Someone wants us to be discouraged. This isn't over yet.
http://dailysignal.com/2014/11/23/house-panels-benghazi-report-full-senator-says/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
I have full faith in Trey Gowdey's committee....and it is coming in December.
Don't listen to the rhetoric. Good for Senator Lindsey Graham in this interview!!!
Believing we all have a duty to "watch" and share with others that which we have learned.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
The Good Guys
Below is an excerpt from Dinesh D’Souza’s recent book
entitled America, Imagine a World Without Her. I have posted the selection from
the thirteenth chapter of his book, pages 210 -213.
In a recent debate between Mr. D'Souza and Ward Churchill - liberal professor and radical anti-American socialist activist - Churchill brought up the fact that America stole oil from the Middle East for our own selfish benefits. Churchill couldn't wait to throw that in Dinesh's face, (and all of America's face, too, as it was televised) but he only bloviated; he provided no proof, or facts. There simply are none.
There are so many good points in Mr. D’Souza’s book that I feel
we all would be wise to consider; but I believe, what is discussed below is one of the
most important aspects of D’Souza’s work. For me, it is the book in a “nutshell”. It is exactly what I had hoped to glean from his
writings and then to also share.
I am weary of the attacks on America and for all that we stand.
In recent years, the attacks have seemed relentless mischaracterizing who we
are in an extremely insidious way. Obviously,
the assault comes from the left; the “progressives”. But the attacks have been
so convincing, I’m afraid that there are those who even though they consider
themselves “conservatives” have also joined in this mantra from the left.
It is a shame. While I don’t agree with everything Dinesh
says in his book and even in the excerpt below, I am not about to throw out the
baby with the bathwater. Take a moment
to read his thoughts. I will write more about my thoughts after offering any
who read here, a chance to contemplate Mr. D'Souza's writings first. Emphasis in bold is mine.
~~~~~~~~~~
What, then, of more recent involvements, from America ’s alliance with unsavory Middle Eastern dictators
to its role in Vietnam , the
Gulf War; and the Afghanistan
and Iraq
invasions? Many progressives point out that America has long allied with
dictators like the Shah of Iran and the Saudi royal family in order to maintain
access to oil supplies. By doing this,
we become part of the “gang of thieves” exploiting the people. We even allied for some years with Saddam
Hussein, before turning against him.
During the Soviet War in Afghanistan ,
the United States
supplied weapons to Osama bin Laden.
These facts seem to suggest, on America ’s
part, an amoral, mercenary foreign policy, a vindication of the progressive
allegation that America ’s
actions are motivated by power-seeking and theft.
Progressives are certainly right that America makes
these alliances to protect its self-interest.
In the Middle East , that self-interest
is oil. Now America is not stealing and has
never stolen that oil - we purchase it at the world market price. America , however, seeks to avoid
hostile regimes or instability in the region that might cause a disruption in
the oil market. Progressives don’t seem
to realize that there is nothing wrong with this. Some years ago I debated a leftist professor
who harangued me, “Mr. D’Souza, will you admit that the main reason America is in the Middle
East is because of oil?” I
replied, “I certainly hope so. I cannot
think of any other reasons to be there, can you?” The audience laughed. My opponent looked sullen. I could see he wasn’t convinced. And in a sense he was right. The question he was wrestling with was not
self-interest, are we making the overall situation in other countries better or
worse? This is a legitimate question.
In, order to answer it, we must consider the central
principle of foreign policy - the principle of the lesser evil. This principle says it is legitimate to ally
with the bad guy to avoid the worse guy.
The classic example of this was in World War II. The United States allied with Stalin - a
very bad guy - because another bad guy, Hitler, posed a greater threat at the
time. In the same vein, the United States
was right to support the Shah of Iran, and when under Jimmy Carter we pulled
the Persian rug out from under him, we got Khomeini. The Shah was a pretty bad
guy, a dictator who had a secret police, but Khomeini soon proved himself a far
worse. American and Iranian interests
would have been better served if Khomeini had been prevented from coming to
power. During the 1980’s, the United
States briefly allied with Saddam
Hussein. This was during the Iran-Iraq
war. Again, Saddam was the bad guy and Khomeini was the worse guy.
When America
provided arms to Osama bin Laden, he was part of the mujahedeen, a Muslim
fighting force seeking to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan . The mujahedeen could never have succeeded without
American aid. Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan was
the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.
