How You Deal With Brownshirt Tactics...

While President Reagan was the most eloquent speaker in recent memory, which garnered him the title of "The Great Communicator", what is less known, though tacitly understood by all, was his uncanny ability to get straight to the matter without mincing words.

I find myself wishing that our current politicians would have more backbone when confronting overt hostility from the brownshirts...

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Deterrence Eroded

Mark this day well.

This is the day the United States has effectively lost its military deterrence in the world.

North Korea’s nuclear test this past Sunday in defiance of a stark warning from the United States exemplifies how rogue regimes are no longer intimidated by the United States. In just a couple of days after the Bush Administration declared, “We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea,” the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong II, responded by detonating what many believe to be a nuclear weapon.

In response to this blatant act of defiance, the U.S. presented the North Korean crisis to the U.N., that most ignoble and corrupt of organizations. The North Koreans, in contrast, casually brushed off the threat of sanctions and demanded that the U.S. hold direct talks with it or nuclear missiles will fly. Tit for tat.

Excuse me?

Since when did such a small, backwater country get the temerity to threaten the United States with nuclear weapons?


Perhaps while we rented our shirts and wailed over domestic sex scandals...

Perhaps while we whined over gas prices, in spite of our unparalleled booming economy...

Regardless, we were otherwise detained with more... um... pressing issues...

Any military strategist knows that a country’s military might is only as strong as its national will. A nation, like ours, with boundless natural resources and technological superiority over its enemies is utterly meaningless if that nation does not have the will to use it. This is not to say that we must use our military might in any and all cases. However, we must not leave a doubt in the minds of our enemies that we will use this terrible power to defend ourselves and our interests.

In plain words, we must have an effective deterrence against the Kim Jong’s and Ahmadinejad’s of the world. And it is this deterrence that has eroded in the past two decades.

Note this brief article from Seoul:

SEOUL (XFN-ASIA) - North Korea may move towards conducting further weapons tests and deploying nuclear warheads on missiles, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, citing an unidentified North Korean official.

The official told Yonhap's Beijing correspondent that Pyongyang's next moves will largely depend on 'how the situation develops,' adding this will in turn depend on the actions of the United States.

North Korea wants the situation to be resolved soon before it deteriorates to the point of 'launching nuclear missiles,' the official said.

The official said the US continues to threaten North Korea, while rejecting dialogue, the report said.

'The US may want us to remain a 'powerless rogue state' in a bid to maintain the balance of power in Northeast Asia but the US will never have its way,' the official said.

North Korea sees the nuclear test, in diplomatic terms, as a means of expressing Pyongyang's desire to hold bilateral talks with the US, the report said.

As for expected sanctions against North Korea by the UN Security Council, the official told Yonhap: 'We have already lost enough... Sanctions will never be a solution.'

It is clear that North Korea does not believe we will go to war over their nuclear weapons program, despite a 50-year Cold War to prove that we just might. The difference between the Cold War and now is lack of restraint on the part of our enemies. While we attempt to conduct world affairs from the lofty position of high idealism, our enemies desire to bath themselves in the blood of their enemies—whether the wholesale killing in Dafur or the Muslim takeover of Mogadishu... or killing over two thousand Americans with jet airliners.

The Visigoths are slamming together their battleaxes and shields in front of our gates, and we have been giving them food in hopes they will just leave; or handing them our technology to coax them into benevolence... no, better yet, we’ve sent them psychiatrists to simultaneously diagnose their bellicosity and to further explain that our own neuroses and so-called "imperialism" has the cause of their bloodthirst...

The threat of sanctions against North Korea, perhaps, might yield results to our interests, though I am hard pressed to find a single example of sanctions actually leading to friendly behavior. I am also hard pressed to find a single example of the U.N. doing anything useful without U.S. involvement.

I think it is time for us, the people of United States of America, to take a long hard look at this crisis and the world in general and ask ourselves this simple question:

Are we going to stand by and watch the madness of the world destroy us? Or will we garner the will, unashamed, to defend ourselves and our interests before the threat becomes reality?

If we decide to preemptively strike North Korea and Iran, we must also decide to back the President in what he decides because, in truth, he is the only man who can decide. Either we back our President in this endeavor, or we should sit down and remain silent when our government appears indecisive. It would be a very bloody exercise in futility indeed if we demand the President to fight on the one hand, and then undercut and undermine him at every turn on the other, as we have consistently done with Iraq. Had we supported him all the way from the start and throughout, the mess now in Mesopotamia needn’t have happened.

