If Israel waited any longer, Iran would have become a bigger factor. The quick response was necessary to create the most amount of short term damage with the least amount of regional conflict or disruption of the balance of power. Iran never got a chance to issue ultimatums to Israel not to attack the Hezbelloh. They were forced to draw the line with Syria and say, "Now, if you attack Syria, we are going to blow you to pieces." Who the hell said anything about Syria in the first place?
One of these days, we are going to wake up and everyone is going to realize the leaders from Iran, North Korea, and Syria are making up situation to vent their hostility. For example, N Korea is making up a whole line of bullshit just to say that if they are provoked, they will destroy the world. Do they even have a missile that goes more than 100 miles? Same with the crazy rhetoric coming from the terrorist leaders in Iran and Sytia. They keep saying that if they are attacked, everyone is going to be really sorry. Who the fuck wants to invade Syria in the first place? Meanwhile, the leaders keep trying to make headlines by threatening geothermal nuclear war with weapons they demand a right to 'develop'.
If N Korea of Iran keeps making these sort of bone headed accusations, eventually they are going to provoke a pre emptive strike. Japan is considering it's options against N Korea. More than likely, we need to make sure the Japs don't try anything crazy against N Korea to show their military self determination. I trust they find a strike would be against their constitution.
It makes me sick to see criminals run these governments against all interests of mankind. Where is the liberal backlash against all of the human rights violations in Iraq or N Korea? Too many Democrats blame the Republicans for accepting the responsibility of making the these nations accountable for their actions. The freak show of the election process in this country has made the liberals and conservatives hate each other more than we hate our enemies. That is a real shame.
I would be praying for US leadership if Clinton was in office, that is for fucking sure. I can only assume the same if Gore or Kerry were in office today. The only question would have been whether or not Gore would have pulled the trigger to go after the heart of terrorism in Iraq. Kerry would have been left to defend the right of the Shiite government in Baghdad whether he liked it or not. I doubt he would have made any new decisions to improve the position of the Shiites defended by our troops. Still, I wouldn't be busting his balls to defend the Shiite government that was restored to power in Iraq.
It's time to move beyond the drug induced liberalism of post Vietnam America. It created a rejection of foreign policy that is still shockingly present today. Containment may not have worked in Vietnam to defeat the Communists, but it sure as hell got everyone's attention. We do almost $10 billion a year in trade with Vietnam today, a society with some of the most amazing Buddhist philosphers in the world. They are a mindful, peaceful, and productive society. I would love to know how they would have become such a prosperous nation in the past 25 years without our help.
Containment of jihadism and salafist intolerance is one of the most important foreign issues of our current government. For every liberal that says we should not be getting involved, I would like to point out that is exactly what the salafis would like. Left unchallenged, they will indoctrinate every African, Indian, Indonesian, and every other ethnic group of Muslims around the world to kill in the name of Islamic intolerance. They will sieze control of every resistance movement on the entire face of the planet and teach kids how to hate Westerners.
We need to stand up to terrorism everywhere it is present. We need to support Isreal to kick Hezbelloh's ass out of S Lebanon. We need to make sure the Muslims in Somalia don't assume power. This conflict between Muslim intolerance and global democracy (for a lack of better terms) is essential to our way of life. The sick side of terrorism is becoming too prevalent as the global nation of Muslims reacts against their minority position and economic depravity. The Salafis are building schools all over the world. What are we doing to contain or counterbalance the growth of Islam outside of the ME?
Someone should tell Bono that we need to build schools to encourage mutual religious respect in Africa to overcome poverty. Notice that I didn't say anything about diversity or secularism. The abasence of God promoted by the secularists has weakened our ability to use basic judgement. We need to encourage Christian and Catholic traditions, combined with new age spiritualism witnessed in daily practices like Hinduism and Yoga. Going to church once a week on Sunday morning might not be enough to capture the hearts of the African warriors. Religion in our secular society does absolutely nothing to capture the day to day part of people's lives. It has been totally dissociated from all forms of art, music, sports, exercize, dance, and just about everything in life.
It might behoove the Christians and Catholics to move backwards into the ancient traditions of meditation practiced in yoga to restore vitality and spirit to the practice of religion, IMO. It is intresting to note the Hindus have been the people with the longest tradition of resisting Muslim influence. We might learn a lot from them by connecting with their meditation and physical practices to offer a religious practice that defines the potential for every day life. It defines every part of the human potential including balance, breath, meditation, 2 way prayer, physical activity, poetry, mindul eating, presence, and all aspects of intellectual potential.
Telling a bunch of Africans they are going to hell unless they accept Jesus as the Savior may not prove the best path. It never did a thing for me. Secularism was a dead end for liberals too lazy to go to church on Sunday, while they preached on their own about what an evil society we have built. They convinced our whole society to abandoned the concept of God, rather than realize the concept of God should be to bridge the message of the One God recognized by all religions including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam. Even though the concept of God isn't central is Buddhism, the best book on Christianity that I ever read was written by a Buddhist. The whole message of God's love in the New Testament was tolerance. "Beware the leaven of the Philistines" taught people to engage the message of God, not to apply it as a death sentence for people that fell short of it's standards.
This gap between piety and the application of God's word is the basis for all human rights. It protects the sinner from the intolerant attitude of the self righteous leaders seeking to impose their values on other people. Subsequently, the separation of Church and State in Western culture moved too far to remove the symbol of God from our society altogether. In essence, we killed God to protect people from the intolerant leaders condemning the apostates throughout history. It is the ultimate expression of futile logic.
A person understands the message of God through different expressions of religion in Buddhism, Sufism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion for that matter. It is realized in the enjoyment of finding unique expressions for the love of God, whatever that term might mean to someone. It is a symbol of a Higher Power that is intuitively recognized whenever people seek balance in their life. This process of sharing protects people from their ego, appropriately called 'edging God out' by some of the best ego psychologists I have ever met. |
