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Conservative Republicans are very familiar with the name of Alan Keyes. The honorable Dr. Keyes has been a presidential candidate twice before, and although he has made no announcements, he just might consider running again.

Alan Keyes has tossed his political hat into the ring three times for the U.S. Senate from 1988 to 2004. He is willing and able to serve our nation. He is a delightful, attractive family man with the zeal to share all that he is with his country fellowmen. Dr. Keyes is a doer, not just a hearer of God's word. (James 1:22) He gives of himself to better the country he loves.

It makes sense, therefore, that every time we assess the performance of our chosen leaders, we should do so in light of criteria that go beyond our physical survival or welfare.

It's essential of course that we survive, that our economy be healthy, and that we maintain the material means to defend the property that represents our physical strength. But as we achieve these results, we must also maintain the moral and spiritual strength that allows us to recognize and preserve our character as a free people.

We cannot afford leaders who do not keep this in mind as they deal with every issue, every challenge, every crisis. As a people, we must continually ask ourselves the political version of the question Christ poses with respect to salvation: What does it profit a free people if it gains the whole world and loses its own liberty?

— Dr. Alan Keyes

Keyes served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. He is considered an expert in both domestic and foreign policy. He worked with UN Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, who had nothing but words of praise for Keyes. She described him as "very articulate about international affairs." She further went on to say he was an asset and "very useful to the U.S."

Dr. Keyes was a member and a residing scholar of the American Enterprise Institute. The Declaration of Independence has been the guiding principle of his career. He strongly believes in the concept of God-given and inalienable rights. His speeches and writings exude and lift up the Almighty God. His achievements are lengthy and impressive. Alan Keyes is an outstanding, qualified contender and the GOP is truly blessed to have this man among its ranks, although some might argue that the actions of its leadership belies this fact.

Dr. Keyes was born in 1950. He currently resides in the state Maryland with his lovely wife and their family. He is a public speaker who keeps himself on the cutting edge of politics. He argues moral issues that are constantly being challenged by secular liberal social progressives within the Democrat Party more brilliantly than perhaps anyone in the GOP. On the www.renewamerica.us website is a series of articles that point to the heart of a man who just might become the President of the greatest land on God's green earth.

During a time when Americans' lives are affected by the War on Terror, voting in the right person for the job of leading our country is most important. We are in a battle of Good Vs Evil; within the writings of Dr. Keyes comes intelligent, well-articulated insight into a great mind.

Following are excerpts from "The Moral Basis for the War on Terror," part of his series "The Crisis of the Republic":

Thanks to the entertainment imperative that drives media coverage of our political affairs, it would come as no surprise if Americans treated elections for political office about as seriously as voting for this week's 'American Idol' contenders.

Of course, the "American Idol" winners won't be deciding whether to send our troops into combat, or how best to confront the persistent challenge of terrorism. They also won't have to decide whether to put their careers on the line in order to make sure a region devastated by a hurricane gets timely and effective help coping with the disaster and its aftermath. More often than not, only the life or death of their egos is at stake when entertainers vie for prominence — not the lives of thousands, or even millions of their fellow citizens.

Trivialized Reality

Politics involves serious matters, sometimes the most serious that human beings ever confront. Yet the information that people need to make their political judgments now comes to them in a form that trivializes the electoral process and its potential consequences.

Decisions made with little regard for the consequences usually produce results inadequate to deal with them. This helps to explain why America's present political leaders seem so unready to deal with the grave events and circumstances our nation faces. As depicted in the movies or on TV, fictional crises can have entertainment value. But when the deaths are real, and what is left behind are not empty popcorn boxes, but grieving hearts and devastated lives, they're just no fun at all.

Real crises don't have a two-hour time limit. Sometimes there's no telling when we'll be able to get back to business as usual and get on with our lives. Sometimes these crises change everything, and not for the better.

The Strength of a Free People

When America declared war on Germany and Japan in 1942, Americans had no way of knowing how long the war would last. There was no timetable for the withdrawal of our troops, no exit strategy except the incorrigible hope for victory. The Nazis had conquered most of Europe; the Japanese militarists had destroyed the mainstay of America's defenses in the Pacific. In Great Britain, Churchill could offer the beleaguered remnants of European freedom nothing but blood, tears, toil, and sweat. America's president could promise only the great exertions needed to focus and mobilize her vast but still unrealized war-making capacity.

The nation entered the dark nightmare of war with no light showing, except the glow of her people's faith, and the certainty that they fought against great wickedness for a cause God would bless.

It's easy to understand that the strength of free people during such bleak times lay in their moral fiber; in the ability to soldier on against the odds, not because they knew when the crisis would pass, but because they knew that what they did was necessary for the survival of all they believed to be decent, just, and right. It turns out that, as the word suggests, the root of morale is moral. The leadership needed to sustain the nation's morale had to understand and articulate the moral values that lay at the heart of the conflict between freedom and Nazism, between democratic self-government and the ruthless imperialism of the Japanese military regime.

When the so-called Cold War simmered in the aftermath of World War II, American leaders had to meet the need for a similar moral understanding, one that eventually challenged domestic practices like legalized racial discrimination that contradicted the ideas of justice and individual merit we sought to defend against Communist totalitarianism.

Moral Understanding of Terrorism

As we deal with the challenge of terrorism in the world today, it's obvious that we need the same kind of moral understanding. It's also obvious that we have no leaders capable of articulating it, or willing to do so if they could.

Yet in principle, terrorism represents a dagger aimed at the very heart of the American idea of just government. Terrorists, whatever their ideology, religion, or motivation, seek to rule by intimidation, governing others by fear without regard for liberty. By targeting innocent lives in order to foment terror, they prove their rejection of what we regard as the fundamental principle of justice — that all are created equal, with a right to life that doesn't depend on the goals and stratagems of others. In order to understand the true cause of our fight against terrorism, therefore, we should be asked to consider that what is at stake is the very basis of self-government and its claim of equal justice for all, in America and everywhere else. http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/keyes/070520

There is organized a grassroots movement: "We Need Alan Keyes for President." It has launched a website to urge the former Reagan administration diplomat to enter the field of Republican presidential contenders. Please encourage him to do so by signing the petition at http://www.alankeyes.com/petition.php.

Marie Jon'

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