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Down The Middle - Jan 15, 2005 - Printable Version
- "George Bush’s Viet Nam" and "The Religious Wrong"
by Down The Middle
There they were again. Those two little words. Oh, yeah, we’ve heard them so many times before...but this time, it was different. This time, the comparison stuck. Iraq had become George Bush’s Viet Nam.
Although I am as terribly saddened about this “war” as anyone {except, of course, the friends and family of those injured or killed}, I was happy to see the Godfather of Democrats, Ted Kennedy, say it loud and clear. This was Bush’s Viet Nam!
From the beginning, top military generals, both active and retired, tried to warn the Administration. Not all disagreed with the idea of retiring Saddam, but they all knew the neo-cons in the cabinet were completely wrong in their thinking about how to go about it. It was obvious to many of us, in the beginning, that we weren’t sending enough troops to
disarm the country, and it should have been obvious to the Administration that the Iraqis were not just going to “throw flowers at us”, as they tried to convince our countrymen.
The only way to stop an insurgency is to destroy it before it starts. This would have required massive troop strength {300,000} to disarm the country and it’s population. Not only did we not have the troops to disarm the people, we didn’t even have the troops to guard the ammo and weapons caches across the country, affording prospective insurgents a vast and steady supply of munitions. Now, our troops are paying the price of the neo-cons' folly.
With dollar signs in their eyes, and revenge for his father in the heart of the President, this Administration took advantage of the 9/11 tragedy to rush to war. Now we are “stuck in the muck”, with no strategy for getting out. Rebuked by the Administration, our historical allies watch from the sidelines as our inadequate forces suffer the daily attrition of a guerrilla war.
It is time to ask ourselves the same question that people eventually quit asking in Viet Nam. How many U.S. soldiers died today? If you don’t know the answer, the war may already be lost.
My first recollection of a Presidential election was the 1959 campaign between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. {Tricky Dicky} Nixon. Even though I was still a wee lad at the time, I still remember piling in the ole family truckster {with my parents and six siblings} after church, one fine Sunday morning, when I spied a fellow worshiper pulling away with a Nixon bumper sticker squarely attached to rear of his car. Immediately, I pointed out the transgression and questioned my father as to why a Catholic would be voting for Nixon. Dad just got that familiar hint of a smile on his face {that’s the one that meant, you’re a dumb kid but you’re cute} and informed me, “That’s not the way it works”
.
It was probably a bit hard for me to comprehend {After all, I WAS just a dumb little kid} but it all seemed quite logical, at least until Kennedy explained it to me. Actually, he was explaining to the nation that he would be “a President who happens to be Catholic, not a Catholic who happens to be President”, but in turn, he also explained it to me. This was my first lesson in the separation of church and state which our American Revolutionary patriots had fought and died for. If I could understand it as a dumb little kid, why do so many adults seem to be having such a hard time understanding it today?
Most of these people consider themselves good Christians, and for the most part, I believe...that they “believe”. Unfortunately, many of these folks seem to incorrectly interpret some of the verses in the Good Book. For instance, I have heard freely quoted that, “God gave us all the green plants to use”, so this somehow becomes an argument for leveling the forests. {I’ve always wanted to ask them if they’re smokin’ a lot of pot too.} I agree, God gave us the forests, and many other resources, “to use”, but I cannot believe he intended for us to mismanage these resources to the point that they are no longer useful...and, in fact, are harmful to us.
To be a good Christian, we must first ask the question, “What would our Lord have us do?” Many of today’s Christians believe they have led “clean” lives because they don’t drink too much, if at all. They don’t have sex, other than with their avowed partner. And they go to church, at least every Sunday. This is all good and well...but they seem to be overlooking some other very basic aspects of our Savior’s teachings.
If there is one pitfall that Jesus constantly warned us about...it was money! You remember money, “the root of all evil”? Every day, I see so many of these Christians go out in the world and do “anything” to further their financial statement. It’s just business...right? {Jesus said it was as hard for a rich man to get into heaven as it was for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.} Indeed, our country is now fighting a war which, in the end, seems to be about...“money”. I cannot remember Christ promoting war. I just remember him talking about “loving thy neighbor”.
Oh, but they say “This is a religious war that the Moslem terrorists started ”. Well, if you’re so dumb to still be confused about who did what, when...then, just forget it. My fence post is “deeper” than you. It’s about the oil. It’s always been about the oil! They got it. We want it. {Do you really think that if that oil wasn’t there, we would be in the Middle East, fighting a “religious war”.} And, if you speak of terrorists...well, I once heard a priest say “All men are terrorists”, and I would have a hard time debating it.
