Part 4 of 5 Why the Iraq War is the Right War in the Right Place at the Right Time

Part 4 of 5. 

 

Same Admonitions as before. 

 

My opinions are in Red and subject to disagreement. 

 

The words in Black are facts from the Historical record.  You can’t disagree, unless you counter or question with other good sound documented facts. 

 

George W Bush

The exhaustion from 8 years of all things Clinton and the Gore “Stiff as a Brick” Presidential campaign led to the Win/Loss/Win by a Supreme Court 5-4 vote of GWB (The Magnificent).

 

Controversial, not universally loved or even accepted as legitimate by the electorate (who didn't really elect him) and with the economy drifting badly GWB took office.  He fumbled.  He tried to do some things.  Rattled some sabers.  Tried to find the bathroom.  He was not well respected by international friends or enemies.  They saw the divided country after the election as impotent and anemic.

 

Clinton had dismantled some of the intelligence and military power as a result of the end of the cold war.  It seemed reasonable to everyone (including Conservatives).  There was little reason in the 7 months of a new Bush administration to suspect what might happen next.  There were memos, but there were memos every day.  The paint wasn’t even dry in the White House hallway.  Condi was trying to find new shoes and a chair for her office.  Donald was proposing to downsize the military for more efficiency, Cheney was trying to keep his heart pumping and Colin was thinking about retirement.

 

The big issue of the day was an ever worsening economy as a result of the dot-com boom and bust and its negative transfer of wealth and corporate scandals (Enron and Worldcom).  Not a pretty situation but Bush was proposing plans.  Tax Cuts, Incentives etc. 

 

THEN

 

9-11   The World Changed.  War was declared on us on our soil by an organized country-less force of radical Islamic fundamentalists more brutal and abandoned to hate and destruction than we could have imagined was possible.

 

This wasn’t a government like Japan, Italy or even Germany you could reason with and who might surrender to preserve its people if we demanded it strongly enough . (Read that A-Bomb)

 

This was a terrorist matrix supported by nebulous people who openly declared they would destroy us, and everyone else in the world who didn’t agree with their stated objective: to bring down thru terror “corrupt infidel” economies, cultures and governments worldwide and seize control of assets (oil) to amass a power base.  What made these terrorists even more fearful was their utter disregard for human life including their own.  Ruthless is a weak word in this regard.

 

Since the millennium there have been hundreds of terror attacks worldwide by these gangsters. Many of these acts were before the Iraq war And some prior to 9-11. A partial list includes:

 

• The Two Bali Bombings, one in a nightclub, one in a coffee shop
• The Bombing of the Sharm el-Sheikh hotel region in Egypt
• The bombings in Saudi Arabia
• The bombings in Manila Philippines
• The train bombings in Spain
• The Underground Bombings in Great Britain
• The Beslan School Bombing
• The Theater Attack in Russia
• The Checyn Revolutionaries bomb airplanes in Russia
• The Sudanese Executions of Christians by Muslims armies
• The execution of Van Gogh in the Netherlands by a Muslim extremist
• The most recent bombings of the Hotels in Jordan
• The riots in France, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.

 

Most of the countries on which there have been attacks on have little to do with Iraq.  And there have been reported a number of plots that were foiled by better and better intelligence.  Most recently in Australia.  Is any of this is Iraq War Related? Much is just a desire on the part of insane Islamic fascists to destabilize and demoralize the world?

 

This list above does not include any of the bombings in Israel by Fundamentalist Palestinians or hundreds of Iraqi suicide Bombings and IEDS.  Iraq and Israel are active fronts in the war on terror.

 

Some of this is a frontal attack on Christianity by Islamic Fundamentalists.

For example executions of Christians in Muslim Indonesia by Islamic mobsters.  3 little 13-year-old Christian School girls on their way to school were beheaded a couple weeks ago, another was beheaded last week and her head was deposited on the Church’s doorstep. The perpetrators have been identified, and the government out of fear won’t arrest them.  Terrorists win when governments allow terrorists to prosper at the expense of it’s populace.  It plain and simply fear, not agreement.  That’s the cost of real cost of unopposed terror.  Defacto control of the Government.  I pray it doesn’t happen here.  Some voices in the media and in politics seem to be trying to take us there.

 

There have been no shortage of old Westerns with this theme.  High Noon.  Some of the Spaghetti Westerns.  Sheriff pulls in to town to oust the bad guys.  Bad guys come to town and terrorize the citizens.  Sheriff asks for help in facing down Bad Guy gang.  Citizens respond to him like he’s Little Red Hen.  Not me, not me.  Oh they hate the terrorism, but they haven’t been personally threatened just yet.  Maybe if they do nothing the Bad Guy Gang will leave them alone.  Of course they don’t.  Then the sheriff decides to take them on.  A few (minority) of the folks agree to help.  Most of the rest hide behind windows and walls waiting to see who wins.

 

This is being played out in America, in Indonesia and in Iraq.

 

This American Life http://www.thislife.org/ has a good illustration of this dynamic.  Click on the Archives and then on the Oct 28^th program. I think you can listen for free. It’s “act 2” that tells the story although the whole program is good.   Ira Glass of This American Life is no Conservative. He cried real tears on the air when Kerry lost.

 

For a long time the Populace of Iraq hid behind windows and doors waiting to see who would win.  Now that we are, they are coming out, joining the army and police, voting en mass, and even asking the US to think about leaving soon.  This is very good but never would have happened without the Sheriff taking on the bad guys.

 

This is a global terrorist movement that was on track to become a World War with or without the Iraq war.  The Mobster Islamists have decided to take on the civilized world.  In this way it’s like the Nazis in WWII.  They are deluded madmen who must be stopped.

 

To even imagine that worldwide terrorism will stop or subside or that we will be insulated from it in America by pulling out of Iraq is naive at best and inane at worst.

 

When 9-11 happened the adversary was Osama bin Laden.  He had been sheltered by the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan.  It was a fairly easy task to take out the Taliban and close down training operations in Afghanistan.  Finding OBL has become a mission without closure.  In my opinion, he is dead.  He was reported to be ill requiring dialyses. We haven’t heard anything him since late 2004.

 

I won’t spend much time rehearsing the timetable of facts and assumptions before going into Iraq, the reasons for or wisdom of.  I will state as a settled fact that that everyone from all sides of the political spectrum from the midpoint of the Clinton administration to the start of the war believed that Saddam had WMD’s and was a threat particularly if he joined forces with the Al-Queada gangsters. 

  

We are there and we have done the right thing in my opinion.  We have engaged the enemy head on.  He’s slippery but he is knowable.  It’s not OBL anymore.   Getting OBL or his dead body now would be a non-event.  It might be satisfying but he is irrelevant in the global terror picture.

