- January 20th is the day America inaugurates her
new presidents. It is a day which promises a new beginning for America
and the world if and only if the U.S. is willing to turn its moral trajectory
towards a higher state of affairs.
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- Concerning the Middle East, despite all the talk about
a "successful surge" in which the United States paid off various
Iraqi irregular militias not to shoot at our troops, there is still much
which needs to be said about Iraq, and to a lesser extent, Afghanistan.
This exercise will require the painting of some very broad and even painful
strokes. So many important and vital questions have not even been asked,
let alone pondered.
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- There are of course on the surface the all-too-familiar
debacles. How could these impending defeats have happened to "the
greatest military power on Earth?" Consider that the very
same nation which in 1945 had six percent of the world's population
and over 80 percent of the world's wealth has now decayed into an
infantilized economic and moral state.
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- A nation caught up in such a great decline should be
ripe for self analysis, rather than engaging in craven delusions. If the
reasons for the invasion were wrong, or outright lies to conceal the real
agenda, how can the occupation ever be made right? As such, one might wonder
about the real reasons behind the invasions?
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- Was it to break up Iraq into three little states which
would be unable to challenge the U.S. or Israel? (I doubt our leaders are
that smart.) Was all of this the workings of the Project for a New American
Century, AIPAC, the Council on Foreign Relations or some other allegedly
nefarious group? Some hidden New World Order elite operating from secret
chambers? The Antichrist? The Boogeyman? Or did George W. Bush and Tony
Blair fly by the seat of their collective pants?
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- There are those who claim over 1,000,000 Iraqis, mostly
civilians, are dead. Some may rightfully dispute this number, as if an
exact account is possible in a country where overwhelmed morgues have
turned away bodies in droves. This Neocon invasion happened all because
the U.S. felt the need to get rid of a murderer and dictator we had trained,
financed and armed. It's fair enough to say "We created him, so it
was our responsibility to get rid of him."
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- But make no mistake, Islamic militants did not start
the war in Iraq -- Dubya did. Why?
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- First, Saddam tried to kill his father, George Bush Sr.
(We can understand the son's anger about that and perhaps even applaud
it).
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- Second, President Bush Jr. read a book about democracy
written by Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet refusenik, (a smart, decent
man) who gained notoriety in the Israeli Knesset. After reading this book,
Bush Jr. decided to democratize the entire Middle East. He quoted from
this book at his second inauguration. The question remains, if Natan Sharansky
had written a book about the cartoon character Gumby, would we all be riding
around now on an orange horse?
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- British Intelligence, Blair, the CIA, Dubya and his cabal
(as correctly chided by everyone from Paul Craig Roberts to Paul Sperry)
have acted shamefully at various levels. This should be chilling to all
decent Americans who value truth. Only liars tolerate other liars. And
no lie occurs in a vacuum, rather only to cover up other lies. And they
still don't get it, do they? Let us consider that American soldiers (about
80 percent are at least nominal Christians, Catholics and Protestants/Evangelicals)
have now effectively run most Iraqi Christians out of their own country
by installing the radical Shiites to power in Iraq. Is that true irony?
Of course we all know from an infamous Sixty Minutes interview
with a true insider how evangelicals have been used to the highest degree
by this administration. And to think how many of us voted for them back
in 2000 not knowing their level of contempt for us! Never again ...
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- And where are the vaunted American Christians when our
fellow believers are killed in Iraq and Gaza? Many actually cheered on
this sickening spectacle. Others simply nod in silence. No wonder so many
people hate Christians in America. What happened to love thy neighbor?
What happened to silencing one's own conceit, false pride and self esteem?
What happened to the notion of turning the other cheek and doing good to
those who hate you? What happened to defeating evil with love and not with
more evil? To know Christ's power mean to first know His betrayal and abandonment
and humility and service to others. How can we say we are Christians when
we are so quick to kill? This is not the path to "the narrow gate."
This is more like "I never knew you."
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- With thousands of dead American soldiers (the very best
boys and -- shamefully -- the girls of America cut down like flowers in
their youth) and tens of thousands of serious casualties, again, we must
ask, "Why?"
