WWIII
It is here. I don't like it. I wish that everyone would play nice. I wish that we didn't have crazy Islamo-fascists in the world who were committed to the destruction of Israel and America. I wish we could have world "Peace in our Time." But that's not reality. Reality is that WWIII has begun. This is going to be a long war. A war of ideology. Millions of people hate us and want us dead and are committed to our destruction. They believe that if they die killing Israelis or killing Americans, they will get 72 virgins in heaven. Heaven is, of course, a place where the orgasms never stop. And where, if you are a man, then you get to be worshipped by more beautiful women then you can handle.
Check out these links: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207606,00.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasrallah.
To all who are calling for a cease-fire in Israel, I would emphasize this statement made by Nasrallah:
"I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called 'Israel.' I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful. That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle."
Given this kind of stance towards Israel by Hezbollah, it necessarily follows that everyone who is calling for a ceasefire are siding with the terrorists. To call for a ceasefire is to deny Israel her right to defend herself, and it gives terrorists the opportunity to regroup, reorganize, rearm, and spread their propaganda of hate and Islamo-fascism. These people are not going to quit. They are committed to the destruction of Israel.
Either Israel does not have the right to exist, or Israel has the right to exist. As with all moral issues (abortion, death penalty, God in schools), there is no neutral ground on this. If Israel has the right to exist, then she certainly has the right to defend herself from those who have committed their lives to Israel's destruction. If you deny Israel's right to exist, then you have set yourself against the chosen people of God - arguably the most persecuted people in all of history.
Hezbollah has got to go. The whole world ought to be coming to Israel's aid right now. The United States ought to help Israel out by providing intelligence support, economic aid, weapons, and troops.
But we have to recognize that this is not just about taking out Hezbollah. It is time to go after Iran. Ahmadinejad is a clearly a terrorist. He and his thugs are fueling the fire in Iraq, in Lebanon, and in Israel. He should be given an ultimatum: Stop supporting Hezbollah terrorists and the terrorist efforts in Iraq, or the United States is coming after you.
See, here is the big problem. It is a real mess.
We have the religion of Islam. Millions of Muslims hate Jews and Christians. Millions of Muslims (rightly) recognize that faith and politics can not be separated. But they wrongly presuppose many creeds that are heretical and wicked. They deny the deity of Christ. They deny the doctrine of grace. Thus, they are a self-righteous and arrogant people. On top of all this, their false prophet, Mohammed declared that it was Ishmael and not Isaac on Mount Moriah. So, after 2200 years, the Arabs all of a sudden invent a creed by which they get all the land and the blessings promised to Israel. Thus, the existence of Israel is an intolerable evil, in their view. And America's support of Israel is equally intolerable. Thus, many millions of Muslims are zealously committed to the annihilation of Israel.
Secondly, we have the Israel - the chosen people of God. Israel has been chosen by God. They have been promised land and blessings. Those who curse Israel will be cursed; those who bless Israel will be blessed. And all nations on Earth will be blessed through Israel. This says nothing about Israel being any "better" than anyone else. This is simply due to the Sovereign choice and Sovereign plan of God. Through Jesus, the Messiah, many of these prophecies have come to pass.
Unfortunately, many millions of Jews (but not all Jews) have rejected the deity of Jesus. They think he was a heretic. This is wicked and unfortunate. As far as the gospel is concerned, they are blind and lost, but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. The Jews have been persecuted, raped, murdered, mistreated, partially annihilated, etc throughout history.
In 1917, they were granted a "small notch of land" by the League of Nations - a notch of land that included all of present day Israel and the disputed land (so-called Palestinian territories) as well as all modern day Jordan. The whole region (which had been known for thousands of years as Palestine) was set aside as the Jewish homeland. Then, in the early 1920's, Britain unilaterally trumped the League of Nations mandate, taking over 70% of the small notch of land, and granting that land east of the Jordan to the Arab Palestinians (present day Jordanians). The rest of the land (west of the Jordan) was to be the Jewish homeland (for all the Jewish Palestinians, aka Israelis).
If this rhetoric is causing any of you to be confused, it is probably due to the fact that you have been brainwashed by the Arab Propaganda machine, and because you known next to nothing about the history of the region. I admonish you to do some reading and get the facts.
Check this out:
http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm
Then there are the secularists. They religiously deny that God has any authority or right to get involved in politics. The word of the Lord is great for your private life; just keep it out of the public arena. Of course, the secularists don't understand, believe, or accept that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. They are full of contradictions and foolishness. They are not philsophically sound. They act as though they have authority in the world, but all they have to back up their supposed authority (to make moral, social, cultural, and political judgments) is their gut feeling. Some secularists don't realize that justice is essentially a moral and religious issue. Other secularists do realize this, but still contend that God's word has no authority in the public sphere.
Secularists come in a variety of shapes and sizes. On one hand you have "traditionalists," who acknowledge many of the fundamental assumptions that have shaped Western civilizations for the past two thousand years. Many of those assumptions are Christian in nature. This makes sense considering that you can not study the history of western civilization without seeing the influence of the Christian church throughout the said history. Many "traditionalists" are all for "God," in the public sphere, but they want to somehow tame God. They kinda are missing the point that Jesus is the Lion of Judah. He's not a tame lion. When He gets involved, He takes over. He has power and authority. He is Sovereign over all creation. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.
So, while I often find myself in agreement with the traditionalists on many issues, there arguments are usually always secular in nature. This demonstrates a lack of wisdom, faith, and integrity. Either these people are not really Christian (and so they don't know better), or they are Christian, but are in compromise. They need to be "transformed by the renewing of their minds." (Romans 12:2).
But then there are the crazy radical socialist secularists (isn't it interesting that very, very few radical non-tradiational, pro-feminist, secularists make a lot of noise about the "greatness" of capitalism... just an interesting tangent idea). Here you have the ACLU, most of the media (aside from Fox News and most of Talk Radio), most of the Democratic party, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ted Kennedy, Bill and Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, Ned Lamont, Chuck Schumer, etc. They hate the West, the 10 Commandments, and anything that remotely smells "Christian." They are religiously committed to a secular society. Postmodern secularism is their contradictory religion. Essentially, they are committed first and foremost to do whatever they think and whatever they want. They have exalted "self" in the place of God. On their own supposed authority they say that women should have the right to kill their unborn, women and minorities deserve "extra equal" opportunity, the death penalty is bad - but killing those on feeding tubes is cool, God is the real problem with everything - keep God out, negotiate with Islamic terrorism, and do not let Israel fight to defend hereself. In fact, many secularists have sided with the Islamo-fascists. They want Israel to be destroyed. They want to negotiate with the terrorists (after all, Muslims are not Christian, and anything that is not Christian is definately cooler than Christianity).
So, you can see why World War III is such a mess.
This calls for wisdom. The stakes are high in this war. What are we fighting for? What are we fighting against? What do we really value? What is justice? What would Jesus do?
I do not have all of this figured out yet. But I do know a few things.
God loves us all. He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins - the just for the unjust - that those who believe could be saved.
The greatest commands of the Bible are to love God and to love our neighbor.
The Bible commands us to do justly. "The just shall live by faith." It was "by faith" that heroes of old "established justice." "Everything that does not come from faith is sin."
Israel has the right to exist. Anyone who tries to deny Israel that right needs to be brought to justice - quickly and decisively.