 

What I find appalling is those who did support the assumption of WMD’s in Iraq, who now say they never really did.  I don’t have an argument against those who were always against this war.  I just hate turncoats, no matter what side of the aisle they come from.  Hence my struggle with McCain. 

 

A more sinister archetypical foe has emerged from the fading shadow of Osama bin Laden.  Abu Musab Zarqawi.  He represents the worst type of these killers.  And he like the many headed monster HYDRA LERNAIA.  If we kill him there are 10 more.  But we must kill him and the others and the others and the others ........  This is not a play nice situation like McCain would want.

 

Zarquawi's story is instructive:

 

Profile: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is Iraq's most notorious insurgent - a shadowy figure associated with spectacular bombings, assassinations and the beheading of foreign hostages.

              

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Who is he?

 

He first appeared in Iraq as the leader of the Tawhid and Jihad insurgent group, merging it in late 2004 with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

 

The video-taped beheadings of foreign hostages that made Tawhid and Jihad infamous in 2004 have become less frequent since the group's merger with al-Qaeda.

 

Bomb attacks on Iraq's Shia-dominated government and security forces have continued apace, however, with many of the bloodiest strikes of 2005 blamed on Zarqawi's group, now renamed al-Qaeda in Iraq.

 

According to BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera, Zarqawi's increasingly bloody attacks on the Shias are alienating many in the insurgency, including some Sunni Muslims who are its strongest backers.

 

A letter released by US forces in 2005 - allegedly authored by Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and addressed to Zarqawi - appears to support this.

 

In the run-up to the Iraq war in February 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations Zarqawi was an associate of Osama Bin Laden who had sought refuge in Iraq.

 

 

How he got to Iraq:

 

But after the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan, Zarqawi went back to Jordan with a radical Islamist agenda.

 

The next stop on his itinerary was his old stamping ground - Afghanistan.

 

He is believed to have set up a training camp in the western city of Heart Afghanistan, near the border with Iran.

 

Students at his camp supposedly became experts in the manufacture and use of poison gases.

 

It is during this period that Zarqawi is thought to have renewed his acquaintance with al-Qaeda.

 

He is believed to have fled to Iraq in 2001 after a US missile strike on his Afghan base, though the report that he lost a leg in the attack has not been verified.

 

US officials argue that it was at al-Qaeda's behest that he moved to Iraq and established links with Ansar al-Islam - a group of Kurdish Islamists from the north of the country.

 

He is thought to have remained with them for a while - feeling at home in mountainous northern Iraq.

 

Things He is Doing:

 

In October 2002, Zarqawi was blamed for the assassination of US aid official Laurence Foley in Amman.

 

Months later, in 2003, he was named as the brains behind a series of lethal bombings - from Casablanca in Morocco to Istanbul in Turkey.

 

It is in Iraq, though, that he has been most active. In it, Zarqawi appears to share his plans for igniting sectarian conflict in Iraq as a means of undermining the US presence there.

 

Attacks are now a daily occurrence in Iraq. Whether or not Zarqawi is behind them all, he is seen by the US as the biggest obstacle to their hopes of progress in Iraq - their most dangerous enemy in the country.

 

But this is about more than Zarqawi and the many-headed monster he is part of.  These are gangsters, mobsters, true evil personified, worse than the Nazis by twice. Out to kill you and your loved ones. They must all be cut off and killed, one at a time or in bunches.  But they must be crushed.

 

There is a tipping point, if we stay strong and determined countries like Jordan and yes even the French will begin to grasp the vision, people in Iraq and even Iran will start to see success.  They will develop gonads.  They will come out from behind their windows and walls and take up the battle.  Only then will the world win this global struggle against an evil more insidious than we have ever faced.

 

To back away will only mean we will fight this battle with far more casualties than we have now but they will be innocent civilians in the USA on our soil. The US has endured more casualties to date in this war on US soil then in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.  That will change but if we don’t win you, your children and grandchildren will live in fear of terror.

 

To do this, we had to pick the time and place to engage this enemy.  We had to smoke them out.  This is old-fashioned battlefield warfare.  We must pick the time and place to engage the enemy.  They would rather we didn't. We have to take a beachhead.  We must stand somewhere other than on US soil.  That place is Iraq.  It is an ideal location, symbolically and internationally.  Thank God (and George Bush) we finally stopped running away and took a stand.

 

Last Section: Why It’s Worth the Blood and Pain.  Why it's worth the sacrifice of every Man and Woman who has died. A peek behind the curtain of a future Iraq, Middle East and World if we prevail. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to have sex with animals, Massachusetts is the place to be

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Part 3 Why the Iraq War is the Right War in the Right Place at the Right Time.

Part 3 of 5

 

Why the Iraq War is the Right War in the Right Place at the Right Time.

Reminder Admonitions:  You are welcome to question my facts or argue my opinions.  But, you have to Counter my facts if you believe I am wrong.  You just can't generalize or pontificate without basis. I could be wrong you know.  I’m open to correction if I have misstated.  I tried hard to be objective in the reporting of the facts.  Much of this is just cut and pasted.  You can tell when I did, the writing is better. I am only an editor.

My Opinions are clearly stated in Red.  

 

Everything in Black comes from encyclopedic sources and I am presenting as objective fact.  In the parlance of the day, True Facts! (as opposed to what?)

 

 

 

George HW Bush takes office January 1989 

A soft leader again and worse a big believer in appeasement, consensus and the United Nations. 

 

He had been the ambassador to China.  They knew him well.  So, when a student uprising happened in Tiananmen Square they didn’t fear Bush would do anything about it.  He didn’t.  The Massacre ensued.

 

The Berlin Wall fell.  GHWB took credit.  It was a residual of Reagan’s cold war strategy.  He became best Friends with Gorbachev.  I liked Gorby better.

 

Emboldened by a weak Bush, and with some winks of the eye of a wishy washy ambassador, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.  Kuwait had been a province of Iraq formerly and he wanted it back.  Kind of like Texas and Mexico.  This couldn’t stand.  So, Bush instead of going right to war, fiddled while Saddam pillaged and established a beachhead. Bush organized a coalition.  Lots of countries.  More smoke than firepower.  Mostly it was the USA and Great Britain that fought the war. 

 

I was in Germany during Desert Storm. Germany sent in about 2000 troops.  The whining on the part of the German news media about how depressing it was to have to go to war for those poor German soldiers made we wonder how the Third Reich ever got organized. 