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- There was a greater freedom of worship for Iraqi Christians
under Saddam than after "liberation." And as non-state and sub/micro-state
actors (Fatah, Hezbollah) and supra-national actors (al-Qaeda, Islamic
jihad) continue to fill the coming power vacuum, things might get even
worse in the Middle East for everyone who doesn't support their particular
brand of religion. What's the point?
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- What about all the missing U.S. development aid which
Paul Bremmer couldn't account for? He couldn't fly in some accountants?
Where is the outrage of the U.S. taxpayer? Who knew the money was being
flown in? Have you considered that maybe we stole the money from ourselves?
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- As an aside, the December 5th, 2006 edition of the USA
Today reported that a billion dollars has been wasted on training
the Afghan police force. No one knows how many police were trained, what
equipment they have or where it is. Where is the outrage as Mr. Obama makes
further preparations to bankrupt America in the Graveyard of Empires? The
nation of Afghanistan where Alexander the Great, the British Empire and
the Soviet Empire all were all eventually sent packing. Is our hubris that
strong? Are we that far off the beaten track?
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- How could our military have trained so few Iraqi soldiers
in all this time and with all that money? Why dismantle the entire Iraqi
Army and purge every single Baathist from power? Was that smart? Is this
the best our military, the CIA, DIA, State Department, Rand Corporation
and so-called Ivy League "elite" can come up with? What do they
teach at West Point? "How to Ruin a Country 101?"
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- Can you explain how a radical Shiite government in Iraq,
allied with Iran and chanting "Death to America" helps American
interests? It's just insane and it is getting increasingly harder to focus
on the reality in Iraq, or what went on in the minds of Cheney, Bush Jr.
and Halliburton. (As a plus, the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the
world without a country, may finally get their own state.)
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- Of course, things didn't have to turn out this way. From
the very beginnings of the now infamous Shock and Awe we had no real plan
for occupation. U.S. Special Forces bribed Iraqi commanders with briefcases
filled with cash as a means to make them abandon their positions. This
was not a very good introduction to capitalism.
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- Then we failed to secure an important Iraqi museum which
was soon was looted. Great and priceless treasures of human antiquity were
lost. This was a horrible mistake as it set a tone for anarchy. In fact,
it was so stupid from a tactical point of view it stupefies the imagination.
When questioned about this, former Secretary Donald Rumsfeld simply said
"Democracy is messy." Well, so is a diaper! That's why a baby
needs constant attention.
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- And what good is a brand of democracy in the Middle East
which brings to power the rockets of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon,
Iranian-aligned the Shiites in Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?
These groups only taunt Israel and give the Israeli/American military machine
more reasons (real or imagined) to go to war. And wars mean money
for certain elites.
- (That said, if it was a reverse situation and the facts
on the ground showed all Jews from Morocco to the Philippines and from
Southern Russia to the Sudan, and this tiny little Muslim nation was in
the middle of that vast "Jewish sea" of nations and peoples,
would all those Jews come after this one tiny Muslim country? Or would
they leave them alone and give them a tiny piece of land the size of New
Jersey? I think we all know the answer to that question at least.)
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- Want an exit strategy? Sure, with multi-billion dollar
bases, the most luxurious embassy ever built, air power and oil involved,
was there ever a plan to leave Iraq?
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- Ever truly ponder Rummy's "light footprints"
of a rapid moving, fluid military? Does this include women in combat, women
with babies in combat, women with little children in combat and as Sixty
Minutes reported, calling up a 60 year old grandmother?
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- Further, does this include our troops hunting for scrap
metal to protect themselves, and the families of servicemen and women mailing
off body armor and other equipment the military should be providing? But
we've got oodles of money to send the ANC, the United Nations and God knows
who else. (The "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska comes to mind).
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- "Look, Grandma mailed the soldiers cookies!"
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- "Look, Grandma mailed the soldiers body armor!"
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- "Look, Grandma mailed the soldiers ... Grandma!"
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- This is America?
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- Why wasn't a 60 year old grannie on the beach at D-Day?
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- Then, to control people with vice, alcohol and prostitution
were legalized almost right away in Iraq by the U.S. forces. If you look
at MTV you will see why Muslims fear America. Our culture is disgusting.
Things we would have shunned even in 1990 are now not only openly tolerated
but celebrated. Legalizing such vices in Iraq probably alienated many Muslims.