Islam is erroneous. Christians need to reach out to Muslims in love - to share the gospel with them, and to gently show them the errors of their doctrines. We need to introduce them to the person of Jesus Christ.
Muslims who live peacefully should be respected for their commitment to peace.
Muslims need to repent for their idolatry.
Everyone needs to repent for their idolatry.
Israel needs to humble themselves under God's mighty hand, and acnkowledge Yehshua - the Messiah.
Politicians need to recognize that they are God's servants - that they must fear the Lord and study His word - so as to understand and carry out justice.
We Christians need to repent for our plethora of sins. We need to model for the world authentic Christian community. We need to do justly and love mercy. We need to stop looking to the world for answers, and we need to look to the Bible for answers.
We must fight the good fight of faith. We must confront evil wherever it arises (and we ought to first look into our own hearts and confront the sinner within).
Dear God, Give us grace.
It is here. I don't like it. I wish that everyone would play nice. I wish that we didn't have crazy Islamo-fascists in the world who were committed to the destruction of Israel and America. I wish we could have world "Peace in our Time." But that's not reality. Reality is that WWIII has begun. This is going to be a long war. A war of ideology. Millions of people hate us and want us dead and are committed to our destruction. They believe that if they die killing Israelis or killing Americans, they will get 72 virgins in heaven. Heaven is, of course, a place where the orgasms never stop. And where, if you are a man, then you get to be worshipped by more beautiful women then you can handle.
Check out these links: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207606,00.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasrallah.
To all who are calling for a cease-fire in Israel, I would emphasize this statement made by Nasrallah:
"I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called 'Israel.' I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful. That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle."
Given this kind of stance towards Israel by Hezbollah, it necessarily follows that everyone who is calling for a ceasefire are siding with the terrorists. To call for a ceasefire is to deny Israel her right to defend herself, and it gives terrorists the opportunity to regroup, reorganize, rearm, and spread their propaganda of hate and Islamo-fascism. These people are not going to quit. They are committed to the destruction of Israel.
Either Israel does not have the right to exist, or Israel has the right to exist. As with all moral issues (abortion, death penalty, God in schools), there is no neutral ground on this. If Israel has the right to exist, then she certainly has the right to defend herself from those who have committed their lives to Israel's destruction. If you deny Israel's right to exist, then you have set yourself against the chosen people of God - arguably the most persecuted people in all of history.
Hezbollah has got to go. The whole world ought to be coming to Israel's aid right now. The United States ought to help Israel out by providing intelligence support, economic aid, weapons, and troops.
But we have to recognize that this is not just about taking out Hezbollah. It is time to go after Iran. Ahmadinejad is a clearly a terrorist. He and his thugs are fueling the fire in Iraq, in Lebanon, and in Israel. He should be given an ultimatum: Stop supporting Hezbollah terrorists and the terrorist efforts in Iraq, or the United States is coming after you.
See, here is the big problem. It is a real mess.
We have the religion of Islam. Millions of Muslims hate Jews and Christians. Millions of Muslims (rightly) recognize that faith and politics can not be separated. But they wrongly presuppose many creeds that are heretical and wicked. They deny the deity of Christ. They deny the doctrine of grace. Thus, they are a self-righteous and arrogant people. On top of all this, their false prophet, Mohammed declared that it was Ishmael and not Isaac on Mount Moriah. So, after 2200 years, the Arabs all of a sudden invent a creed by which they get all the land and the blessings promised to Israel. Thus, the existence of Israel is an intolerable evil, in their view. And America's support of Israel is equally intolerable. Thus, many millions of Muslims are zealously committed to the annihilation of Israel.
Secondly, we have the Israel - the chosen people of God. Israel has been chosen by God. They have been promised land and blessings. Those who curse Israel will be cursed; those who bless Israel will be blessed. And all nations on Earth will be blessed through Israel. This says nothing about Israel being any "better" than anyone else. This is simply due to the Sovereign choice and Sovereign plan of God. Through Jesus, the Messiah, many of these prophecies have come to pass.
Unfortunately, many millions of Jews (but not all Jews) have rejected the deity of Jesus. They think he was a heretic. This is wicked and unfortunate. As far as the gospel is concerned, they are blind and lost, but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. The Jews have been persecuted, raped, murdered, mistreated, partially annihilated, etc throughout history.
In 1917, they were granted a "small notch of land" by the League of Nations - a notch of land that included all of present day Israel and the disputed land (so-called Palestinian territories) as well as all modern day Jordan. The whole region (which had been known for thousands of years as Palestine) was set aside as the Jewish homeland. Then, in the early 1920's, Britain unilaterally trumped the League of Nations mandate, taking over 70% of the small notch of land, and granting that land east of the Jordan to the Arab Palestinians (present day Jordanians). The rest of the land (west of the Jordan) was to be the Jewish homeland (for all the Jewish Palestinians, aka Israelis).
If this rhetoric is causing any of you to be confused, it is probably due to the fact that you have been brainwashed by the Arab Propaganda machine, and because you known next to nothing about the history of the region. I admonish you to do some reading and get the facts.
Check this out:
http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm
Then there are the secularists. They religiously deny that God has any authority or right to get involved in politics. The word of the Lord is great for your private life; just keep it out of the public arena. Of course, the secularists don't understand, believe, or accept that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. They are full of contradictions and foolishness. They are not philsophically sound. They act as though they have authority in the world, but all they have to back up their supposed authority (to make moral, social, cultural, and political judgments) is their gut feeling. Some secularists don't realize that justice is essentially a moral and religious issue. Other secularists do realize this, but still contend that God's word has no authority in the public sphere.
Secularists come in a variety of shapes and sizes. On one hand you have "traditionalists," who acknowledge many of the fundamental assumptions that have shaped Western civilizations for the past two thousand years. Many of those assumptions are Christian in nature. This makes sense considering that you can not study the history of western civilization without seeing the influence of the Christian church throughout the said history. Many "traditionalists" are all for "God," in the public sphere, but they want to somehow tame God. They kinda are missing the point that Jesus is the Lion of Judah. He's not a tame lion. When He gets involved, He takes over. He has power and authority. He is Sovereign over all creation. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.
So, while I often find myself in agreement with the traditionalists on many issues, there arguments are usually always secular in nature. This demonstrates a lack of wisdom, faith, and integrity. Either these people are not really Christian (and so they don't know better), or they are Christian, but are in compromise. They need to be "transformed by the renewing of their minds." (Romans 12:2).
But then there are the crazy radical socialist secularists (isn't it interesting that very, very few radical non-tradiational, pro-feminist, secularists make a lot of noise about the "greatness" of capitalism... just an interesting tangent idea). Here you have the ACLU, most of the media (aside from Fox News and most of Talk Radio), most of the Democratic party, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ted Kennedy, Bill and Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, Ned Lamont, Chuck Schumer, etc. They hate the West, the 10 Commandments, and anything that remotely smells "Christian." They are religiously committed to a secular society. Postmodern secularism is their contradictory religion. Essentially, they are committed first and foremost to do whatever they think and whatever they want. They have exalted "self" in the place of God. On their own supposed authority they say that women should have the right to kill their unborn, women and minorities deserve "extra equal" opportunity, the death penalty is bad - but killing those on feeding tubes is cool, God is the real problem with everything - keep God out, negotiate with Islamic terrorism, and do not let Israel fight to defend hereself. In fact, many secularists have sided with the Islamo-fascists. They want Israel to be destroyed. They want to negotiate with the terrorists (after all, Muslims are not Christian, and anything that is not Christian is definately cooler than Christianity).
