Winning the War in Iraq, now that is has been dragging on for 4 years . . .

Has anyone noticed photos of some of our young Marines and other servicemen returning home from Iraq? No I am not talking about the several thousand men & women who have died. I am speaking of the 'survivors.'

Missing arms. Missing legs. One hometown Tampa Bay Marine was even married recently but with a face that was so disfigured it looked like something out of a Mad Max movie. The cause, an I.E.D. or otherwise known as a "road-side bomb."

But here we are, 4 years later, still "fighting" the "War" in Iraq.

Why have we not won this war?

We have nuclear missiles. We have the finest, most technologically-sophisticated fighting force in the world, and yet, we are still at war.

Why is this so?

We call for a "troop surge" and then rather than FULLY EQUIPPING our men and women in uniform (say with about 400,000 troops), we instead send proverbial "chump change" and throw in a few more thousand troops.

Missing arms. Missing legs. Disfigured faces that young Marines will now have. All of this due to political ineptitude on the part of the Bush administration.

I like George W. Bush. Bush is a strong Pro-Life President. Bush is a strong Christian believer. Bush, however, contrary to the words of warning by Pope John Paul II, nevertheless rushed our nation headlong into war. War that was "pre-emptive." War that was ill-advised. War that is only being fought with 1/3 of our national effort.

So, Mr. President, in all due respect, and yes, I do admire you, please either fully support these fine men and women in the military (400,000 boots on the ground MINIMUM) or withdraw the troops immediately. Otherwise, you are perpetuating a slow national bleed of some of our nation's finest men and women. These men and women who serve valiantly, will now likely all become Democrats and war opponents due to your administration not fully supporting them.

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Just War Proponent

The New Christian Empire, Opus Dei and the Latinization of the West

The Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, Roman Catholic Church just recently began having the mass in the official, pre-Vatican II, Tridentine Latin Mass. In this congregation (ironically where I received my First Holy Communion some 18 odd years ago), now the Traditionalists within Catholicism finally will have their rightful place.

In many ways, this whole debate over the Latin mass is somewhat pointless. I am a product of Evangelical Protestantism as much as I am my initial Catholic upbringing. Sola scriptura, sola fides is as much of a part of my belief system (because it is Christian Orthodoxy from St. Paul through St. Augustine!) as is the vast array of Tradition known as Catholicism.

For every sinner in the Catholic Church (including pedophile priests, apostate professors of theology, et al) there are also millions upon millions of ordinary Catholics who daily pray the rosary, venerate icons, and simply believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins and that accepting Jesus as their personal LORD and SAVIOR is essential for salvation.

It was thus with a somewhat curious response that my inner soul yearned for a united Christian Empire as I learned of the president of Mexico's recent exhortation to Mexicans in the United States to always stay loyal to Mexico their homeland. I could care less about Mexico's national sovereignty, nor the Mexican arrogance over their Latin American superiority in the sport of soccer, but the fact that the president of Mexico had a vision of a more unified Western hemisphere transcending borders of nation states was nonetheless striking.

To be frank, I have close friends (one of them highly influenced by the conservative Catholic Group, Opus Dei) who are Mexican nationals. In fact, when I taught philosophy in Indiana, although I was teaching at a staunch Evangelical Protestant liberal arts college, it was the Catholic students from Mexico whom I most closely connected with. These young men had a closer-knit fraternal community than their Anglo-Protestant peers, a greater love of children (including my son Manny who now wants to play soccer just like those Mexican soccer players he saw as a 1 year old!), and to be frank, these Mexican men are probably closer to me in Jesus Christ than many fellow Americans I know who wear either a thin veneer of artificial christianity at best or are just plain old secular humanists at worst.

Perhaps, the future of the United States of America really will look increasingly Latin. No, we won't go back in time to the 13th century and start writing all of our academic papers in Latin, nor will most Catholics even start attending the Latin mass. No, by Latin, I mean the Christian Empire of the West, first the Empire of Rome, then the Empire of the Germanic lands under Charlemagne (A.D. 800) is what the "new America" will look like.

So, no President Calderon, we won't unite 'officially' with Mexico, but yes, we will continue to eat tacos, drink cervezas de Mexico, and pray the rosary along with you, our dear neighboring country . . .

Viva las tierras christianas . . .

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Latin Presidential Candidate ("testing the waters" and waiting for the G.O.P. to figure me out . . . :-)