Islam is a genuine religious faith and we should respect its higher morals,
especially its stance against abortion, resistance to pornography and other
ills. Instead we as Americans demonize them, because their prayer life,
family values and resistance to abortion show us how sinful we really are.
(Granted, some of them are violent and very nutty. Usually you become a
martyr by being killed, not by killing other people.)
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- Not many Americans realize that scores of Iraqi doctors
and professors have been murdered on an almost daily basis. How
does this bode for the future? Why aren't professional mercenaries from
South Africa and ex-SAS protecting them, or even trying to? Again, no one
saw this coming? Does anyone care about the Iraqi brain drain?
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- Trick or Treat at Abu Ghraib was beyond disgusting and
has forever damaged the image of America. Our soldiers and the Vlakplas
archetype mercenaries were beyond cruel. Where is their honor? Where is
their love? Where is their humanity?
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- The rape of Abeer Qasim Hamza, the teenaged Iraqi girl,
her subsequent murder and the murder of her family (and a very small child)
to conceal this sick ritual was beyond disgusting. The U.S. soldiers involved
with this are beyond inhuman and shame all of us. Again, this is the great,
Christian America? No wonder people around the world hate us,
our sick culture, deluded and insane leaders, our violent video games and
our pornography. No normal person wants to fight the war in Iraq anymore
so they have to let in people with criminal records. How sad.
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- Think of Jessica Lynch, our great heroine, running around
topless at her Army base in Iraq. (That's our girl!) Ponder Lynddie England
recording the madness at Abu Ghraib through her cell phone pictorial essay.
Sadly this is what America has decayed into. This is attested to by
the recent story of a young man in the U.S. who was vociferously cheered
on over the Internet via his webcam as he committed suicide. Not all
Americans are that way, not nearly a majority, but there are far,
far too many who live and think and act that way for us to remain a "normal"
country.
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- Other questions we might consider about Iraq, our foreign
policy and culture run across a wide spectrum;
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- What about the fresh water from the Tigris and Euphrates?
Israel is running out of water. Has a pipeline been proposed? (A few years
back, Tony Blair was caught trying to broker a fresh water pipeline from
Kurdistan to North Cyprus and then across to Israel).
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- What about Iraq's oil?
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- What of Iraq falling into Iran's orbit?
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- What about the proposed oil pipeline going through Afghanistan?
What about the opium? What about the opium money?
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- What about exiled Iraqi girls as young at eight
being sold into sexual slavery in Saudi Arabia via Syria -- as reported
by Brian Williams on NBC News? How could Bush Jr. sleep at night knowing
this is going on?
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- What about America's MTV culture trying to turn Allah
McBeal into Ally McBeal in the Middle East and Central Asia? That is the
real issue in the battle between civilizations. It is the singular untold
story -- the sexual liberation of Islamic women. Granted, some Muslim women
are treated like chattel slaves and even have acid thrown in their faces,
(the "Religion of Peace") but we all know the American endgame
for them is Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton. That's another brand of acid
and a story for another day.
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- What about Central Asian population control? Will the
New Age Mother Gaia types allow Iran's population to continue to grow at
such a high rate?
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- What about the U.S. declaring victory in Afghanistan
not when bin Laden was captured (he probably never will be) nor the Taliban
defeated (they are now busy retaking the country) but rather when "women
were liberated from the Taliban." This is the 21st Century America.
The soft America. The America that makes the World War II generation cringe.
The America where all the soldiers in our Army get to wear the archetype
special forces beret so their "feelings" and "self esteem"
aren't hurt.
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- The America which made Alan Greenspan a demigod. The
America which abandoned all its traditions and morals to participate in
the global economy. (Pornography, weapons sales, MTV values, Hollywood,
Madison Avenue, sexualizing pre-teens, slave labor imports from Mainland
China, helping to fund the U.N. abortion jihad on and on ad infinitum).
Again, have we no pride, no honor and no shame? Think of the latest American
fashon -- high heel shoes for babies. Think of our once vaunted universities
and the godless, Christ-hating professors who insert Marxism into your
precious chlidren. Think of the filth on Saturday Night Live. Think of the
war on the Boy Scouts.