So, you can see why World War III is such a mess.
This calls for wisdom. The stakes are high in this war. What are we fighting for? What are we fighting against? What do we really value? What is justice? What would Jesus do?
I do not have all of this figured out yet. But I do know a few things.
God loves us all. He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins - the just for the unjust - that those who believe could be saved.
The greatest commands of the Bible are to love God and to love our neighbor.
The Bible commands us to do justly. "The just shall live by faith." It was "by faith" that heroes of old "established justice." "Everything that does not come from faith is sin."
Israel has the right to exist. Anyone who tries to deny Israel that right needs to be brought to justice - quickly and decisively.
Islam is erroneous. Christians need to reach out to Muslims in love - to share the gospel with them, and to gently show them the errors of their doctrines. We need to introduce them to the person of Jesus Christ.
Muslims who live peacefully should be respected for their commitment to peace.
Muslims need to repent for their idolatry.
Everyone needs to repent for their idolatry.
Israel needs to humble themselves under God's mighty hand, and acnkowledge Yehshua - the Messiah.
Politicians need to recognize that they are God's servants - that they must fear the Lord and study His word - so as to understand and carry out justice.
We Christians need to repent for our plethora of sins. We need to model for the world authentic Christian community. We need to do justly and love mercy. We need to stop looking to the world for answers, and we need to look to the Bible for answers.
We must fight the good fight of faith. We must confront evil wherever it arises (and we ought to first look into our own hearts and confront the sinner within).
Dear God, Give us grace.
posted by Dan | 8:44 AM
13 Comments:
Does that estimate come from an objective scientific poll, or from the analysis and heresay of your sister?
I say I don't have all the answers because I do not. I agree that we need a thorough realistic plan to win this war and establish a lasting peace. I know what won't work: More ceasefires. Hezbollah, the Shi'ites, the Iranian government, and others are committed to the destruction of Israel. So, a lasting peace can only be established through absolute victory.
But the problem is this war is so complicated. It is ideological. You have the so-called "moderate" Muslims and then you have the "terrorist" Muslims. But then you have the "gray area" Muslims. They themselves might not put explosives on the backs of their children and then send them on a homicidal mission into Israel. But they also won't condemn those that do. And they also don't mind funding those that do.
And there are thousands of other factors, making this problem extremely complicated.
Not to mention the oil factor.
The thing is this: If we pull out of Iraq now (like so many want us to), then Iran gets control of the entire region. Iran gets control of Iraq. They have a lot of control of Hezbollah. They also get the oil. With the oil, they then can bribe the international community to be friendly with them. Meanwhile, they acquire nuclear weapons, and start bombing the crap out of Israel. I know that the thought of this causes some people on the left to shake with orgasmic pleasure, but we really should not be caring about the opinions of those kind of people.
Besides, it is in the best interest of the United States and Europe that Iran not achieve such power. They sponsor terrorism. Terrorists are religiously committed to killing Americans, and advancing Islam by the sword.
So, we have a mess.
So, what do we do?
I noticed that you have plenty of criticism for me, but what ideas do you have? What solutions do you offer? Do you think we should just get out?
The gospel must go forth. In Christ, there is hope. If Muslims would just come to see the light that there religion is false, repent, and turn to Christ in faith, then that would solve many of our problems.
We must establish stable governments in the Middle East that are friendly towards Christian evangelism, and whose laws are based on what God's word says about justice. We must empower the citizens of Afghanastan and Iraq to take responsibility for their countries: Establishing justice with the sword. A free market economy with limitted restrictions will motivate people to identify their God-given talents, and work to develop them. When people need to, they work hard to understand the just wants, needs, and desires of people, and they use their talents to provide a product or service for other people. With a lot of hardwork and a commitment to confront evil and to protect your neighbors from injustice, these countries can flourish - much the way Israel does - in spite of being continually harrassed by their terrorist neighbors.
The problem is that everyone is looking to those governments out there to establish justice. What they should realize is that it is up to them to step up to the plate, and to take ownership.
We can not continue as we have. We need a strategy to win a lasting peace.
Mohammed left one hell of a legacy on this earth. If the ancient Israelites would have been obedient when God told them to totally wipe out certain idolatrous communities, we would have never had this problem. But they were not obedient, and we do have this problem.
Yet, this is all a fulfillment of prophecies. There will be a one world government that will be united against God. Those who don't take the mark of the beast will not be able to buy or sell. The world will put immense pressure on the faithful to disown Jesus. There will be terrible terrible times.
And then Jesus will come back, riding on a white horse, with fire in his eyes, and a sword in his hand.
So, as the world, in their unbelief and sin roll along toward globalization, we need to be standing firm in our faith, and continue to contend for righteousness, truth, and justice. We need to keep preaching the truth. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Unlike most liberaly types, I'm a little hesitant myself about a knee-jerk pull out from Iraq. I'd much rather us get this right-- something I think might still be possible if we got better people running the show, despite all the mistakes that have been made. The right leader in '08 could still win this thing. The right response from Europe could still win this thing.
----
Lots of amazing thoughts. About Hezbollah-- listen, Hezbollah is not Lebanon. The Irish Republican Army has been been a terrorist organization operation attacking the UK since 1919. They don't acknowledge the UK's "right to exist" in Ireland. They're a serious problem. But that doesn't mean it's okay to send aircraft to massively bomb the families of Dublin. The American South has spent a century being troubled by the Ku Klux Klan terrorist organization-- but that doesn't mean that we bomb Atlanta.
We realize that in both these cases, we would be doing far more harm than good. If we mass-bombed Atlanta, we would be killing innocent civillians. If we mass-bombed Dublin, soon, all of Ireland would hate the UK because the UK bombs murder children-- all the politics in the world doesn't matter when you know the name of the people who killed your seven year old daughter. Odds are, you will hate them for the rest of your life, period.
When we think about Atlanta or Dublin-- it's easy to see how horrible a widespread war would be. But we don't know very much about Lebanon, and it's easy to imagine that they're a nation of terrorists.
So, let's call upon that religious bias Americans have in order to put the situation in perspective.
The current president of Lebanon-- is he a Shia muslim or is he a Sunni muslim? The smart reader, knowing that Iran and Hezbollah are Shia, will guess that the president is also Shia. The slightly smarter reader, however, knowing of the animosity that exists between Lebanon's government and Hezbollah, might suspect that the president is Sunni.
But the smartest reader will know that the president of Lebanon is not Sunni or Shiite, he is .... Christian.
It gets worse. Of the members Lebanese parlament, guess what percentage are Christian: 50%.
Now, I don't much care what religion it is whose children are being murdered right now. But, in my experience, Christians are awfully protective of their brethren. So, just remember that half of the people our bombs are landing on right now aren't hezbollah, they aren't even sunni, they aren't even muslims-- they are christians.