 

In February we massacred the poor Iraqi soldier in Desert Storm.  Saddam hid out in Baghdad betting we wouldn’t come for him.  We didn’t.  We stopped short of total victory firmly in our grasp because Bush said, “We would have incurred incalculable human and political costs, we would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and in effect rule Iraq”.   Now we have to do this anyhow because he and Colin Powell didn’t have the gonads to do what needed to be done. 

 

Ever the diplomat, he bragged that since Russia had been part of all this that there was a new world order emerging.  There was one emerging all right, a new world order of Islamic Fundamentalist gangsters terrorizing the western world and the “Infidels” of Islam as they had assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981 for the Camp David Peace Accord.

 

After Desert Storm there were rebels in the south and in the north who were prepared to take on Saddam in his weakened condition.  They begged us for help.  We sort of promised we would and then we didn’t.  What would the Europeans think? We abandoned them to die. The Kurds were crucified. The massacres in the south of the swamp Arabs were brutal.  Their homeland which had always been lakes and swamps were drained or starved for water.  They starved and were displaced. 

 

We bailed out because of political pressure and a desire to have France think nice of us.  I was very angry with all this at the time, I contacted politicians to encourage finishing the job. I really wondered during that time if those mis-leaders who backed down in the face of victory had gone into the bathroom and reached down in their pants, would found anything there to indicate they were men?  They didn’t act like it.

 

Everyone blames the “no new taxes” pledge for Bush’s failure to be re-elected.  No, it was the promise of a true conservative (and we knew he had balls; that’s a sexual innuendo joke), even if he was a Democrat.  I didn’t vote for Clinton out of Republican loyalty.  I wonder now if I did right.

 

 

 

President William Jefferson Clinton

 

Clinton attempted things of great vision. He had hope.  Hope Arkansas and all.  But he hit political roadblocks to his vision. Failed health care plan, 94 midterm elections and the takeover of the house and senate by Republicans.  Gridlock. Lots of scandals ensued, mostly sex.  He angered values conservatives who had been warming to him with cultural actions, Gays in the Military etc.  I recall answering a question from a political pollster why I thought the Republicans had won so big in 94, I said, “Speaking for myself, I voted against the cultural freefall we were in”.

 

He became a friend and ally of Tony Blair.  He enjoyed good economics as a result of Reagan tax cuts, Greenspan’s work, and the 95 Republican Congress’s spending cuts.  I didn’t write that, it’s what the encyclopedia said.

 

He participated in disarmament talks that led to ultimate peace in Northern Ireland.  This was a good thing.

 

He knew we were under attack from Islamic Fundamentalist Fascists and took action.

 

There was the World Trade Center Bombing in 1993 by Islamic Fundamentalists.  Now the sirens were sounding.  There was a war brewing.  We took our first 6 casualties on American soil in this new war.

 

There was the failed plot by Saddam Hussein to kill Former President Bush in Kuwait.  The circumstances of the alleged plot, which ended in a trial and conviction of 11 Iraqis and three Kuwaitis, have always evoked skepticism, although Clinton himself was apparently sufficiently convinced after receiving reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to order a missile strike on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad that killed six civilians in June, 1993.

 

There was the battle of Mogadishu (Blackhawk Down) where after taking casualties he ordered withdrawal of our troops.  This emboldened the terrorists. 

OBL has pointed to this and our anemic retaliatory response to the American Embassy bombings (below) as instructional events.

 

He didn’t intervene in the Rwandan Genocide.  He with the UN sent troops to Kosovo. He says today that is one of the biggest regrets of his presidency.

 

He bombed Iraq several times in retaliation for various infractions, mostly with Tomahawk Missiles. 

 

He signed a unilateral nuclear disarmament treaty with North Korea that took all teeth out of any enforcement by their neighbors to the north and south.   It involved promises from North Korea and lots of money from us.  North Korea took our money, laughed all the way to the bank and thumbed their noses at us from then till now. This was a major disaster. 

 

Like Reagan’s Grenada, Clinton sent troops to Haiti to reinstall Jon Bertrand Aristide as the country’s leader.  It too became a disaster.

 

In 93 he mediated the Oslo peace accords.  It angered fundamentalist Islamists.  It also did little to advance the cause of peace.  Arafat shook hands with Itzak Rabin of Israel.  Clinton often preferred form over function.

In the mid-1990s, the Clinton administration authorized the CIA to pursue a dual strategy that entailed fomenting a popular uprising led by the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and Kurdish paramilitaries on the one hand, and seeking a coup from above, to be engineered by ex-Iraqi officers organized in the Iraqi National Accord, on the other. With CIA backing, the INC launched an uprising in 1994, and in March 1995, seized control of Mosul and Kirkuk in northern Iraq. The Clinton administration withdrew support for the operation at the last minute, and it (along with the attempted coup) was crushed by Iraqi troops.  Hundreds were killed because of our indecision. He couldn’t take the pressure from the media.

In 1995 there was the Oklahoma City Bombing.  Many thought it had Islamic roots.  It probably didn’t.  

 

Clinton recognized the influence of Osama bin Laden after the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in which hundreds were killed, many Americans.  For that he bombed a chemical weapons factory in Khartoum Sudan.

 

He put out an arrest warrant for Osama bin Laden to be captured or killed.  At the very end of his term, Al-Queada answered this threat by bombing the USS Cole killing more Americans.  Some conservatives believe he had OBL in his grasp in Sudan and didn’t act on it.  I don’t buy it.  Clinton knew this was an evil dangerous man. 

 

It was discovered in captured documents in Afghanistan during an Al-Queada headquarters raid that there was a plan in place by OBL to assassinate Bill Clinton in 1999. 

 

Clinton fought with a reluctant democratic party and many weak republicans to put in place terrorist fighting actions:

 

He authorized 100 Million Dollars to work with the Israeli Mossad to track down and kill terrorists in the Middle East.  We did.  They did.

 

He authorized the Iraqi Liberation Act that funded efforts militarily and otherwise to foment regime change in Iraq.  He backed down under heat however as you saw above.

 

He initiated by executive order Extraordinary Rendition or “Torture by Proxy” where Terrorists are sent to bad places to be tortured for info and then killed or imprisoned. A policy still in effect today and criticized by the left and John McCain who forget it was Clinton who put this in place. Thankfully it still is. 

 

He did other good things.  Defense of marriage act which included the language that states should control who can get married in their state and that marriage was between one man and one woman.

 

Of course we all remember all the “scandals”.  Bill Clinton did much good.  But his administration is most remembered for all the sex scandals, Jennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willy, Paula Jones, Juanita Broddrick and of course Monica.  Democrats are much sexier than Republicans.

