Chad, my friend,
This correspondence is important, and I will now reprint it for the purpose of National Debate:
Chad,
I wanted to share a PUBLIC Military breach . . .
In 2004 I filled out one of those Republican Party surveys (I had donated $2000 in 2004 to an African American GOP candidate . . .), and I had told the Republican Party NOT to equip the Iraqi Army with the most expensive of weaponry, etc. because there might be "sleepers" who were actually Saddam loyalists, terrorists, etc.
Fortunately, we went this direction and held back on our best technology, etc., BUT the "sleeper" argument horrifically proved true as one of the worst attacks on our forces was the bomb that went off in our dining facility (smuggled in by one such "sleeper"). Horrifically, I know a Chaplain who was actually there and lived through it. In other words, be careful demonizing your fellow Americans while you are lax in National Security. Any coincidence that the VA Tech massacre was perpetrated by a North Korean foreign national??? Sleepers are right here my friend, and [what] we can do about it now is to Americanize them and have them get so addicted to American prosperity that they don't want to blow themselves up on our soil. Trust me on this one. The Republican Party did, and we are safer because of it.
This will be shared in my Presidential Exploratory Committee blog if you would like to follow up publicly.
Blessings in YHWH,
Rob J King
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For those viewing this without background, Rob and I are good friends on opposite sides of several issues, and we both consider these kinds of engagements "fun". This is part of an ongoing discussion.
While "I" am lax in National Security? Exactly what are you referring to where "I" am lax in National Security? This is the problem with language, my friend. You are referring to the perception that the Democratic Party is lax, which according to that perception is due to the "liberal values" of those individuals. That perception is pushed by people who want to divide the American people with lines down our streets and down the center of our dinner tables.
Tell me, which political party has won which wars, and which one has lost which wars? It's not a question of being lax about national security. It's a debate about which set of values is more effective in the long term. I know my answer to that. What's yours?
Chad,
Okay, "you" personally are not lax on National Security. Your idea of securing Baghdad "neighborhood by neighborhood," is an excellent one, a product of your military training.
Having said this, I am gravely concerned that as politicans debate and activists blog (that's us!) the men & women in uniform are forced into 16 month deployments (rather than 12 month deployments due to the financial burden that the War in Iraq is causing).
My answer is a systematic withdrawal with a set timetable (Barak Obama style). Since we as an American people did not have the will to fight this war until the end (a war that should never have been started in my opinion and in the opinion of Pope John Paul II), then the only logical decision is to pull out. It would take like 400,000 U.S. soldiers to secure Iraq at a minimum given the size of the country and its violence. We can not afford this in terms of man-power, so therefore we must pull out.
Thank you for the dialogue.
Rob J
Ah, but this brings into the debate exactly who we are at war with, where are they, and what we can do to 'win'.
Our warriors are being forced into 16 month tours because we don't have enough people joining to keep up with the demand of having our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time. Have we EVER been at war with the Iraqi people? Not to my knowledge. And as long as we don't have long term designs on the natural resources of that country, and don't want to make use of the location for further expansions or incursions into other countries in the Middle East, there is no reason for our forces to be there at all. The situation in Iraq will continue to degrade until we change our entire focus and start defending the water, power and other infrastructure that the people depend on. My neighborhood by neighborhood security proposal is the only way that it will ever work.
Afghanistan, however, is where our real enemy is. Osama Bin Laden and his team of suicide pilots hit us in 2001, and I want him brought to justice. And any blogger worth his salt would know that he is in China in negotiations with the Chinese Government since we launched Anaconda. It was actually in the Chinese news a few years ago. But can our Pentagon find him? Of course not.
Chad,
Again, we are in fundamental agreement. Although I had the highest admiration for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield, I am overjoyed that our new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is a product of the intelligence community and perhaps better trained to fight this new multi-tangled web of a war on terror.
Regarding Iraq, yes, protecting the Iraqi people's basic infrastructure is what we must focus on, and yes, I also agree that allowing the country to return to its own full national sovereignty is essential. Sadly, however, what this will likely mean is that anti-semitic Iran will increasingly pressure and manipulate the fledging Iraqi State.
Thank you. We are in fundamental agreement concerning the "who" to focus on in the War on Terror (i.e. finding and beating Osama bin Laden and his terror network).
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J.
Yes Osama bin Laden must be brought to justice, but is he the only object of the war on terror. He and the organisations that he spurrned are the faces of terror , but faces change. Military action against these people is justified and should be continued, but its not the only front in teh war on terror.
But in my mind the war needs to be won somewhere else too. And that is in the hearts and minds of those who feel marginalised, threatened and abused by exploiters of greed and by the power mongers. These marginalised people are helped to think (wrongly) that it is the US and the "west" that are the cause of human suffering and moral decay (as depicted in Holywood movies and TV) and thus by deduction all Christians (who Holywood allegedly represent)
We need to win the hearts and minds by showing and persuading these people that greed and power seeking is the problem and that this is a human trait, that only Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit can change people hearts. When we can do this then the war on terror will stop as we change human nature to Christ's nature and make real Christians.