You don't hear about that, do you? The fact is-- most people in Lebanon hate terrorists just as much as Americans hate the Klan. Whether Hezbollah are terrorists or not-- that's an issue people in Lebanon are still split on-- Hezbollah brings them medicine and food. Hezbollah didn't kill their families, Israel did. Determine whose the terrorist in these situations is very complicated-- but people in Lebanon didn't approve of 9/11-- they were sickened by it. That's something we don't get-- the Muslim world was sickened by 9/11-- so sickened that many of them think that the only people on earth capable of such an atrocity are the Israelis.
That's the problem with this World War III the Bush administration is doing. This stuff is _really_ complex, and I don't think the Bush folks have been very smart about things.
For example-- in 2001, if Al-Qaeda made up a list of the people in the world they hated most, here's how the list would go. Israel gets the top spot. The US-- manufacturer and donator of the weapons Israel uses, would take #2. And coming in at a very close third would have been Saddaam Hussein's Iraq. Seriously. He's killed more Shia than anyone, and he obviously wasn't a very religious man.
Now, let's us analogy. In mid 1942, the Axis powers are in a fierce war with the Soviet Union. So after Pearl Harbor, we turn around and... attack the USSR, using December the 7th as a justification.
I'll grant you, neither Stalin nor Saddam are particularly nice people, but this whole thing doesn't seem very well thought out. Given that Iran really IS developing nuclear weapons (they're quite open about this, but Iraq was not doing anything of the sort), given that Iran IS a fundamentalist muslim regime with a history of supporting terrorism...
Doesn't it seem like the Iraq war was a collosal blunder? More than three years after the US invaded, I still have no clue why we did it. It wasn't because they were muslim-- Iran is a lot more muslim. It wasn't because they supported 9/11-- they didn't. The 9/11 hijackers would have happily flown planes into Saddam's palace if they could have pulled that off. It was wasn't because Iraq was developing nuclear weapons-- they were. It wasn't even because because we mistakenly _thought_ they were working on nuclear weapons-- because Iran and North Korea clearly are in that category and both had more resources and a much better chance of success..
The sad, tragically comical fact is: no one knows why we invaded Iraq. If you wanted the nation with ties to 9/11, you should have gone to Saudi. If you wanted Islamic fundamentalists, you should have gone to Iran. If you wanted to stop nuclear proliferation, you should have gone to Iran or Korea. Why Iraq? None of the explanations given so far make any sense-- we just don't know why they chose that one. And that's scary.
I hear lots of theories of course, none of them make much sense-- Bush was enraged by a plot by Saddam to kill Bush Sr. during the first Gulf war. Bush was enraged by his father failure to topple Saddaam and wanted to finally use this chance to solve an old family crisis. Bush's oil buddies wanted to take over Iraqi oil fields-- some that would be easier to do than taking over Iranian oil fields. The Daily Show suggests that there was a typo at some point in the process and an N got turned into a Q, but nobody noticed.
But seriously-- it's really scary that no one knows why Iraq. For reason they give us, I can give you a BETTER case to attack someone else instead of Iraq.
And not knowing, we're left with this same old debate: nefariousness or incompetence? I tend to lean towards the latter, but.. it's a tough call.
You know, the other thing I should mention...
the phrase "Israel's right to exist" gets thrown around a lot. It's important to remember that this refers to "The nation currently called Israel and it's right to own the land". It does not, in and of itself, mean "the right of the jews to remain not dead".
Granted, there are a minority who would like to see both Israel the nation cease to exist AND every jew on earth cease to exist, but I think that's a doctrine even most muslim extremists would shy away from.
So saying "They deny Israel's right to exist" is a very provocative statement. It sounds just awful.
But if we instead say "They say Israel stole their land", well... that's the same thing, but, substantially less genocidal sounding.
I'm sure if we interviewed 18th century Native Americans, they would deny the right of the United States to exist. And of course, the native americans did engage in isolated acts of terrorism against the americans. So, perhaps the trail of tears was just the Americans exercising their right to defend themselves... But, I doubt many people in the modern age would agree with you about that.
Israel did not steal the land. You certainly present no evidence to support your claim. I find that very often when I debate with you, you make claims without supporting them, and I have often took it upon myself to find the facts. I will do that in this case, but I think that if you are going to make statements like "Israel stole the land," you should know what you are talking about, and you should back up the claim with evidence.
The truth is that it was the Muslims that stole the land from the Jews. It was high on Mohammed's priority agenda to convert the Jews. When the laughed in his face, he got pretty pissed off, and decided to go to war. Then he set a major Islamic precedent by agreeing to a peace, only to violate that contract a couple years later. It was okay, because he was lieing to "infidels."
When I say, Israel has the right to exist, I am saying that Israel, the people and the nation, has the right to exist. It is a divine right. The UN happened to agree that Israel had the right to exist back in'48, but I don't really care about the UN, I'm just saying it for your sake.
It does sound awful that many Muslims deny Israel's right to exist. Some deny the rights of Jews to exist at all. Many more deny the nation of Israel has a right to exist (or that Israel is even a nation). Thus, the conflict that will only end through a decisive victory - not a ceasefire. Let us learn from Mohammed what Muslim ceasefires are all about. If we don't learn this from Mohammed, then we ought to learn this from the history of Islamic extremism the past 80 years. (Of course, we could look to the Crusades as well, but it is not very fashionable in our culture to talk about how wrong the Muslims were in the Crusades. Its only cool to talk about how wrong the Christians were in the Crusades).
On Iraq:
Al-Zarqawi had been operating in Iraq for years. He clearly had ties with Al-Qaeda. Also, Sadddam Hussein was a bad guy who murdered hundreds of thousands of his people. Also, Saddam was funding the terrorist organization known as the PLO to terrorize Israel.
So, there were plenty of good reasons to remove Saddam Hussein from power, bring Zarqawi to justice, and give the people of Iraq a chance to make a great nation for themselves.
Now, the way the war was sold and the way the war has gone has not been good. I agree with you there. I guess I'm so used to the government patronizing me (like telling me that we really have "religious liberty" in this country, while really, my tax dollars are used to promote the anti-Christian religion of secular postmodernism), that I have to sift through the really bad lies from the "softer" lies. The truth is a lie is a lie, so I ought to be enraged at all lies. But I get upset when the left accuses Bush of being a liar, while they continue to patronize me about there being a division between the secular and the sacred.
I also happen to believe that Bush really thought that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and in point of fact, I don't know that this was not the case. We had a general in from the Iraqi Air Force come speak at our school last year. He had worked directly for Saddam, and is now involved in rebuilding Iraq. For what is worth, he testified to us that Saddam did have WMDs, but that he hid them / put them in Syria before the invasion.
What do I know? I'm just a citizen. I don't read intelligence reports.
But WMDs aside, we had plenty of good reasons to take out Saddam. I'm glad we did it.
But we can go back and forth until the 2nd Coming about the question of whether invading Iraq was the right thing to do, but that doesn't move us forward today.
What are we going to do now? That is my question.
Is Bush the man for the job now? That is a good question. I give him a "C." So, I agree that there are probably plenty of other people who would handle this better than him.
But unfortunately, I don't think any of those people are politicians.
What I'm concerned about is Hillary getting into office and then pulling out our troops. Then what is going to happen?
More later....
Oh, you misunderstand. I'm not saying that Israel stole the land per se. I'm just saying "Israel doesn't have the right to exist" is just a fancy way for people to say "That land that they're calling Israel-- that doesn't belong to them!"
