rule of Man" should take no comfort from it.
Date: 7/6/2009 8:54:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: GeorgeMason1776
To: O'Grady@wsj.com

re: Your question, Why is the U.S. not supporting the rule of law in Honduras?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683595220397927.html

Ms. O'Grady,

If this administration is busy killing the rule of law in this country (and it is), why should we expect anything less in its foreign policy? The "Rule of Law," madam, is dead. However, the "Rule of Man" should take no comfort from its competitor's demise. In the chaos that will ensue, both within and without our country, the Obamanoids will discover that if the law no longer protects the least of us, it does not protect the Mandarin class either. If power and power alone is now the rule of the day, and eat or be eaten the mantra, the previously law-abiding can develop an appetite as well, if only in self-defense. And there are very many more of us than there are of them. Scant comfort it will be to the international victims of our deceit who wrongly trusted us and to our swiftly dying Republic.

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com