 

And there was Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, China Gate, Pardon Gate, Mike Espy and so forth.  Much of this was Gotcha Politics ratcheted up.  Even the impeachment was so much hot air while a world war was brewing under the surface. 

 

One thing the terrorists learned about Americans during the 25 years from Carter to Clinton is: If the USA takes casualties they will turn tail and run.

 

Next, George W Bush is “Elected”.  The USA Stops Running.

 

Purpose in a Floundering World

I pirated this from John Armstrong's blog.  You can find it here. 

 

http://www.johnharmstrong.com/

 

I often find myself differing with him and sometimes have no idea what he is saying, but, this is one of the strongest things he has ever written.  People are wandering about without purpose, and the purpose of life is right before them.

 

Purpose Makes the Difference

If history is to have real meaning it must have purpose. It must be going somewhere. If no specific end is in view then all things loose their meaning and life becomes pointless. Humans have known this from time immemorial. And Christians, of all people, need to remind the modern world of this regularly. If all we do is live and die then the work of our hands has no long term importance and all is vain.

The famous Henry Ford once concluded that "History is one damned thing after another." He's right, if Christ did not rise. Resurrection gives meaning to all things. If the grave is the end then history doesn't matter. My story is bunk and so is yours.

The Greeks called this telos, or purpose, the end for which something was made or existed. The Christian faith sees Christ as the true telos, the goal and end of all history. If we would live well, we must stay focused on Christ as the telos of all things. Only then will history not become "one damned thing after another."

 

Frontal Attack on Christianity

What follows is the text of a letter I wrote to NPR today. 

 

There is an attack on Christianity in America.  It's bad enough the persecution going on around the world, but this is here in the good old USA.

 

I think it's time to pull the plug on NPR's funding if they keep this up.

 

I listened with increasing upset to the man who had written a book regarding Creation Myths.   I am a steady listener to NPR and listen to Lianne on Sunday Mornings.  This was over the top.

 

I don’t mind discussing creation myths, but for this gentleman to talk about the virgin birth, ascension, resurrection and other deeply held creeded basic tenets of Christian faith as myth was out of line and revealed a prejudice against Christianity.  I don’t care if this man is a Pagan and doesn’t believe.  But to treat Christianity like some Harry Potter story is an insult and degrading.

 

I wonder if an attack on core beliefs of Muslims would have been as acceptable to NPR.   Why is this kind of frontal attack on the essentials of the Christian faith under attack on Public Radio?

 

 

Part 2 Why the Iraq War is the Right War in the Right Place at the Right Time.

Same admonitions as before, my opinions are in red. 

 

The rest is simply history as pulled from encyclopedic sources.  You can argue my opinion but you must counter my facts. 

 

President Jimmy Carter takes office in 1977.  New optimisms, out with the old in with the new.  The hangover from the oil problems during Nixon years began to drain the economy.   Carter tries to help, but does more damage than good.  Windfall profit taxes on Oil Companies had the opposite of the desired effect.  New Gas Lines formed.

 

He tried to back away from confrontation with the Soviet Union by implementing the Salt II agreement.  He thought that perhaps it would be reciprocated in spirit.  It was not, the rest of the world only saw us as weaker and weaker.  Carter was dealing with an economy of 18% interest, 11% inflation, Unemployment of over 10%, new gasoline lines as a result of his policies, and a Dow under 900 (I wish I had bought); things couldn’t have been worse.  This disequilibria led to the savings and loan crisis of the 80s.

 

Carters answer to the oil shortages that persisted was to put solar panels on the White House, wear a sweater, put a wood burning stove in his White House living quarters and turn down the whole government’s thermostat.  We froze in the dark after having driven to work at 55mph (Thanks to a 1974 Democratic Congress and a weaked Nixon Presidency) smelling wood smoke.  Those really were the bad old days.

 

Things got worse.  Carter idealistically set out to enforce bans on worldwide human rights abuse sanctions he implemented against human rights abuses in other countries.  New sanctions against Somoza in Nicaragua, criticism of Pinochet in Chile, The government of South Africa with sanctions against Rhodesia and our corrupt ally the Shah of Iran. 

 

These were interpreted by our enemies as weakness and a lack of focus.  Problems of monumental magnitude at home and we were out playing nanny to states around the world.  Carter put the same human rights focus on the corrupt (but friend of the USA) Shah of Iran. He was deposed by militant islamists. Carter tried unsuccessfully make nice with the Islamists in power. Out of the goodness of his decent but naive heart, Carter allowed the Shah into the US for political asylum.  Iranian Militants were angered and seized the American Embassy in Iran taking 100 Americans hostage.  In a badly disguised effort to appease The Shah was exported to Egypt where he died.   Carter made a failed attempt to rescue the hostages.  It failed.  Meanwhile Ross Perot successfully initiated a rescue of EDS employees held in Iran by the Iranian Government of the Ayatollas.  It became a bestselling book, “On Wings of Eagles” by Ken Follett.  This made Carter look even worse.   Worldwide any fragment of respect the world had for the USA was lost.

 

The Ayatollahs scared everyone worldwide.  When the US government backed down from Iran, Russia in fear of a like uprising on their southern border invaded Afghanistan.  Carter opposed Russia’s action, began training Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which caused increasing instability in the region that ultimately led to the rise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

 

Carter’s response to Russia’s Afghan invasion was to not send a team to the 1980 Olympics in Russia.  And at the same time he signed away the Panama Canal. His incompetent heart always was trying to do good.  Poor Jimmy.

 

The single greatest thing Carter ever did was broker a peace accord between Egypt and Israel at Camp David.  For that I forgive him much of the rest of his bungling.

 

In many people’s opinions Carter was the worst president the USA has ever had and the best ex-President; if he would just keep his mouth shut and a hammer in his hand.  He was and still is soft in every way and in an abstract way personally responsible for the increasing unrest in the Islamic world that ensued in the 80’s and 90’s leading up to 9-11 and the Iraq war.  If only he had dealt decisively with Iran at the hostage crisis perhaps our stance in the world would be better.  

 

He didn’t, IF is for fools.  Rewrite history in your own heart, what if we had gone in after them with a historical show of force.  The Ayatollas weren’t popular with many in Iran at the time and with thier cooperation we might have a free Iran today. There were generals of the Iranian Army begging us to come in and help depose the Isamists from power.  We turned our back on them.  Many lost their lives.

 

 

Reagan was elected.  

 

I liked Reagan. The Great Communicator, positive, hope and all.  But he was weak in many ways.  Too much an appeaser.   Too United Nations Oriented.  Trying to be friends with the left. 