See, I have an interesting point of view on things such as this. The way I see it-- you have NO connection to your distant ancestors. If my ancestor owned something in 1850, my claim on it is... NOTHING. I never met the man who lived in 1850. I was never alive at the same time he was. The people of 1850 don't exist anymore, that's over and done with. Their debts have been erased as have their assets. Just because I have a genetic similarity to those people, that doesn't mean squat. People tell me I sound a lot like the actor Wallace Shawn-- if I show up at the reading of his will claiming that my similiarity to him entitles me to the land he owned, I'll be laughed out of the room.
So, when the Native Americans sue to have all federal lands returned to their tribe on the grounds that the it was stolen from their ancestors, I have to say no. I'm sorry bout that, but I'm not my ancestors and you aren're you ancestors. The people who had that dispute are dead and buried, they no longer exist, and all that are left are two different groups of people who bear a vague physical similarity to the deceased.
When modern blacks want modern whites to pay reparations for slavery, I have to say no. I'm sorry about slavery, but I've never met a slave or a slaveholder. They don't exist. I'm sorry if my ancestors stole rights from your ancestors, but those ancestors are dead. All that's left are people alive today, and if you want to talk to me about correcting the injustices you have experienced in your life, I'll listen, but I don't owe you anything for what other people I don't even approve of did to your ancestors.
Now Israel is the same principle, just adding a few thousand years. Hey, I'm sorry the egyptians, the assyrians, the babylonians, the persians, the hasmoneans, and romans were mean to your ancestors and stole their land. But there are people who live there now, and they are good people, and they aren't the ones who stole it from your ancestors. The people who lived in Israel before the Diaspora are dead and buried now for almost two millenia. I know you're upset about it, but you don't have the right to take it from people who are living there now.
--
And you know, this works both ways. If Israel ever stops conquering more and more land and bulldozing more and more settlements, then a century after that happens, I'm going to have to tell the Palestinians-- look, I'm sorry your ancestors used to live there, but, your ancestors are dead, and the people who live there now didn't have anything to do with stealing it from your ancestors.
--
Personally, I'd like to see all inheretences above personal property and personal possesions made illegal, but one step at a time. If I have a small house and some books I want to give to me daughter after I die, okay then. If I own seven apartment complexes, thousands of acres of shorefront real estate, and a majority of stock in a major corporation-- what right does my genetic descendent have to all that? They didn't work for it. What right do I have to dictate who will own some portion of the planet earth after I vacate it. When I move out of a house, I don't get to leave a note to the next family telling them which member of their family is going to live in which room. But, one step at a time.
===
The claim that Saddaam supported Al-Qaeda is an error or a lie. They hate each other, and there has been no strong evidence to show anything to the contrary. If there WAS an Al-Qaeda in Iraq prior to the US invasion, you can bet they were trying to blow up Saddaam. Obviously, Bush can saw what he wants, the same way he claimed to have conclusive proof that Saddaam was developing nukes. But-- think of the pressure this administration is under. If there were nukes in Iraq, they'd have found them. If there was proof Sadaam was funding his own arch-enemies-- we've invaded, we run iraq now, we have all their papes and their generals-- we should be able to prove it-- but we can't, cause the evidence just ain't there.
The same thing goes for the secret weapons smuggled to Syria. Very interesting that the air force general spoke at your school (that HAS to Gen. Georges Sada, right?). How many christian iraqi air force generals with conspiracy theory about smuggled nuclear weapons can there be.
The thing is-- a nuclear weapon isn't just something you can make from things found around the house. Nuclear weapons are a HUGE deal.
It took about 1/200th of the US Gross National Product to build the thing--on out of every 200 dollars went towards that. One out of every 600 adult americans worked on the project. it's a HUGE deal. And let me tell ya, Iraq doesn't have anywhere near the resources that the US did, and even WE couldn't keep a secret from foreign governments-- the soviets knew ALL about it, and they didn't even have spy sattellites.
The idea that Sadaam succeeded in created in nuclear weapons and smuggling them to syria is like any other good conspiracy theory. It sounds interesting at first, until you stop to think about what would really have to happen for it to be true.
For Saddaam to do his own mahattan project without leaving any evidence except for one lone air force general is just crazy. Where are the hundreds of thousands of employees of the enrichment plants? Where are all the facilities that manufactures the hundreds of thousands of components a weapons program requires. How is it that a tenth of a million people have all kept their mouth shut about this, and how it is it that are the radiation and nuclear waste the goes into creating a bomb was cleaned up so well that no one can detect even a hint of the program?
The people that claim we faked the Apollo Moon landings are like this-- it sounds plausible for the first 90 seconds you hear it-- all they would need would be a few astronaut actors and a film crew. But, when you stop to think that a half a million people worked for Project Apollo, and none of them have been able to come forward with evidence proving that there was a hoax, you realize it's nonsense.
When he was on the daily show, I spent some time trying to figure out if Sada was lying or just wrong. It's so hard to tell, but, obviously-- this man was a top military official under Sadaam Hussein-- integrity and honesty were not in the job description, and it doesn't surprise me at all that high ranking members of the Saddaam's regime would find themselves saying whatever the US would like to hear, once the US is in power. Whatever his motivations, I wouldn't trust Sadaam's generals to tell me the sky was blue unless they had some evidence to back it up. And if they want to tell me that the sky is really pink, but there's been a massive cover-up.. they're going to need a LOT of evidence.
=========
You heard it here first-- Hillary is never, EVER going to be President of the United States. This clearly is not something she has realized yet, but, trust me-- there is no set of events that could possibly occur that would have her becoming President. Even I would have a hard time voting that way.
Hillary is fine and all, because she was the first modern american woman to be first lady of the nation. George H.W. Bush's first lady Barbara Bush had pretty much the same occupation as every other first lady in history-- WIFE. So, I can understand people being excited that finally having a first lady who can do more than win a bake-off.
But, poor old hillary just ain't got it. By the standards of first ladies, she's a groundbreaker. By the standards of politicians, she' unnspiring.
I am fully aware that the Shi'a and the Sunni do not get along, and that they have fought each other for years.
But what you seem to miss (and I'm amazed given your intelligence) is that the one thing that can (temporarily) unite the Shi'a and the Sunni is a war against Israel and America! It might be argued that the genius of bin Laden is that he did a lot to unite the radical Muslim world. "Quit killing yourselves! Kill Israelis and Americans!"
Furthermore, it is a fact that al-Zarqawi was operating in Iraq before the invasion and that he had ties to al-Qaeda.
I'm not sure I trust George Sado. I actually asked him point blank about the weapons, and when he responded in the affirmative, something inside of me said, "Uh uh. This guy is making stuff up." It is possible that he was telling me the truth, but I don't think so.
But I do think that Saddam had ambitions to acquire nucelar weapons, and he did already have other kinds of WMDs. The thousands of dead Kurds are evidence for that.
On inheritance:
On this point, with all due respect, you are out of your mind. You are telling me that if I work hard and acquire a chunk of land, that I have no right to give that land to whomever I will? So, then does the tyrannical socialist state liquidate my assetts when I die? Or should everyone just fight over it?
Israel has divine right to the land. God made an everlasting covenant with Israel. They get the land. Period.