It was a spectacular triumph of American foreign policy. Of course no one knew that bin Laden and his
minions would subsequently make America
their main target. We see here a danger
of “lesser evil” thinking: lesser evils are still evils. The bad guys you support today may turn
against you tomorrow, as bin Laden did.
Bin Laden many have been a ”good guy” in fighting the Soviets, but he
remained a “bad guy” seeking the eventual destruction of both the Soviet empire
and what he took to be its American equivalent.
So was America
wrong to back the mujahedeen? No. At the time, radical Islam was not a major
force in the world and we did not know bin Laden’s intentions. Foreign policy does not have the privilege
that historians have – the privilege of hindsight. And even in hindsight, America was
right to do what it did.
What went wrong in Vietnam ,
and more recently in Afghanistan
and Iraq ?
In Vietnam , America
miscalculated its self-interest. Of
course the South Vietnamese were threatened by the North. Of course Vietnam would be worse off if it
went Communist. But America committed
large numbers of troops because it believed its vital interests in deterring
Communist aggression were at stake. In fact, America
had no vital interests in Vietnam ;
it was a drain on American resources rather than an intelligent use of them. So
Vietnam was a stupid war;
but it was not a wicked war: America had no intention to rule Vietnam , or to steal the resources of the
Vietnamese people; America
had no colonial designs on Vietnam . Still, Vietnam was an irresponsible use of
American power – on this the progressives are right.
The Iraq War; undertaken by George W Bush, was also a
mistake. I supported the war at the
time, because I believed the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq had “weapons
of mass destruction” (WMDs). In retrospect,
that proved to be false. I don’t
understand how a country can invade another country based on the suspicion that
they have WMDs. We should not have gone
in unless we knew they had WMDs.
Having said that, the Bush administration assiduously sought to rebuild Iraq
after Saddam’s ouster. The problem was
that this proved to be a difficult and costly enterprise. Far from stealing from Iraq , America returned to the Iraqis the
keys to the oil fields, and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in
restoring order and commerce to that country.
Far from acting like a colonial occupier, America ’s intention from the beginning
was to get in and get out.
Over the past few decades, America
has intervened in a half-dozen countries, from Libya
to Grenada to Afghanistan to Iraq . In every case, America has acted in a most
un-colonial way. First, America did not
take resources from those countries; rather, it expended resources to improve
them. Second, America
was planning its exit almost immediately after its intervention, looking for the
quickest, safest way to get out.
Progressives don’t seem to recognize this. They often make lists of countries America has
invaded and occupied. But they never
consider the simple question, “If America was the evil colonial occupier of all
these countries, why don’t we own them?”
The reason is that Americans have no interest in acquiring foreign real
estate. We never have, and I’m convinced
we never will. As Colin Powell memorably
put it, the only ground America
has sought abroad in the after math of war is sufficient ground to bury our
dead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love what Mr. D’Souza has written here. I couldn’t agree
more with his points. I only want to add that it is my belief we absolutely
should have gone into Iraq
at the chance of there being WMD. That was a chance with which we should not
have gambled and thankfully we didn’t. We went in for the protection of nations. That is what
America
does. After all, we are the good guys! And just because we didn’t find
WMD, certainly does not mean they weren’t there.
Further, it is my contention that again we were right to go
into Vietnam .
We were preventing the spread of Communism, the greatest evil at the time. Just
because it became a “political war” does not mean it was not right to begin
with. Yes, as Dinesh said, valuable resources were wasted. But it didn’t have
to be that way. Politics prevented our soldiers from winning that war and
strung it out far longer than needed. We should have gone in for the win, and came
out just as quickly. The America
of old would have done just that.
In a recent debate between Mr. D'Souza and Ward Churchill - liberal professor and radical anti-American socialist activist - Churchill brought up the fact that America stole oil from the Middle East for our own selfish benefits. Churchill couldn't wait to throw that in Dinesh's face, (and all of America's face, too, as it was televised) but he only bloviated; he provided no proof, or facts. There simply are none.
Finally, I want to say to those “conservatives” on the
fence, or to those that may have bought into the lie of the left that America is an “Imperialistic
nation” stealing from others for our own benefit: Please stop to rethink that! Many of you
believe it was wrong to take some of the steps America
has taken citing that America
did it for our own benefit to the detriment of others. That simply isn’t the
case. That is the leftist mantra. History proves otherwise. What we have in the
way of “occupied” land proves otherwise. There is none. Even the more liberal Colin Powell can recognize that fact, as we see quoted at the end of this passage from Dinesh's book: "the only ground America has sought abroad in the after math of war is sufficient ground to bury our dead."