 

But he was tough on the Soviet Union.  Spending like mad to develop war machines that scared the crap out of them.  Star Wars was like having pocket deuces and the Soviets thinking we had aces.  It was all a bluff.  It worked.  It led to the eventual collapse along with the failure of communism in general and Gobachev’s glasnost.  These three things created the world and the cold war cessation we have today. 

 

But our eyes were not on the battle brewing under the surface in the middle east.  While we talked big about peace thru strength in the Reagan administration, the terrorists in Beirut were causing an uproar.  There was a border conflict with Israel in 1982.   Reagan sent 800 Marines in.  Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the conflict.  Inflamed Arabs demanded justice.  A peace was brokered by Reagan.  A multinational task force was formed. 

 

In October of 1983 in Lebanon 241 marines were killed in a terrorist bombing of a Marine Barracks.  All the Marines were withdrawn from Lebanon due to a great hue and cry from the liberal media.  A pattern of expecting American defeatism was being established in the minds of Islamic terrorists worldwide.  They started to believe that if you cause casualties the US will turn tail and run.  In response to the Beirut humiliation, Reagan invaded Grenada.  We won. That was supposed to restore our place in the world.  It made us look even more stupid and weak.

 

Reagan was playing reckless games.  He was funding and training Afghan “Freedom Fighters” against the Soviet Union (that included Osama bin Laden).  He took the side militarily of Iraq against Iran in a bloody war of attrition that so destroyed the Iraqi economy it created an incentive for Iraq to invade Kuwait later.  He covertly shipped arms to the Iranians to secretly fund the Contras in Nicaragua against the Sandinistas.  He provided Intelligence to Saddam Hussein to fight Iran.  Supplied Saddam with “Dual Use” weapons (agricultural and military) which were later used to gas the Kurds and create the stockpile of WMD’s everyone feared.  We didn’t want Iran to invade Iraq or Saudi Arabia.  It really WAS about oil.

 

IT was almost frenetic.  The investigations by mostly Democrats of the Iran Contra activities (Remember Ollie North?) and the 1987 Borking of Robert Bork created the Gotcha Politics of today.    This was the first.  It wouldn’t be the last. The Republicans have long memories.  President Clinton later suffered for the sins of Borking.

 

George Herbert Walker Bush digs the hole deeper in part 3. 

The Iraq War is the right war at the right time in the right place, a 5 part essay

The truth about the War in Iraq must now be told. I’m ready to tell it.

 

In order to help you, I have highlighted in Red all words which are my opinion alone.  The rest comes from objective research and understanding.  I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, War Never Solved Anything. It's just not true. It’s so much more complex then that.   http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/06/war-has-never-solved-anything.html

 

I ask that you read all 5 parts of this really long piece.  Argue if you want to about what I send as I send it, but keep the final arguments (Iraqi war, beneficial or not?) until the full panoply is set forth. I have always been told that liberals were smarter than the rest of us, and that they were certainly more open-minded than right-wingers, so, here’s the question:  Are YOU?  To whet your appetite just a bit, Clinton comes out much better in the final analysis (much to my chagrin and surprise), Reagan and Bush 1 much worse.  This was interesting research for me too.  It opened my eyes.  This war is essential.

 

I was going to post this as one piece but it’s too much, even for me.  So, I’ll post it a chunk at a time.  

 

This must of necessity be long, arduous and comprehensive.  There are no sound bites in history.  There is only a slog forward thru the facts.  But, like Santayana said, if we don’t remember and consider history we are condemned to repeat it.  So let’s take a look.

 

If you choose NOT to read this in its entirety you have no right to comment or disagree with the conclusions made.  Oh, you have a right, that’s constitutional, but we have a right to discount what you say because you have chosen to be just partisan, ignorant and uninformed.  What follows a rehearsal of the facts leading up to the Iraq War that make it the essential conflict of our day.  My opinions are in RED.

 

Iraq has been compared to WWII.  While for the most part that doesn’t hold up, there are some similarities:

 

World War I’s outcome propagated the roots and internal Nazi justifications for WWII.  It took a long time to develop.  1918-1940.  Hitler rose steadily and engaged willing participants in Italy and Japan.  The Axis.  He kept poking at the free world and waited to see what they would do.  Mostly they did nothing.   So he continued to poke. Eventually when the world had enough and was threatened they took Hitler and allies on.  Some on Nazi turf, some on turf occupied by or contested by the enemy. 

 

Japan was different in a way.

 

Even though Iwo Jima didn’t attack the USA at Pearl Harbor, even though the Ogasuwara Islands of which Iwo Jima was a part was originally settled by Americans (claimed later by Japan), we used that Island a few others to establish a beachhead for victory in the Pacific.  Iraq is that, a beachhead.  Afghanistan was conquered but made a poor beachhead.  The leader of Iraq was a potential ally of an enemy that attacked us.  He was already an unvanquished enemy of the US.  He certainly wasn’t a friend.  Iraq was a better beachhead to establish what will be a very long long occupation like was in Okinawa.  There was also this long held fear that he may have had WMD’s.  Democrats and Republicans since the end of the Gulf war were deeply concerned at this prospect. 

 

The beginning of what has now become a World War of which Iraq is a beachhead, on which we have chosen to do battle, starts at the birth of the State of Israel. It’s important to note that this war in Iraq is a part of the continuing troubled history of this country that in fact not really a country per se but is a fabrication of Great Britain.  See this review.

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/06/why-iraq-is-such-conundrum.html

 

After Israel was founded as a country in 1948 in response to the UN's Balfor agreement of 1918 establishing the land of Israel, the end of WWII and the European refugees who needed a homeland. Arab nations surrounding the area of Palestine immediately began to venture to wipe Israel off the map.  That was the 1948-49 war.  The Arab countries were pushed back.  The 1956 war started by Arab countries attempted to take back ground, in fact they lost more.  Then There was the 6 day war.  Huge armies came against Israel.  10-1 odds.  It was 1967.  Again the outcome was huge losses of land after a stunning defeat of the Arabs.  The last major conflict and the one that began what we now are engaged in was the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and 1974.  This generated more losses of ground for the Arabs including the city of Jerusalem, The Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and other areas.  The anger as a result of this war triggered the Oil Embargo of 1973 against the west.  The west, particularly the USA was a supporter financially, politically, and militarily of Israel.  The cut off of oil was designed not only to punish us, to exercise some muscle but to weaken us economically.  It worked.  We buckled.

 

The other overt conflict involving the USA and Israel and Arab nations was in 1982 in  Lebanon.  More on that later when I discuss the Reagan administration.

 

It became easy for the Arabian and other Middle Eastern countries (Iran) to hate us for our support of Israel.  The fact that during the Oil Embargo we took no direct action caused the Arab Countries to consider us weak.  This was during the Nixon Administration, Vietnam was a oozing sore, and no more Vietnams was the cry of the populace.  The opposition by war doves to anything like taking a stand military emboldened potential enemies.