Furthermore, since the time of Daniel, there have been Jews living all over the Middle East. The idea that the Jews reappeared in Palestine after WWII is a lie propagated by the Arab Propaganda Machine (which controls a good bit of the press - CNN, etc).
Jews have lived in territories conquered by terrorist Muslims all throughout Muslim history and before. They never left the land. Under Muslim oppression, they were referred to as dhimmis.
Yes, many Jews moved from Europe to Palestine after WWII, but many were already there.
So, this whol idea that Jews came and stole the land from the so-called "Palestinians" (another fabrication made by the Arab Media), is a lie.
And I'll remind you that for thousands of years, the whole region was known as Palestine. And there have been living there Arab "Palestinians" and Jewish "Palestinans." Jordan is the Arab Palestnian state. Israel is the Jewish Palestinian state.
And have you seen the similarities of the Jordanian flag with the proposed "Palestinian" flag?
I once read an article (and I'll try to find it in the ear future), where an Arab Palestinian questioned why one day he was concerned a "Palestinian" and the next day he was considered a "Jordanian."
More later.
he was considered a Palestinian (not concerned a Palestnian). Then the next day he was considered a Jordanian - since he lived East of the Jordan River.
"I am fully aware that the Shi'a and the Sunni do not get along"
But the dispute goes a lot deeper than that, and it's a lot more close to home. Iraq was a secular state. It was run by a secular government, and it was not a theocracy. It did not follow Islamic law, the clerics were under the control of an authoritarian government, and it was about as far as the taliban as you can get. It was run by Sunni Secularists rather than Shia Fundamentalists. Imagining the two coming together to work together to destroy America is like imaging the Ku Klux Klan and the Nation of Islam joining together and being buddies just because they both hate jews-- it just ain't gonna happen, and they're more likely to kill each other before they successfully kill anyone else.
If Saddaam wanted to support terrorism, he would get his own sunni secular terrorists, like Gaddafi did. (Or for that matter, why not just support Libyan terrrorists).
It's the same situation exactly in Iraq right now. Who do you think the terrorists are killing in Iraq right now? The Americans? nope-- they're killing each other. For every american they gets killed, there are 100 cases of shia killing sunni or vice versa.
That uniting against the common enemy's a lot hard than it looks.
I heard a joke not long ago. It's a good joke. There's a huge conference of religious studies going on at big conference center, where scholars from all the worlds religious are meeting to study ways of bridging the differences between faiths and fostering communication-- there are several hundred delegates.
At breakfast, a baptist delegate meets a asian man clad in orange robe. "What religion are you?" the baptist asks? "I am a buddhist" the old man replies.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to learning about your views", the baptist civilly responds.
At lunch, the baptist delegate find himself sitting next to a chinese man in a business suit."What religion are you?" the baptist asks? "I am a Taoist" the Chinese man replies.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to learning about your views", the baptist civilly responds.
--
During dinner, the baptist delegate find himself siting caucasian woman with an american accent. "What religion are you?" the baptist asks?
"I am a Christian" the woman replies.
"Me too! What franchise?" The woman replies "Baptist."
"Me too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" The woman replies "Northern Baptist."
"Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" The woman smiles, and answers "Northern Conservative Baptist."
The man gets really excited at meeting a kindred spirit. "Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reform Baptist?" The woman instantly reponsds "Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist."
The man becomes positivly ecstatic. "Me too!", he says "Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879 or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?"
The woman replies, "Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912."
Suddenly the man's face changes to rage and he furiously tries to stab the woman with his stake knife screaming "Die, heretic!"
On inheretence:
"You are telling me that if I work hard and acquire a chunk of land, that I have no right to give that land to whomever I will?"
Absolutely. When you are dead, you have no rights. You cease to exist on this earth at least. Nothing I do can hurt you, nothing I do can make you happy. You have no rights anymore. Your rights are between you and God-- the "rights" of the dead have no meaning on this earth. As far as I can tell, the dead are not here, and they do not care. If they are in heaven, they were with God and they do not care about material things anymore. If they are in hell, they are in agony and do not care about things like this anymore.
When I am in a room having a discussion with people, I have a vote in what is being discussed. When I leave, I do not expect to be able to control the direction of the conversation. When I am a citizen of the United States, I expect to have a vote. When I leave that country for good, I do not expect to be able to have a vote anymore. When i leave the room, I cannot control what channel the television is on-- that is up to the people who remain.
You see, I don't exactly accept the concept of ownership to begin with. The idea that some parts of the universe "BELONG" to me, but not to others-- this is a strange notion. There is only a finite amount of land on this planet. No human created that land-- no human 'worked' to create it--- it was just there.
Now, hey-- if I take a piece of wood and carve it into a statue with my hands-- I think I can make a pretty good case that I own it.
If I somehow find myself 'owning' millions of dollars of stock in a company my great grandfather started... I think it's a pretty hard case for me to claim I actually own that.
Ownership is a funny thing. For most of human history, you could own people the same way you could own 'land' or anythign else. Nobody ever thought twice about it.
Or take songs. For most of human history, you could not 'own' a song The very idea was silly. If I sing a song for you, later, you can sing that song for someone else. Obvious. Now, someone 'owns' the song Happy Birthday. The people who own it didn't write it-- they're not even the descendents of the people who wrote it. But, they do 'own' it now, and pretty much any birthday party you or I have ever been to featured a criminal violation of 17 U.S.C. ยง 506, techincally punishable by a several thousand dollar fine. The next time you go in to a restaurant and hear them sing happy birthday to someone using some hoaky made up song, stop and remember it's because americans don't have the legal right to sing Happy Birthday unless we have permission.
Ownership's dangerous.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208065,00.html
Ceasefire. The world is nuts. This bothers me a lot.
LET ISRAEL DEFEND HERSELF! I hope and pray that Israel catches up with Nasrallah.
A ceasefire merely prolongs the inevitable and gives the terrorists a chance to regroup, rearm, and reorganize.
We may have "peace in our time" today, but tomorrow, many more people are going to die. It doesn't have to be that way. But given the stupidity and enmity the world has against Israel, it probably will turn out that way. The world didn't listen to Churchill right away, and the world paid for that foolishness. History is repeating itself.
Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Those ceasefires are tricky business-- especially when one side is made up of loosely organized fighters without a rigid command and control structure. Similarly, UN resolutions aren't exactly binding things, and Israel knows nothing bad will happen to it as long as the US sits on the security council.
But, we can hope for a ceasefire. War, in general, is a bad thing, and Israel's offensive is creating fifty future terrorists for every old terrorist they kill.
You know, Biblically-speaking, if God's covenant with Israel as the chosen people gave it certain designated property rights--- hasn't their reject of God's son the true Messiah invalidated this agreement?
I mean, strictly speaking, aren't the Israelis a nation of sinners who have rejected God's plan for them? If anyone is the 'rightful heir' to the promised land, surely it would not be the very people who shunned God, executed his son, and persecuted his followers. And if the misfortune that befalls our most christian of nations is divine punishment for our sinful rejection of God's wishes, surely the troubles Israel suffers are it's just punishment for rejecting Christ.
Obviously, I don't believe this. I'm just always amazed, though, that Christians will support non-Christian 'chosen people', even as they bomb a nation where there's a christian majority.
"Similarly, UN resolutions aren't exactly binding things, and Israel knows nothing bad will happen to it as long as the US sits on the security council."