I live in a country of extremes (1st world meets 3rd world, bordered by a country that is the third worst on the UN's scale of human development)and it seems that the wealthy in business are intent on transferring risk to the poorest of the poor so that they can continue to improve the bottom line and grow companies at rates of growth close to tripple the rates of inflation, so that the "market is happy". We worship the "market" like a deity. This greed in the market place should also be a target of the war on terror. Making a profit is one thing and working hard to do this is to be encouraged, but to decend into greed drives the marginalised into the arms of the enemy.
Nick Tat
Nick,
Excellent commentary. One of the problems with capitalism in general is that its "human anthropology" (that is, its understanding of the human person that undergirds ANY theories of economics as taught in the West) is that human beings are essentially "atomized, profit-maximizing, individualistic, seekers of pleasure." From marginal utility curves (i.e. charting when production becomes less appealing to the consumer) to even the supply/demand curve itself, the capitalistic view of the human person is one of "isolated, pleasure-maximizing utilitarian rights protection." (Liberal OR Conservative varieties).
Here is where Christian views of personhood (and Jewish also, but not Hindu or Buddhist), are a stark contrast to such utilitarianism. How would the virtue of altruism fit in such capitalistic views of human personhood? How would self-restraint (the Christian Virtue of Continence, that is self-control)?
I am sure that you get my point. Secular thinking is fundamentally flawed at a rational level, and this includes secular capitalist economic theory (of any political persuasion). Of course, communism is certainly NOT the answer either, especially because it is an ideology that is DIRECTLY anti-Christian, and anti-religious also . . .
No, as Christians (and Jews), the view of Genesis 1 & 2 in that we are created in God's Image is something that SHOULD influence Economic Thinking, but rarely does. But of course, now Economic Apostles such as the late Larry Burkett (an Evangelical financial wizard) are trying to reclaim the market for Jesus. Of course, the danger in doing so is that Christians may become more "capitalist" than Christian. As for me, I prefer a direct exchange of labor and profit as was seen throughout the 19th century agrarian era in U.S. History, a theory roughly labelled as "mercantilism" in which exchange of goods and services drove the economy, and money was only viewed as a type of "placeholder" of worth for actual, living economic exchanges. It was THIS mercantilist system that led to American prosperity. A pure capitalist system, however, leads only to capital hoarding leading to exploitation and control of labor as a type of indentured servitude, a situation that can and has historically, served as a "breeding ground" for Marxist revolt . . .
So, the answer to our world economic woes is a more direct, more fair exchange of labor as true profit-producing value, rather than labor viewed as a nuisance and a marginally necessary "supply cost." Of course, this meant for India in Gandhi's era that they had to begin making their own cloth and salt rather than being enslaved to the British Imperialists. Now sadly, India is still enslaved, but to their own Indian elite class who are probably more brutal than the British.
Thanks again for your excellent insights!
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob
you wrote: It was THIS mercantilist system that led to American prosperity. A pure capitalist system, however, leads only to capital hoarding leading to exploitation and control of labor as a type of indentured servitude.
Nick Responds: With this I am in complete agreement. The free market that spurned the US to economic greatness has been replaced by a capitalist hoarding system, that is completely foreign to Christian or Jewish thought.
The concept of "shalom" peace is so much more than the absence of war, but encapsulates the whole community, peace and prosperity cannot be individualistic because concept works a bit like this "I cannot be at peace if my neighbour is not at peace".
After Jesus' statement that the law and profits are summed up in the statement "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and love your neighbour as yourself." his disciples asked who is my neighbour ? In our global village I think the neighbour should be extended but conceptually the good Samaritan was the neighbour. He brought peace where others in self protection stole their own shalom.
Going back to the original posting thread on the war on terror, I believe that the war needs to be fought on many fronts and being good neighbours needs to be a massive thrust from all Christians.
The recent shooting of students at a university by a Korean student begs a question, why does someone feel so marginalised in a community that they would fall apart in this manner. This incident is no different from the Columbine incident of a few years ago and is not different from the man who attacked the Amish school girls.
A phenomenon in South Africa (more than one a year) is what has been called family suicide, where (usually) the farther in a family decides to kill his children, wife and then himself in an act of utter despair.
If there are people inside our communities who are so marginalised that they feel that these acts of lunacy are the only course of action, how do those outside our communities feel?
Its all bout bringing the peace (shalom) of Jesus Christ to people so that all can be part of the narrative of God's people and share in his redemption.
Nick,
Yes, SHALOM is what I am praying CONSTANTLY over Iraq. I hope and pray that Shalom will fall upon this violent land. The violence will not be contained through ANY human means. Only the direct Hand of the LORD Almighty.
Thank you for sharing.
I will be forever indebted to you.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob
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