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The San Antonio-Express News: Fight for democracy, here and abroad

In an op-ed for The San Antonio Express-News, Kenneth A. Hersh, President and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, explains why the United States must serve as the champion of freedom.

“From Russia and Ukraine to China, Central Asia and Africa, the many conflicts raging around the world have at their core a struggle between freedom and authoritarianism. We are in a battle and must fight to win it.

Russia’s brutal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine has pitted Russia, Iran and North Korea against the liberal democracies of the West. The West is also in a major standoff with China, where trade, technology transfer and influence peddling are the flashpoints, while tensions over Taiwan simmer. People are also grappling for liberty in places such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Iran, though they often fail to make the front pages.

The United States is once more called to serve as the world’s champion of freedom. To do so effectively, we must remember three things: Freedom is not inevitable. The world is watching us, even as we debate the very definition of freedom here in the United States. And, finally, freedom is not free.”

Read the op-ed and learn why we must fight for our own democracy and that of others.