We said, “Destroy the enemy, but try not to kill anyone.” (It’s a massacre if we do.)

We said, “We aren’t winning fast enough, so let’s pull out our troops now!” (It’s for oil, anyhow.)

We said, “It’s a quagmire! We should have sent in more troops!” (I beg your pardon, Europe, can you spare some?)

Are we so infantile that we demand perfection in life and war; that if it isn’t perfect, then it is excrement? In truth, the price of victory is always paid in blood, either in our blood or that of our enemies, but there will always be that terrible price to be paid.

Know that at the end of the day when the shouts of demagogues and banter of pundits fade inexorably to silence, it is “We the People” who are steering this ship of state. We ultimately decide our own fate, whether we stand as a people or fall.

Abraham Lincoln described this most eloquently. To wit:

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

And so it is, and so the question remains.

What will the people of America choose?...

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Essays

In the coming months, I will post a series of essays on this blog-page, though interspersed through these essays will be commentaries and articles on current events as they come. These essays will have a wide range of topics, from religion to politics, from the abstract to the very mundane. You will also find that the root of many of these essays are to be found in the works of C.S. Lewis, of whom I am a great admirer. I invite anyone viewing this page to read his work. Here is a list of his non-fiction works: C.S. Lewis Essays. He always insightful and I doubt anyone can match the simple elegance of his reasoning, which is as trenchant as it is accessible.

I hope you enjoy these essays and I look forward to hearing your comments.

Thomas

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The Second Coming...

Though written almost a century ago in the aftermath of one of the world's most ruinous wars, Yeats' poem is as relevant today as it was then. No doubt after World War I when an entire generation of Europeans were killed, it did indeed seem like the end of civilization. They called it the Great War, the War To End All Wars, for how can mankind suffer such titanic carnage and remain civilized.

But it wasn't the end.

World War II erupted twenty short years later, and then the Korean War came on its heels. Hundreds of millions of men, women and children perished in the fires of furnaces and under the lashes of tyrants. Whether in Nazi concentration camps or in the gulags of Russia and China, the total number dead will never be fully known nor can the horrors be remotely comprehended.

And yet civilization persists...

The fact that it does persist does not prove civilization's resilience to the onslaught of evil in our world. In fact, it alludes to the its opposite. If societies are truly civilized, how can brilliant flares of mind-twisting violence erupt? No, the truth of the matter is civilization is a fragile thing, a thin veneer masking the sins we won't allow ourselves to admit.

Today, the world is falling into a constellation of factors where multiple hideous wars can occur simultaneously across the world, any one of which can spell demise of civilization as we know it. Just the proliferation of super-weapons alone is enough to stop the heart of any man, biological and nuclear weapons in particular. Any third rate power in the world can trigger the death of millions with something as inexpensive as a genetically engineered virus, of which mankind has no natural defense.

In the past, mankind knew how to live off the land. After a catastrophic war, our grandparents and great-grandparents could pick up the pieces and nourish themselves from the food they grew themselves. This is no longer the case. Ask yourself, how many people do you know have the knowledge to manually grow food out of the ground to sustain themselves without any modern technology whatsoever?

I don't know of a single person.

Yeats is right.

The center cannot hold, and severed from God, all things must fall apart...


THE SECOND COMING

By: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

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On War and Peace

When taking a walk or driving on the road anywhere in America, one wonders if we are truly at war. The streets are clean, white-washed, with the hum of street-sweepers trotting by once or twice a week; almost like robotic drones picking up our refuse without raising a sweat. Children and teenagers run about the sidewalks laughing with iPods plugged into one ear and cellphones glued to the other, occasionally resembling a cyborg depending on how many wires toggle from their ears...

Talk to any random person anywhere in America and within two minutes of discussion, you call tell that war is pretty far from their minds. They worry over credit card bills; where are they going to dine?; what movies are they going to watch?; should they buy a used BMW or a new one?...

There are no evidences of war. No bomb shelters. No blasted buildings. Aside from airports and high security areas, we don't even see heavily armed men patrolling the streets. No blackouts along the coasts. No rationing of food. Everything appears remarkably as though it's peacetime with laughter and convivalities spilling out from every corner of every street.

We are swimming in the apex of wealth never before seen in history. Not even Rome enjoyed the power, influence and wealth that we now wield across the whole world... and we seem to think this will last forever.

For now, the war is somewhere "over there", we say to ourselves, where some poor sot volunteered to be shot at out of an outmoded notion of patriotic duty. We say we support our soldiers, and it also patriotic to protest the war, even if vitriolic protesting will kill and undermine our troops in the field.

