Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Are we Doomed to Repeat History?

Today it seems we are living in a society of non-believers and I don’t mean that in a religious context. It seems as if most of the people in the world especially citizens and even leaders in the western world don’t want to believe in anything that doesn’t make sense to them.

Let me explain. First lets start with radical Islam. That phrase alone is a problem. While I’m sure there are plenty of Muslims who follow the Koran as well as some of those who profess Christianity follow the Bible. What I mean by this is that they really don’t believe in or at least follow through with what the Bible teaches. So there are Muslims who don’t completely follow the Koran. However no one has hijacked Islam, there is not a radical side of Islam, Islam itself is radical. The people who we refer to as radical Islamists are basically Islamic fundamentalists who follow though with what Islam teaches. But many people including President Bush insist on the narrative that is Islam is a peace loving religion. President Bush either is being political or naïve. Most of western society is however the latter.

Next lets look at Iran. Most of the antiwar crowd thinks that we can just talk to Iran and the problem will be resolved. Even the leaders seem to think that talk and sanctions will work when they have obviously not. They are confused because they think that everyone is like them and thinks like them and surely under the right conditions or pressure that Iran will do what they want because if they were in that situation they would just do what seemed to be logical and negotiate a peaceful resolution. This is both dangerous and just plane foolish. There are many people in the Islamic world and the world in general who are willing to die for a cause. There are even those who would let thousands dies even thousands of their own people die. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the mullahs in Iran are these type of people. They can’t be deterred by the threat of death for them or their citizens nor the threat of loosing power. That is what we fear, not what they fear.

Time and time again we can see from history that there is more in this world than we understand. Yet we refuse to believe it could happen again. In the movies when a bad guy has a hostage but the good guy has a gun, the bad guy always says “put your gun down or I’ll kill the hostage.” The good guy tells the bad guy to let the hostage go and they go back and forth until the good guy drops his gun. The good guy thinks the bad guy will act in good faith and let the hostage go, but in fact the bad guy often kills the hostage anyway and then attempts to kill the unarmed good guy. In the movies though the good guy finds a way out, but that’s not reality. Why does the good guy always seem to give in and think the bad guy will be reasonable? This makes no sense. Yes you want to save the hostage but if you leave no deterrent for the bad guy than both the hostage and the good guy are exposed and will likely be killed or at least the bad guy will attempt to kill them both. Yes that’s just the movies but is art imitating life or life imitating art? I think both may be true and either way we miss the point. The bad guy usually does not think the way we do, that’s why they are the bad guy. It’s not just a misunderstanding or a misunderstood character. Yes we should want God’s best for every human being that he created. God wants that none should parish. But that is not always possible and we must do what is right. In a shoot out you shouldn’t really want to kill the bad guy but you may have to, to save the lives of others. In this case there is not even a deterrent though. The only way to stop Iran is to disarm them.

Let me leave you with this thought. It seems we are living in a world full of Neville chamberlains. Even though many say we can’t have a nuclear-armed Iran they seem willing to let it happen because they don’t believe Iran will attack Israel and they really don’t think Iran will attack the US. Why they don’t believe this, I don’t know. Not only have the Iranians said what they want to do, they are currently even doing it. Iran is attacking the US in Iraq. Iran calls us the great Satan and it’s more than just playground name calling.

If someone told you they were a super agent spy would you believe them? Probably not that kind of stuff only happens in the movies right? While it seems overly dramatic it can very well be true. In this world there are thousands or probably hundreds of thousands or millions who are in fact spies. The CIA does exist, as well as many other agencies in this country and other countries that do employ spies. If someone told you that the mafia was out to get them, you might think that something was wrong but it was probably their overactive imagination. Why? Organized crime surely exists in this country and many others, just ask the FBI.

Hitler told us he wanted to rule the world and get of the Jews. But we didn’t believe him. No that was crazy talk, he really couldn’t have meant that. The president of Iran wants us to imagine a world without Israel or the US. But that’s just crazy talk right?


Read Ahmadinejad's Speech from the World Without Zionism conference.

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