If the UN is to have any authority and credibility in the world, then they must value real justice, they must make resolutions that are just, and they must enforce those said resolutions.
Clearly, the UN has repeatedly failed on all accounts. It is clear to me that the UN has no interest in combatting evil and terrorism in the world. There are gross human rights attrocities going on in the Sudan, and the UN does nothing about it. And with minimal research, I can point out how screwed up and depraved the UN is.
So, I don't recognize the supposed authority of the UN. Neither should Israel or the United States or any other country that is committed to establishing justice in the world.
"Israel knows nothing bad will happen to it as long as the US sits on the security council."
Not true. The US (and Britain) are Israel's last allies. But they know, as surely as I know, that the time is probably coming when the US and Britain turn their backs on Israel. And then the only other option that Israel has (and they will use it) is the nuclear option. If they get overrun, they will blow up several Islamic state capitals with her nuclear weapons. The Muslim world knows this, as well as I do.
I can't believe you continue to be an apologist for the terrorists. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization committed to Israel's destruction. They are being funded and supplied by Syria and Iran. The President of Iran denies the Holocaust and talks about blowing Israel off the map. Furthermore, this "draw" in the Middle East is making the terrorists more bold. The idea "violence begets violence" is not true. You clearly don't understand the nature of our enemies. They want to kill you. They already hate you. They don't distinguish between me and you - between Bush and Kerry - between conservative or Republican. We are Americans, and America holds an alliance with Israel. We are the great Satan. They are committed to our destruction.
In this post 9/11 world, it is hard for me to understand how it is that you don't see this.
Making deals with terrorists, handcuffing Israel, offering pizza - this is not the solution. They are laughing at us. We are creating more terrorists by not going all out in this war. They sense what we are about. They sense that America is a weak country who doesn't have the stomach to wage this war. They sense that, and like the savage wolves that they are, they are getting more and more bold.
The only language these people understand and respect is force. We need to confront these terrorists directly and decisively. We ought to give Iran and Syria and Hezbollah an ultimatum. If Israel gets attacked one more time, then we are teaming up with Israel and going after them. And I mean, we should go in with small strategic nuclear bombs.
Waging war halfway against these people is a recipe for defeat and disaster. They need to be annihilated. We need to kill their leaders and establish new governments that honor the rule of law and justice.
I happend to know an Iranian-American. One of my wife's friends married an Iranian girl who immigrated (legally) to the United States. She is cool (and Christian). She says that many in her country are very "modern," but subject to an Islamic dictatorship.
I am deeply concerned that our nation does not have the political will to fight this war. We are a neo-pagan, socialist, sex-crazed society. As a nation, we don't have a clear understanding of right and wrong, because so many have been given over to depraved thinking. The schools are training the next generation to be passive leftist politically correct socialist wimps. The politicians are corrupt. The leftist media is so over the top secular and liberal that it is maddening. And too many of the people think that we are invincible.
The hope for our nation is in the churches that have not sold out to the world system. (And many churches, even churches that have stayed true doctrinally, have sold out to the world's system). It is going to take incredible courage, bravery, wisdom, and faith on God's people to rise up and learn to speak the truth in love. We need to learn that always pleasing people is not Christlike. We need to learn that Christianity is not just a pew that we sit in on Sunday mornings. Christianity is not about asking God to bless us as we continue to make the American dream the reason for life. Christianity is about righteousness and commitment to Christ - establishing justice - loving mercy - preaching the gospel - confronting evil - loving our neighbors - looking out for our neighbors - protecting our neighbors. Christianity is about recognizing that the government is not going to do it, so we had better.
Only we can provide the leadership and direction for this country as we forge onward into this war. If the leadership doesn't come from the honest people of integrity in the church, then from where will it come?
"You know, Biblically-speaking, if God's covenant with Israel as the chosen people gave it certain designated property rights--- hasn't their reject of God's son the true Messiah invalidated this agreement?"
The short answer is simple: No.
Go back and read Genesis. Take careful note every time God made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is an "everlasting" covenant.
Make no mistake; the Jews who have rejected Yeshua are not saved. They need to believe and repent just like everyone else. But they are a still a special chosen people of God, and they still get certain promises and blessings.
But why would you try to use the Bible to convince me to turn on the Jews and become an apologist for the Islamic terrorists.
Look at the common sense. Israel is a great nation. The moral code of the Jews is great. They have been extremely successful, and to a large degree, they have done so in a way that is just.
They have been harrassed, terrorized, and persecuted throughout history, and yet they have pressed on. They are not a fascist state - unlike Iran. The government of Israel treats their citizens decently and justly - for the most part (although, forcing them to pull out of their homes so that terrorists can have them was not just).
Muslims on the other hand say that it was Ishmael and not Isaac that Abraham was set to sacrifice on Mount Moriah (a huge deal). 2200 years after the fact, they Mohammed made up that story. Mohammed preached extremism and hate. He went to war. He established a treaty with Jews. He broke the treaty and murdered them. He denied Christ.
And that's why the Crusades happened. Islam was seeking to take over the world and seeking to convert or kill all the Jews in Palestine. Meanwhile they were seeking to convert everyone. They would force people to convert or die.
Can you support your claim that Lebanon is a nation with a "Christian majority?"
The problem is that Lebanon lacks the will and the ability to disarm Hezbollah. Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese government. Iran and Syria fund and support Hezbollah.
The problem of course is not going to go away. Even after we take out Hezbollah, the Iranian government, the Syrian government, bin Laden, etc. The problem - in the final analysis - is an issue of the heart. Establishing law and order in a society - especially in the Middle East - without permitting the government to become an abusive despotic regime - that is very tricky business.
And that's why we are so very desperate for God. Without God, we will either create a religious despotic government that oppresses the masses via an religious (probably heretical) epistemological hegemony, or you create a secular despotic government that oppresses the masses via a religiously secular epistemological hegemony. When one side gets too powerful, the people get scared and make the pendulum swing - but then Newton's first law is in effect. That pendulum swings right past truth, righteousness, and justice, and swings the other way until the former anti-establishment crowd becomes the establishment.
This calls for wisdom and discipline. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Person by person, the gospel must go forth. Christ is our hope.
"Hezbollah is a terrorist organization committed to Israel's destruction."
Well, the first thing is-- we have this notion that a "military" and a "terrorist" are somehow substantially different. They really haven't been much different since before WWI. Sure, there used to be a time when military targets went off into fields and fought each other, but you didn't kill the civillians. But that hasn't been that way for a long, long time.
Israel is killing civillians. Israel is killing lots of civillians. Hezbollah is killing civillians. But because Israel has uniforms and planes, they're a military. Because Hezbollah runs a guerilla war, they're terrorists.
For me, there's not such a clear-cut distinction. I'm not saying Israel is wrong, or that I could do things differently in their place-- but I'm saying we should NOT look at the middle-east conflict as a war between the forces of God vs the Servants of Satan. It is not good -vs- evil. There are plenty of injustices, civillian causalties, and illegalities on all sides.
"If they get overrun, they will blow up several Islamic state capitals with her nuclear weapons.
Israel will never get overrune. Their military substatially outclasses anyone in the region. They are not "in danger" of invasion in any sense. Not even close.