But, hey, that's his fault, we say secretly.

Nobody forced him to join the army.

What, then, are we to make of this statement from the President of Iran following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon?

Ahmadinejad:
“God's promises have come true… On one side, it's corrupt powers of the criminal U.S. and Britain and the Zionists ... with modern bombs and planes. And on the other side is a group of pious youth relying on God.

I just want to tell them (US, UK, & Israel) that they shouldn't think that, with the cease-fire, everything is finished. I want to announce this year, as a representative of my country and those who had a part and participated in this aggressive attack and prevented the happening of the cease-fire and they are actually participants to the aggression of Zionists, and they should be punished.

…But I want to tell you that the Iranians are a courageous and noble nation, and they will not accept force from anybody. I say that they should do what they have to do and we do what we do. And we will announce when we want to say, as we agreed, in time, and according to what we have promised, we will announce what we have to say. But I want to say that our intention, our fundamental purpose is to protect the rights of our country. And no one has rights to prevent us from this. And no one can stop the development of our nation.

…if you are interested to have interaction, good relations with Iran, you should recognize the rights of this country, and you should also bow down to the dignity and to the nobility of our people. And if you don't do that, our people, the nation of Iran will make you do that."
What, then, are we to make of this statement from the President of Syria?

Assad:
"The Lebanese national resistance is a necessity in as much as it is natural and legal… its legality comes from the fact that Israeli aggression hasn't stopped since 2000”

“Their 'New Middle East', based on subjugation and humiliation, and denial of rights and identity, has turned into an illusion,"

"It is evident that after six years of this (U.S.) administration that there is no peace and there will be none in the foreseeable future,

“…We tell them (Israelis) that after tasting humiliation in the latest battles, your weapons are not going to protect you _ not your planes, or missiles, or even your nuclear bombs ... The future generations in the Arab world will find a way to defeat Israel."

Are we to ignore these threats and go back to sleep, hoping that the world does not mean what it says? Are we so willfully blind that when death and war knocks on our door, we delude ourselves and proceed on with dinner?

Perhaps we will wake up and confront this threat as a people. Or perhaps we will receive the Mideast's most expensive export onto our shores; the kind that doesn't come with a snooze button...

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A Further Christian Note on the Israeli/Lebanon War

With the facts on hand, I think it accurate to surmise from the war in Israel and Lebanon that the term "innocent civilians" is overly stated. The Southern Lebanese as well as the Lebanese government is in large part to blame for the ascension of Hezbollah onto the world stage. However, as Christians, there are two further things to consider.

Mercy and Judgment.

What is the definition of mercy according to our faith? It is benevolent forbearance to those under our power or under our influence. As Christians, it is our duty to bless our enemies and to not judge. Let's not lose sight over who the real enemy is in this war, in every war. It is not against flesh and blood do we contend, as St. Paul said, but Dominions, Thrones, Powers, and Principalities that we contend.

The terrorists, whether Hezbollah, Hamas, or al Quaida, are not our true enemies. They are twisted men and women... and sadly children. They are twisted by a faith that advocates conversion by the sword. They are twisted by an intolerable society that suffers no dissension, no rebuttals.

In Iran, a man can legally be killed for buying fruits from an Arab Sunni tribe. In these failed societies, like Iran, where there is no possibility of ascending the economic ladder, no freedom of speech or movement, where the only entertainment is the weekly "Death to America", "Death to Israel" parades and protests, what do you think the fruits of this will be? They sow the seeds of hatred and reap violence and misery. What more can we do to them that they haven't done already to themselves?

We do these particular sins in our micro daily lives. When we gossip and accuse, we reap discord and discontent (if we're lucky). When we judge and condemn, we reap the whirlwind of our own sins. We should not be surprised that our "white lies" are repaid in the form of deception and perfidiousness. What do you think caused the tumultuous violence in the Middle East but their own sins revisiting them?

We can judge it at our peril or we can bless them. Jesus commanded us to not just to love our own people (“even the pagans do that”), but to positively bless our enemies! These terrorists are all immortal beings made in God's very own Image, like you, like me. How would I fare had I been born to their misery and hatred without any hope of having freedom? I honestly don't know.

We should simply have some clarity on this issue and accept reality on its own terms rather than what we would like them to be. These terrorists that we are hunting down all across the globe are, even now, made in the likeness of God Himself and He loves them every bit as much as He loves you and me.