 

When Nixon left office and Ford took over, nothing much happened.   This was a time of healing. The economy began to tank.  Ford lost popularity.  Our enemy was communism.  We were blinded to everything except stopping Russia, China, Cuba etc.  We didn’t consider the Arabian fundamentalist Islamic bloc a problem, yet.

 

TOMMORROW: JIMMY CARTER PLANTS THE SEEDS OF THE IRAQ WAR

 

 

 

 

11- 11 – 11 – 9-11

Peggy and I have both been under the weather just a bit. She more than me. I hate to see my sweetie sick. She'’s always the strong one. When she coughs from the bottom of her being and collapses in exhaustion I want to take it from her and put it on myself. Only Jesus can do that.

What I don'’t want is my iteration of whatever has had her down. I don'’t know if my distress” isn'’t just sympathetic. I do that. Last night I went to bed at 8pm and slept till 7am. I'’m better. She'’s the same. Getting older is heck. That'’s as much as anything why I have been less floriferous in writing lately. Add to that the fact that I am wrapping up a pretty busy and successful fall season in the nursery business.

My complaints are nothing compared to the families who will spend a quieter Thanksgiving than usual because one of theirs is serving in Iraq, has made the final sacrifice or is in a hospital recovering from wounds. Tens of thousands of our finest young men and women in their late teens even up to their 50'’s are part of this. I'’m so proud of them.

I thank almighty God for them. I thank God for every drop of blood they have shed in what is now a global struggle against an evil more powerful and dangerous than even Hitler was.

In most years on this day I reflect on the sacrifice of WWII veterans. Today we are engaged in a struggle that unless it'’s won here threatens our civilization and has the potential to propel us into a desperate deprived existence controlled by fear.

So while I take nothing away from the brave soldiers who preserved us from the Nazis, or fought communism in Korea and Vietnam, Today I take my hat off and put up my flag for those patriots who'’s blood preserves a world which will be worth living in, for my Grandchildren. And their children..........

God Bless ALL our Veterans.

Public Education is a Lost Cause - Let’s Kill It

There is very little left to argue for any continuation of our public education system. It is a broken machine that is beyond repair. The only argument made is that the teachers need the money so let’s not change it because it might cause teacher unemployment. That’s a lousy reason.

For 3 years I have predicted and hoped for the demise and rebuilding from the ground up of our terribly failed public education system nationwide.

I won’t point you to my writings per se, but they are available on the link to the right, particularly the Re-Vision Dakota link.

So this isn’t new. A news story I read today ticked me off.

We live in the Chicago area. CPS is one of the worst school systems in the nation; Expensive, incompetent, futile.

Now, the school board is basically deciding to turn over public education in whole or in part to Catholic Schools. Hooray. I’m not catholic but this is a good first step. Private schools work, pubic schools do not.

In short what is slowly being realized is:
Methodology for teaching up to grade 6 must be completely different than that from 7-12. Small form education works very well in elementary. Little classes, few students, home school enhanced. Churches do this well. Little cottage schools. But, no public education for young kids. This doesn’t mean you don’t financially help them, but you allow the best and brightest schools to prosper in teaching willing eager to learn children. There will be entrepreneurs to take the others. There will be a few recalcitrants who elect NOT to be in school. There are ways to deal with that short of dumping these dumbing down dunces into the pool. And special needs kids need to be dealt with in a special needs way.

It will become be a privilege, again, to be educated.

Then, when a person comes out of elementary, they go directly to a high school. Sometimes there will be a long bus ride. Sometimes it will mean being housed at the school in dorms.

Going to High School will be a privilege. There will be more than one option. Abolition of empire like mega school districts will be essential. Getting into a good high school will mean something. Excel or die will be the mission and purpose of these schools. You either will produce a good educational outcome or padlock your doors. The market will determine this.

My wife works in the school system. The other day a teacher was complaining that there is a national website, rateyourteacher.com. He wanted his name off the list. They refused. His complaint? People might say negative things about his performance. In fact some did. WAAAAA.

Bluntly, what we need is accountability. We need to quit protecting teachers. Let them compete for good jobs by merit. Pay them well if they are good. If they are lousy let them go to work at KFC. That’s the way the world works. Our teacher unions have become the worst form of educational disimprovement ever.

If they ever make me King, (and you need to hope they don’t) I will abolish the Department of Education, a Carter innovation that Reagan should have destroyed. I will put education in the hands of people who want to teach. Much will be private. Public education has failed. It’s our fault for not taking it back from the bad teachers and their paid protection racket.

By the way, stop please feeling sorry for the low pay teachers get. Do the math. Figure how many hours per YEAR a teacher works. Divide that into the amount they get paid. The national average is, you ready for this?, $31 per hour. Your state might be less or more. But a Master’s degreed Biologist, a physicist, most manufacturing jobs, in fact most jobs in America are paid less than that.

Don’t let the whine that they have to take work home at night and don’t get paid for that fool you. I have worked around the world and can tell you that anyone who gets paid any significant amount carries a briefcase home at night and does work at home. I’m not impressed. Don’t let the, “” we are required to attend meetings off hours and attend extracurricular events to keep our jobs”” tip you either. That happens all the time in corporate America. We all hate it but it’s part of the cost of having that job.

And, continuing education requirements. Every professional in America does this. It's just that most of us do it because we want to get better, keep current, get a better job or promotion. I taught Dale Carnegie long enough to see the motivated get better and grow.

Teachers of America, grow up, teach our Children and quit complaining.

If that's not ok with you, KFC is still hiring.

This is a mess. Let’s take back our Schools.

Blasphemy is safe as long as it's against Jesus

So, it's all right to make Light of Jesus in today's "CULTURE".

Taking a cue from Michael Jackson, we now have Jesus Juice Wine.

I'm supposed to be amused, I'm supposed to smile, I'm supposed to be tolerant.

Well I am NOT.

What happens if we come up with a line of Mohammad Muffins, Koran Kandy, Islamic icicles, Wahabee whiskey, Budda Beer, Jihad Gin, and............
The PC police would have a cat. You can't offend or make light of other religions. What about Jesus, I guess that doesn't count.

PS: Take a look at the label.

Find a Niche and Fill it, OR NOT!

OK, I admit it. What follows is an older (not yet really OLD) guy’s observation.

Coming up in business I heard hundreds of times that the secret to success was to find a niche and fill it. It would be said that there are opportunities all over the place and all you have to do is see a need and meet it.

