One of the most poignant moments to occur in the U.S.-led global War on Terror occurred when National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice passed a note to President George W. Bush during the recent NATO conference in Turkey.

Her message informed him that Iraq was once again a sovereign nation. He smiled and instinctively wrote, “let freedom reign,” and passed it back. Those three words say a lot about the man and the country he leads.

Two hundred and twenty-eight years ago, a committee of five patriots, headed by a farmer from Virginia, prepared the final draft of a radical document. On the morning of July 4, they presented the results of their work to the body that had set them to the task: the Second Continental Congress.

The larger group made just 86 changes in Thomas Jefferson’s (search) “fair draft” and then, pledging “to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor,” all 56 members signed their names to this Declaration of Independence (search). In so doing, they created something that was then unique on the planet earth: a country based on the concepts of individual liberty, private property and democratic government. Since then, the people of this nation have taken great risks to offer others the hope of that same freedom.