However, this is not to say we shouldn't prosecute our war on terrorists. Indeed, clarity issues from knowing the terrible necessities of what is and what is to be done. When an animal becomes mad with rabies, attacking the very hand that feeds it, society knows that this animal must be put down before more harm can be done. So it is with the terrorists. We should not rejoice or take any pleasure in killing them.

But kill them we must before the disease of their madness becomes a contagion bringing the roof down over our heads.

May God have mercy on their souls...

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Israel and Lebanon: A Lopsided War

As the world rejoices and breathes a sigh of relief at the supposed cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel, one wonders if the world has gone stark raving mad. I don't mean this figuratively.

For almost couple of months now, news junkies like myself have been bombarded with the horrific business of war. Every day we see men, women, and always children being lifted from what used to be apartment buildings or commerical business fronts. The avalanche of rubble; the blood streaked bodies torn abruptly from normality into a sudden burst of fiery nightmare. Lebanese officials declared on more than one occasion that Israel is "massacring" the civilians, while news pundits solemnly nod their heads.

The impression you take away from watching the news is that of a blood-thirsty Goliath (Israel) indiscrimately smashing defenseless lambs(Hezbollah and Lebanon) with an iron sledgehammer, with the victims being the poor, faultless Lebanese civilians.


Without even noticing it amidst all the carnage and violent outrage, you forget to wonder: Why are they showing only the suffering of Hezbollah and Lebanese civilians?


Doesn't anyone see something odd about this? Do they seriously expect us to believe that throughout this entire war, over a month long now, that no Hezbollah terrorists were killed, just civilians?


For the first time, the world is witnessing the emergence a terrorist army. It's well-organized and well-trained. As everyone knows, Hezbollah is supported by Iran and Syria. What is also well-known, but no one wants to discuss, is that this army could not come into being, in fact, could not even exist without the assistance and the sanction of the Lebanese people and their government. We accuse Hezbollah of using the civilians as human shields, but we gloss over the fact that it's the Southern Lebanese who house Hezbollah and support them.


In might go as far as saying that Hezbollah is the Lebanese government. I recently watched a news interview with the Lebanese Ambassador to Brazil. He insists that Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the Lebanese government and that they aren't terrorists at all. Hezbollah was within its right to fight off Israel's incursions. What this amounts to in fancy diplomatic language is that Hezbollah IS Lebanon.


If many of these "civilians" aren't combatants, they certainly are participants. Of course, there are people who have no part in assisting Hezbollah and have no part in killing Israelis, but this does not detract from the broader statement that much of the people in Southern Lebanon are complicit in unprovoked attacks Israel. If the modern, liberal Western nations tries to win wars by being paralyzed into inaction by the price of civilian casualties, they will lose every time.

Wars are not neat and tidy with little human loss; to try to make it so is simply a blanket denial of reality, noble as it is. No, wars are an ugly affair paid in blood...


This cease-fire agreement does not bold well for Israel, who, in my opinion, has squandered their chance at destroying Hezbollah. As part of the agreement, Lebanon promises to send 15,000 troops into Southern Lebanon to maintain the tenuous peace there. If Hezbollah and the Lebanese government are one and the same, this peace might not last very long. In fact, if the former is true, the Lebanese army is moving south to reinforce Hezbollah-- not disarm it.

Forget for a minute that Hezbollah has attacked Israel for decades. Forget for a moment that Israel attempted to concede land for peace by totally withdrawing from Southern Lebanon six years ago. Forget for a moment that Israel has been on constant war footing since its existence because implacable enemies surround them.


If you focus simply on the rocket attacks, the killings, and the kidnappings that plague every interaction between Israel and Hezbollah, that in itself would be enough justification for war.

How much is enough?


Whatever fiction the media conjures up, from doctored photographs and deliberately bias reporting, remember that Israel is not the cause of this war.


Most of Northern Israel is a ghost town with hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing south. The only people remaining are emergency personnel and enough people to maintain the towns' resources. The media doesn't report this fact.


The Katyusha rockets that miss business and homes, sometimes strike fields and hills nearby. We forget that Israel was a barren rock when the Jews arrived, the fruits of centuries of abuse by it's former Arab occupant. We forget that it took an entire generation through blood, sweat and tears to make Israel bloom again, this oasis in the middle of arid, inhospitable desert. Hezbollah even envies their grass.


This is, indeed, a lopsided war.


All the world and its media roots for Hezbollah, while Israel, that tiny sliver of freedom along the Mediterranean, faces the fight of its life-- for their survival; for the promise of a homeland that the world is bent on destroying...


Except America...

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