That's why the war has degraded to carbombs and isolated missile attacks. There isnt' a military in the region that can stand up to the Israeli military-- nor will there be.
"They want to kill you. They already hate you."
Bah! there's a lot of people in the world who would want to kill me. As I've said-- I have just as much to fear from a Christian theocracy as I do from a Islamic one. You don't think the vatican would kill us all if they ruled the world and we spoke out? You think the God Hates Fags group would hesistate for one second to shoot me in the head if they ran the world.
People have ALWAYS been wanting to kill us. What bothers me so much about hte "post-9/11-world" is that people have no comprehension of what a gang of amateurs Bin Laden and company were. My college DORM could have pulled of 9/11 if we'd been so inclined.
Now, we didn't sell out our principles for the communists-- and they ran half the world. We didn't sell out our principles when we fought the germans, or the germans, or the spanish ,or the english, or the english.
Now... a couple of thugs pull off a third-rate crime, and suddenly we're willing to burn our flag and everything it stands for?
Bin Laden is not Lex Luthor, he is not the Joker, he is not Dr. Evil. He was a third-rate criminal who killed some people. His cronies couldn't even find the white house so they hit the pentagon instead, and the passenger were going to take over another plane so they crashed it instead.
It's sad, but it's not like the world is somehow "different". People want to kill each other. People wanted to kill me before 9/11, people wanted to kill me after it. We're scared to death of terrorrists, but really, I could go to any city in the country and find a street it's not safe to walk down.
The sad fact is-- this is the price for a free society. If you want to have a free society, then a group of a highly motivated individuals are going to be able to kill some people if they want to. You can't stop them . Tapping every phone in america won't change anything-- people are going to kill each other. It's sad, but it's no reason to institute a police state.
"She says that many in her country are very "modern," but subject to an Islamic dictatorship. "
Exactly-- the people of Iran are just as good as people anywhere else. And you know-- the cold war is illustrative here. There was no military solution that could win the cold war. No combination of bombs, planes, and soldiers. We could spend our whole lives trying to figure out how to bomb our way to victory, and we never could have done it. The secret came when we tried to reach out to them, wait them out, and wait till they got a leader that wanted to change things.
You can't bomb people into liking you. Just doesn't work. If you're going to try, you'd better be willing to do a holocaust and round up and exterminate whole races, because that's what it'll take.
So, consider this whole recent invasion of lebanon. Before, most of the people in Lebanon had a real love-hate relationship with Lebanon-- some supported them, but also saw them as a threat to the Lebanese government. Now, that Israel has attacked, there's a huge humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, and guess who's stepping up to help out-- Hezbollah. The people of Tyre are going to end up getting mure humanitarian aid from Hezbollah than the people of New Orleans got from FEMA. And Hezbollah is going going to go from being seen as a threat to the people of lebanon to being seen as the saviors and defenders of the nation. Israel is less safe today than it was a month ago. Peace is further away than it was a month ago.
"We ought to give Iran and Syria and Hezbollah an ultimatum. If Israel gets attacked one more time, then we are teaming up with Israel and going after them. And I mean, we should go in with small strategic nuclear bombs."
I assume of course you're not actually serious-- but it's an interesting thought. Hitler could only kill six million jews-- one bomb could take out the 12 million residents of Tehran-- no cattle cars, no gas chambers, no furnaces, and we could break Hitler's record for the extermination of innocents in under a second.
Of course, when you look at exhasperating problems, it's natural to consider crazy horrible ideas. Here's on of my solutions to the conflict over the Holy Land. If two kids are fighting over a toy, exhasperated parents sometimes take the toy away and say "If you two are just going to fight, NO ONE will get it". So, we announce one day that in three months, we're going to nuke Jerusalem and the rest of the holy land. Three months later, after everyone's evacuated, we send the missiles, and no one's going to be fighting over THAT land for ten thousand years.
Obviously, of course, I expect this wouldn't really be a very good solution-- but it _IS_ innovative.
"Can you support your claim that Lebanon is a nation with a "Christian majority?""
Well, a poltical majority, and a popular-near majority-- look up the Lebanon page on Wikipedia. By law, exactly half the members of parliment AND the president are christian. Because everyone pretty happy with the current status quo politically, no one has wanted to do a more recent census and risk that it might jeopardize the current political compromise-- but definitely "half-ish" of the country is Christian-- maybe more than half-ish.
And let me tell you-- the Christians may be willing to accept Hezbollah's aid, they might even look at Hezbollah as the good guys in the current conflict, but there is NO WAY they want Iran running Lebanon. So, the whole "Lebanon is an evil muslim terrorist nation" is a lie-- and out and out lie. Lebanon is filled with Christians-- good christian children were being murderer as part of a campaign by Israel. It's inexcusable.
"And that's why the Crusades happened. Islam was seeking to take over the world "
Bah! It's crazy to take sides in the crusades. One group of fanatical fundamentalists going to war against another group of fanatical fundamentalists. The Christians wanted to invade and kill the muslims countries, the muslim countries wanted to invade and kill the christian countries. If you had to pick a villian in that war, the Christians are the most likely candidate, but at the end of the day, they're both primitive superstitious fanatics killing each other over whose god is best.
You don't think the Popes would have declared a crusade to exterminate all the protestants if they could have?
"Mohammed preached extremism and hate. He went to war."
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I haven't studied Islam more. I always tend to be pretty skeptical of people who claim God wants wars. (grin)
"[Israel is not] a fascist state - unlike Iran."
Well to be sure, if you're a Palestinian behind a wall in Gaza, Israel certainly doesn't feel very democratic right now. But no, Israel is DEFINITELY not Iran. But-- is that REALLY all we require out of a modern nation-- you're not as bad as a totalitarian theocracy?
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Here's the really scary thing. Our current government WANTS an excuse to go to war with Syrian and Iran. They want to manufacture a reason.
And we don't have the power to do it. All we have is the power to get ourselves in a really, really big mess. We don't have enough soldiers to turn Iran and Syria into police states. We can't do. All we can do is get ourselves in a big, big mess that will screw up the world for another twenty years. This is very important to get right, and unfortunately, the people driving are either collosally stupid, dictatorially evil, or BOTH.
Because Iran won't be like Iraq. The people of Iraq DID hate Sadaam. They sincerely did want him gone. But the government of Iran isn't like that. They have the same kind of support that Catholics give to the Pope. Their ability to fight an insurgency against an occupation would be substantial.
That's the problem with the politics right now. Nobody likes totalitarian dictators-- but realistically, war isn't going to solve this problem. And worse of all, to even disagree is called "aiding the terrorists"-- so people have been afraid to stand up and scream that our emperor has no clothes-- that our current government is a blundering group that is high in the running for getting the "Worst Presidency in US History" award.
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"And with minimal research, I can point out how screwed up and depraved the UN is. "
Well, the UN clearly has its faults and it makes a lousy world government, but there's a tremendous wisdom in it. It's main goal has always been as a forum for the most powerful nations to communicate and to agree to exercise only what they can all agree on. So, it's kinda lousy as far as world government goes, but it serves its purpose. We should never forget the existence of the UN has probably saved all our lives more than once-- the Cuban Missile Crisis being one example. But, I understand people's concern that it's somewhat ineffective. Oh well, you should have listened to my second-favorite president Woodrow Wilson and joined the League of Nations. :)
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