On the surface that seems to be a really good piece of advice. And it’s true IF, (don’t you hate that there’s always an if), you have the right sized niche filler available to do the job.

I have known a lot of people who have seen a niche, tried to fill it in order to make a living. They have tried to fill it although they in themselves were the wrong sized niche filler. Square peg, round hole. So they took a shot, it flopped and they decided that doesn’t work.

It works. The key is discovering niches which:

• Need Filling
• You have the ability to fill
• You have the desire to fill
• You have the personality makeup to fill that particular niche
• You are one of the few that know where the niche is

There may be other considerations, but I have known so many good men who are talented at doing one thing and then because they need the money or are frustrated at what they are doing will decide they want to try something way out of their realm.

In the end, they frustrate the people with the niche, they frustrate themselves, they frustrate the marketplace and ultimately they fail.

This is true in Nursery, Radio, Ministry and probably thousands of other niche activities. I have been both successful and failed bitterly at this. This is the voice of deep experience speaking.

So, find a niche YOU are designed to fill, and fill it.

Ken Goes Home

A Friend of Mine, Ken Schmierer, a schoolmate from Ellendale ND moved back to the hometown a few years ago. His rehersal of that day he moved back is really good reading:

Yes, we are quiet. When I moved back a few years ago I became aware of this very quickly. The Allied Van driver, a recent polish immigrant now living in Chicago, stopped to rest for a minute between moving large objects and over flowing boxes into my house. He looked quizzically at me and said, "I have never been any where so quiet in my life! Good god, it is Saturday afternoon and this is Main Street. How can it be so quiet?"

His question was rhetorical and I stopped a minute to ponder the reality of what he said. It was deafening quiet. No squeak, no leaf blower, no horn, not even a lone dog barking in the distance. It was as if all sound had been erased from this part of the globe. No din of automobile on the Interstate, no jet airliners over head, no police sirens or fire whistles. Eerily quiet only to be appreciated by some one from afar.

Now... I never stop to even think about this small blessing. I have become accustomed to it. It is like most of our blessings - taken for granted. We allow our complaints and our dissatisfaction with life and others to rule. It is a choice that most of us make and the sad thing is we don't have to make it. We can appreciate all of our small blessing is we so choose.

A Sad Death is Reported

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense. Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn't always fair. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).

His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. - Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Mr. Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit in her lap, and was awarded a huge financial settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on; if not, join the majority and do nothing

The Kind of Research $60 Crude Generates - YEAH

I have been a Star Trek fan for as long as it has been on TV. I'm old so I remember Scotty, Capt Kirk et al.

But the best actually was Star Trek Next Gen. I have seen every single episode at least once and some several times. I have favorites.

So, it was not without some fascination that I saw this article about deconstructing water into Hydrogen and Oxygen without the use of electricity. Up till now, you could put a plus and minus electrode in water, induce power and H2 and O would bubble up.

Problem was it took 10 times the energy to produce a single therm of power. Even I can do that.

But, you remember in Star Trek NG, Jordie and Data were always fiddling with the Dilithium Crystals. No one knows what that was. But it powered the Enterprise. Sometimes they had to stop off at some planet to find fresh Dilithium.

Scientists in Tokyo have discovered a crystal which produces Hydrogen and Oxygen from water without using electricity. It uses light. And the catalyst is, Get This, ""Tokyo University of Science said Wednesday that they have succeeded in producing hydrogen from water through the use of gallium nitride (GaN) crystals.""

Beam me up, I'm ready for transport

Global Warming is a Political Control Scheme

I can’t prove any of what I’m about to say (Yet), I can only tell you I am reading in journals and reports an undercurrent of politically incorrect reports by reputable scientists which tells me that the whole global warming issue is wrong by a large measure.

On University of Southern California TV late last night (I’m a geek) I was an oceanographer delivering a paper on climate change. I love that kind of thing so until I fell asleep I watched it. He said in part:

Every 40,000 years or so for the past half million years the world goes thru a radical climate change. It’s been 40,000 years since the last one. Each one of these has the hockey stick look. Increasing CO2 levels and increasing temperatures. Then boom, in a decade or less the climate gets very very cold to a baseline that makes certain areas uninhabitable. And from that very cold platform the warming cycle starts all over again increasing in velocity slowly to create the hockey stick graph we all know and then the climatological collapse.

This was all discovered by analyzing deep bore ice cores with air bubbles in them which came from Antarctica and Greenland’s ice caps that reveals CO2 and temperature levels for the last 500,000 years.

This has been happening over and over again. Man doesn’t cause climate change, he is merely an observer. All our hand wringing about CO2 and temperature levels is part of a natural cycle. We are in it right now.


The most revealing thing he said was: High CO2 levels are caused by high temperatures and that the increasing cycle high temp – high CO2 – higher temps – higher CO2 etc is normal, repeated and will happen again. Then the crash comes.

WOW. That hit home. I just the same thing the other day. That decomposition rates increase under high temperatures. That makes sense. High decomposition releases CO2’s.

So, don’t panic but don’t put away your parka, enjoy the warm weather while it lasts and fuel up your SUV. Climate change isn’t your fault. It never was. It was all politics. But you knew that deep in your heart.

God is in Control, not you.

Forbes takes a shot over the bow at Bloggers

Forbes Magazine this week has come down hard against bloggers and their influence. There is rumbling in congress to try to “Control” the internet, Read that Bloggers. The Article is here, Attack of the Bloggers as printed in Forbes Magazine. Here is a part of that article.

No wonder companies now live in fear of blogs. "A blogger can go out and make any statement about anybody, and you can't control it.



But if blogging is journalism, then some of its practitioners seem to have learned the trade from Jayson Blair. Many repeat things without bothering to check on whether they are true, a penchant political operatives have been quick to exploit. "Campaigns understand that there are some stories that regular reporters won't print. So they'll give those stories to the blogs," says Christian Grantham, a Democratic consultant in Washington who also blogs. He cites the phony John Kerry/secret girlfriend story spread by bloggers in the 2004 primaries. The story was bogus, but no blogger got fired for printing the lie. "It's not like journalism, where your reputation is ruined if you get something wrong. In the blogosphere people just move on. It's scurrilous," Grantham says.


And though they have First Amendment protection and posture as patriotic muckrakers in the solemn pursuit of truth, the blog mob isn't democratic at all. They are inclined to crush dissent with the "delete" key. When consultant Nick Wreden criticized credit card banking giant MBNA on his blog, a reader responded in support of MBNA. Wreden zapped the comment. "I just thought: ‘This has to be a plant,'" he says.