I guess what really offends me are the “Churches” that stopped reading scripture, and started handing out political pamphlets and watching political videos, all the while “commanding” their members to vote Republican or “GO to HELL”. A man told me just the other day, his pastor had informed the congregation that “If they didn’t vote for Bush, they would have to answer for it...to God!!!”. {I believe this behavior actually turns churches into Political Action Committees, subject to forfeiting their tax exempt status.} Now, Falwell wants us to abandon the two-thirds majority it takes to amend our Constitution in favor of a “simple” {51%} majority {Talk about infusing church into state!} I actually thought about sending the “Finger” video ( http://207.44.245.159/video1033.htm ) to ole Jerry and all of the “fire breathing” churches in my area, with a lead-in of, “Thanks from the President to the
Religious Right, for all their spiritual support,” but then I realized they would automatically claim it was digitally altered by those “Hollywood” liberals. If pastors were doing their ordained duty of ministering to the sick and poor, instead of declaring Holy war on other religions and trying to usurp the Constitution of the United States, they might even have time to save a few of those Democratic souls. {I think they figure all the “lefties” are going to Hell anyway, so why bother?}
Well, it may not be a surprise to many of my readers that, I too, “believe”, but it might get your attention if I told you that I also believe we are in the “later days”. {The last generation begins when Israel is gathered from all the nations of the world to come together as one nation, in their own land: 1948} Although I do have the faith, my opinion may not be totally based on Biblical prophesy alone. As I look at the world today, I can’t help but admit that I am very pessimistic. The one thing that mankind has repeatedly proven, over the centuries, is that he is a greedy, murderous creature. {I think Freud said “Kill all, take all”.} With today’s weapons, we have given ourselves the tools to murder thousands, yes, millions, and I do believe mankind will be true to it’s history and use them. We are also facing a global pandemic {possibly the Asian bird flu} which we have no immunities to. Let us remember that the Spanish flu of 1918 killed more people than World War I. ( http://www.ninthday.com/spanish_flu.htm ) If this wasn’t enough to worry about, we are polluting our earth, air and water at such a rate, it is up to question how long the planet that “feeds” us can actually survive our abuse. ( http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/GlobalWarning/1016.html )
It’s beginning to appear that we do need a savior. We apparently haven’t the will to save ourselves.
I do, however, object to the rational of many of today’s “believers” that everyone’s going to
hell...except them. I know of one particular case, involving a middle-aged married man, who recently bragged of his church’s fasting for the election of the President, and then brought his much, much younger female “exchange student” {who lives in his house} to a liquor store, buying her whatever she desired, all the while placing and running his hands “all over” her body, with the clerk looking on.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m certainly not claiming I am without sin. I confess, my sins are piled high, and I do pray for forgiveness each day. What bothers me are the hypocrites who use the faith to further their own personal gains. I cannot see how these people reconcile their lives with this faith they claim. Don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly not here to sing the “moral” praises of the Left. Believe me, there’s enough guilt to go around. I’m just a little tired of the religious Right portraying themselves as the “chosen few”.
Maybe, the world is headed towards it’s end {the prophesies do tell of wars and natural disasters increasing in number and ferocity up to the Second Coming}, but it seems to me, as to the claim that WE are the “good”, in this war of good and evil? I’m not so sure about that. {If these folks would look a little closer, I think they will find that it’s the Anti-Christ who will bring peace to the Middle East, declare himself God, and then, upon obtaining absolute
authority, have his way with the world. My interpretation is that Jesus comes to save mankind from totally annihilating himself. It is the “innocent” that are taken in the Rapture...and after the holocaust, “the meek shall inherit the Earth”.
I can’t tell you what to believe or who to believe. God is within you, and that is where one must look to find him. I will tell you that our time is limited. We all pass away from this world, whether the world goes on or not. No one knows the exact moment of their death, just as no one knows the exact moment of the return of our savior.
In our busy day to day lives, it’s all too easy to forget that we exist by HIS grace and we are not the authors of our own fate. I pray we all find God...before He “finds” us. The fuse is burning.
The Fuse
by Jackson Browne
It's coming from so far away
It's hard to say for sure
Whether what I hear is music or the wind
Through an open door
There's a fire high in the empty sky
Where the sound meets the shore
There's a long distance loneliness
Rolling out over the desert floor
And the years that I spent lost in the mystery
Fall away leaving only the sound of the drum
Like a part of me
{It speaks to the heart of me}
Forget what life used to be
{You are what you choose to be}
It's whatever it is you see
That life will become
Whatever it is you might think you have
You have nothing to lose
Through every dead and living thing
Time runs like a fuse
And the fuse is burning
And the earth is turning
Though the years give way to uncertainty
And the fear of living for nothing strangles the will
There's a part of me
{That speaks to the heart of me}
Though sometimes it's hard to see
{It's never far from me}
Alive in eternity
That nothing can kill
Oh Lord
Are there really people starving still?
Look out beyond the walls of Babylon
{How long will their needs go unfilled}
I want to say right now I'm going to be around
{I'm going to be around}
When the walls and towers are crumbling
{When the towers are tumbling down}
And I will tune my spirit to the gentle sound
{I want to hear the sound of the children laughing}
Of the waters lapping on a higher ground
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