When we join the progressive's refrain, we inadvertently join the left in their attack
of America .
We then are also participating in compromise - the very thing we claim to hate. We join
forces with evil; but with this evil there will never be any good that will come
from it. The left cannot be more encouraged by that as they more easily promote
their socialist "take over" of the United States of America . Mr. D’Souza
has done an excellent job addressing that outcome in his movie and in this book.
We would be wise to listen to what he has to say and then think critically
about what we are going to do about it.
America always has and I believe always should bring aid to the underdog, to those nations being attacked and abused. I don't ever want to see another holocaust - not on my watch. After all, we are the good guys, and that is what good guys do! We would do well to remember that when someone tries to make America into something else to benefit their own evil agenda.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Except the Lord Build the House
Below is another excellent testimony from Hal Lindsey. I,
too, remember most of the events he remembers, though I am a tad bit younger.
I remember, just after "the malaise of Jimmy Carter" the election of President Reagan offered us a new direction. I will never forget the sense of hope we then realized as a nation. One could literally feel the change from apathy or disgust, to an atmosphere of encouragement and life. Not only did President Reagan give us strong leadership, he reminded us we were still "a shining light on a hill" - a real hope for a hurting world. He did this not only through his strong leadership, but also by reminding us of the God we serve and that it is He who is the true Founder of our nation.
Hal Lindsey could not be more right in his commentary below:
We are trying to succeed without God. But along with that, I also believe
Americans have grown weary of the continual attack and belittling of our nation. That attitude elicits
no hope and only brings discouragement.
Blessed is the nation whose God is
the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. ~Psalm
33:12-22 KJV
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to
any people.
~Proverbs 14:34 KJV
And I like that Mr. Lindsey, used the same verse that I have chosen to show my hope for my blog:
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that
build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
~Psalm 127:1 KJV
|
November 14th, 2014
This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'
I have a birthday coming soon and I've been thinking about my life and the times in which I've lived.I was born just days after Black Tuesday, the day of the most devastating stock market crash in U.S. history. I grew up during the Depression and the lean years that followed. In fact, it was not until my 25th birthday that the stock market again reached its peak level from 1929. I remember the Dust Bowl and what life here was like during World War Two, the biggest, deadliest conflict in human history. I remember the start of the Cold War. I served in the Coast Guard during the Korean conflict. I lived through the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, the Viet Nam war, and the counter-culture rebellion of the 60s and 70s. I worked on American college campuses during some of those tumultuous years. I remember the Arab oil embargo, Watergate, the Nixon resignation, the malaise of Jimmy Carter, and the terror of 9/11. But through all of that, the American people seemed never to lose their sense of optimism. That is, until now. In a recent Fox News Poll, a staggering 58% of Americans polled thought that "the way things are going" could best be described by the phrase: "Things are going to hell in a handbasket." Americans today share a sense of doom that they just can't seem to shake. So what makes our time different? Is it the Ebola outbreak? So far, only one person has died in the U.S. and only two people have contracted it here. On the other hand, 1,500 Americas die each day from cancer. Is it ISIS? The small terrorist army is unsettling, and even though they've vowed to fly their flag over the White House, they're a long way from being able to carry out that threat. Is it Vladimir Putin? He's been doing a lot of saber-rattling lately. His bombers are probing ours and NATO's defenses. He's engaged in a slow-motion takeover of chunks of Eastern Europe. He's irritated because Western sanctions are beginning to bite and he's started making veiled threats about nuking those who oppose Russia. When an insulated sociopath who controls 10,000 nuclear weapons publicly insinuates that he might use them, it's worth taking notice. But I don't think Americans really believe him. So I don't think that's why they seem to be feeling this sense of doom. I think that, deep down, most Americans know that our nation's true strength is her morality and they sense that America's moral base is crumbling. A few weeks ago, I discussed Psalm 127:1 and how it applies to the United States today: "Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain." That's what America 2014 feels like. It feels like there's a hole in our boat. We bail and bail, but the water in the boat only gets deeper. Things don't work like they used to work. Everything seems upside down. Why? I think it's because we're trying to succeed without God. As individuals and as a nation, we have the ability to reject the presence and fellowship of the Lord, but we do not have the ability to achieve real and lasting success without Him. Until we patch that hole in our boat, we're bailing desperately, but in vain. Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, CPM Network, The Word Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. God Bless, Hal Lindsey |
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