"Blogging is still in its infancy. Imposing regulations would create a chilling effect," says Annalee Newitz, until recently a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that defends anonymous attackers. The anonymous assault has a long tradition in American political discourse, recognized by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission in 1995 and in a recent decision by the Delaware Supreme Court refusing to force an Internet service provider to disclose who called a small-town politician inept.


This has put more fear in the hearts and minds of those who like to be in control of things than all the pornography on the Internet ever did.

If you care about the first amendment this is an important dialogue. I have subscribed to Forbes for years, I endorse most of Steve Forbes says.

But he has gone off the end of the plank.

The blogosphere is astonished. Here is an article from one such.
Excerpts from that blog.

Overall, what a pile of trash from Forbes Magazine, which uses its cover to go on the attack against bloggers in the new issue. You have to register to read the stories. Go ahead if you must; it's worth reading to see how a normally solid business magazine can go astray with an alarmist and at times absurd broadside.

Do bloggers sometimes go too far? Of course. But if the best-read bloggers typically did work of the lousy quality shown in the Forbes stories, they'd be pilloried -- appropriately so.


There are columnists from newspapers who are supporting first amendment rights of bloggers to blog. Here is one of those.

In its November 14th issue, Forbes magazine published a cover story titled "Attack of the Blogs!" The deck read, "They destroy brands and wreck lives. Is there any way to fight back?"

The article, which is by Daniel Lyons, is deceptive, specious, and just plain bad journalism. With this article, Mr. Lyons and Forbes do us, as readers, a disservice, and we should mistake neither Lyons' fuming gasconade nor Forbes' absentee editorial oversight for proper journalism.



So, those of the ACLU, You free speech advocates, those of you who are journalists, where do you stand on this? Is the fact that the bulk of the Blogosphre is tilted to the right blinding you to the truth of what this really is?

The blogosphere is nothing more than a soapbox on which I stand in Hyde Park. No one has to listen (Read). No one has to agree or ever come back again. People can disagree or get their own soapbox. We just are speaking to a larger audience than I could have ever reached in Hyde Park. It’s true freedom of speech.

It’s just that it’s become so much more effective at crushing the lies that are out there by so many.

I think that’s a good thing.

Without a Vision we will ALL Perish

Can’t see the Forest for the trees. We all know that it’s true. We’ve been there at one time or another. Our pain, our frustration, our anger, our circumstance causes blindness to the solutions that others see so well. They may help us as they step out of the as-is situation we find ourselves in and toward the could be situation we all desire. When we are in that place we are the least likely least qualified person or people to solve our own problems. We need a voice of hope and vision.

Sometimes all it takes is that outside voice describing a why-not scenario to get us off our duffs and on to the solution that waits in our future. The Kennedy brothers were famous for the quote (which wasn’t theirs), “Some people see things as they are and ask WHY? I see things as they could be and ask Why Not?” That’s what visionaries do. Forget the situation as it is right now. Stop asking why. Start believing for why not. Things will change.

I need visionaries in my life. I need a fresh ray of light shown on my situation from outside. When I was in corporate America we often brought people in from outside our discipline to help us see things differently. They might have been wrong but they pushed aside issues that blinded us from seeing things as they really were. That’s why Steve Jobs hired the President of Pepsi to run Apple for a while. Sometimes it’s just better to have a person who doesn’t have so many trees in their forest to blind them to lead the way. His vision reconfigured Apple, a company Mr. Jobs now runs with great success.

I appreciate a wonderful Church we attend (albeit really far away). It’s worth the drive. When we are there and the Spirit of God is flowing, (like last night) a fresh download of vision takes place in word, song and prophecy such that the troubles in my life don’t seem so big and potentials that could be part of my future see more possible. I thrive on the could be or should be. I need vision. I would perish without it. Sometimes I need to be jarred out of my lethargy.

Here’s are truths I have learned about vision:
--It comes from people you least expect to get it from sometimes
--The less people know about your situation the more visionary they can be
--Our biggest hindrance to our vision is being in the proverbial forest
--Most big visions seem impossible and impractical at first
--Some visionaries only have a piece of the puzzle but it can be the critical key to the full solution
--It’s easy to criticize vision, discount a vision, reject a vision, the only loser in that is not the vision carrier, they have nothing to lose; it’s you. You perish.

So, be careful not to put qualifiers on the vision carriers in your life, what they know, what you believe you know better, the size or radical nature of the vision, the fact that the way out and up seems incomplete, impossible or impractical.

Visions always do.

Remember, God used a Donkey to speak to a prophet. He could use the least likely least qualified person you know to speak to you. Are you qualified to listen? Let he who has ears to hear………………

Reference posts on Say Anything

Posts on Say Anything last week by yours truly.

Teenage Christians Beheaded

A Real Pessimistic View of the Future

State Lotteries are a Shell Game

Phony Government Help

Why Muslims Behead

Unused Fuel in the Ground

Second Hand Smoke is Good for You (or not)

Smurfs under Sharia Law

I am totally unbiased, they are worth reading.

Child Support in Fargo, North Dakota

On Say Anything, another blog, this entry appeared. Then there was a comment by a man who's brother is being victimized in the same way. I think this is a problem. I don't live any more in Fargo, but I know Fargo influencers who might decide to take this issue on. It's a big one. Read the whole thing and the comments.

Government run amuk.

Read the whole thing and the comments.
By 2sweet4u69 on October 30, 2005 at 1:38 pm

I live in West Fargo, ND. I am a single mother of 3 kids. Awhile ago my two older children were put in foster care for a short amount of time. They are now back home with me and doing great! My problem is I started a new job in August and within two days of working child support garnished my wages for past due child support for when my kids were in foster care.

Now, I don’t have a problem with paying that at all. What I do have a problem with is the amount that they think they need to take out. They are taking out $280.00 a month. I am working at the local high school right now when my kids are in school (about 22 hours a week because there is no way I can afford child care for my youngest). My last check they took exactly half of my paycheck which left me pretty much broke after paying electricity, phone and putting gas in my car. Now this is the same child support agency that has done pretty much nothing about my two older children’s dad not paying child support. His arrears for child support as of 10/27/2005 is $47,338.04. He moved to California to get away from child support and boy did it work!

I have filled out an online application with Legal Assistance of North Dakota to see if they can help me. My thought is this: no matter what the payment is a month child support will get their money. I have asked them if they could lower my payments and they basically blew me off. I told them I am willing to pay $100.00 a month and they said that won’t do. This is a past due bill for child support - it’s not like my kids are still in foster care racking up more of a bill.

I want to know what you people think of this situation. I fully believe in paying child support for you children whether it’s because you children were in foster care or because you’re the non-custodial parent, but some of the collection methods used by child support enforcement leave something to be desired.