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- Think of the murder of poor Channon Christian and her
boyfriend in Memphis, this by the lowest form of oxygen stealing parasites
ever to grace America's shores. This gang Sodomized them, cut off her breasts,
cut off her boyfriend's penis and then poured lighter fluid down her
throat. While they did this they were living out rap lyrics calling
the faithful to "kill whitey all night long." Where were
Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Mr. Obama on this hate crime? Silent. Regardless,
this is the United States of America. This is who we are and there is no
escape from that fact. We are a nation that is already eating the
dishes we served to Rhodesia, South Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. The dishes
we served to the Hmong, Montagnards, the Karen, UNITA, Rwanda, South Sudan,
the Contras and the Afrikaners. It's cosmic blowback. "As you do unto
others ..."
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- I count America having lost four wars in the past six
years: there is of course Iraq, Afghanistan, the Somalia-warlord contest
and by proxy, Lebanon. The U.S. has been kicked out of Uzbekistan. Bahrain
might be the next nation to send our fleet away, never to return. Are these
disasters somehow linked to the sickness in our culture? Perhaps not. But
is God blessing our nation these days? If not, then why not? Maybe it's
time to ask if America is long past the point of no return? (Maybe Woodstock
was the point of no return -- though few could see it -- then
or now).
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- We woke up one day and the Soviet Union was gone. We
woke up the next day and apartheid was gone. Think it's impossible we'll
wake up one day and find the gang in Washington, D.C. vaporized by a terrorist
or Russian or Chinese or North Korean mini-nuke? Let's hope not, but
we should be ever wary. We have real enemies "out there" and
inside our own nation. These enemies, both foreign and domestic, terrorize
us daily through their Gramscian culture war 24/7/365.
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- Because of Iraq, our military is a wreck. Ex-NFL great
and late soldier Pat Tillman, (an Arizona State graduate) though a brave
and great American, died for nothing. Our leaders have been exposed as
insane cowards and liars. They ran from Vietnam, only to send young American
men and women to do what they themselves would never attempt. Now they've
handed our nation over to Marxists.
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- Furthermore, depleted uranium is making many of our soldiers
sick, never mind what it is doing to ordinary Iraqis and Afghans. It's
all just so very, very Christian, isn't it? Let's wave the flag and chant
a mantra that the center is still holding.
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- South America, Central America, much of Africa, China
and Russia, along with Cuba and North Korea and various drug cartels are
aligned against the U.S. Our border with Mexico is a joke and the EU is
leaning away from the U.S. On our side we can count on Australia,
the UK, Thailand, Singapore, Israel, Latvia, Albania and maybe (and
this is a big maybe) Bangladesh.
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- Nuclear war and nuclear terrorism remain very real possibilities
though our shopping mall culture does not want to hear this annoying truth.
Remember when a man carrying a sign on the street saying "The End
is Near Repent" actually seemed funny instead of prophetic?
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- We're in tremendous and unpayable debt, with both fiscal
and trade problems as Lou Dobbs tries in vain to tell us just about every
night on CNN.
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- Worse of all, our children wear pajamas to school, can't
flush the toilet and in the winter, during the most frigid of days, many
children refuse to wear a coat, but rather only a T-shirt. It appears the
insanity and the infantilization has spread from top to bottom.
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- I want America to become a great nation again, but the
sad reality is that from impending Sharia Law in the UK to France
on fire to the new Hong Kong to the killing of the ethno-European
farmers in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and The New South Africa, our civilization
is either dying or already dead.
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- Democracy has become meaningless in many ways. It's not
merely the idea of democracy being "the broad participation of
the electorate." Rather it's about the progressive left wing Gramscian/Jacobin
and Cultural Long March on social and economic issues favored by the
American and Transnational elites.
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- (Consider in Europe how the Irish and Danes must vote
again and again about immigration or divorce or abortion or the Euro till
the elites get the answers they want.) In the U.S. we have similar
battles about abortion, pornography, the NEA, the dumbed-down public
schools, taking our guns away, Rhodesia (destroyed, totally) MFN for
China, turning over South Africa to the communists in the SACP/ANC, legalizing
the 30 million illegal immigrants, partial birth abortion, (as needed for
fetal tissue in regard for disease research, cloning and future patents
on the human genome) Dubai ports (shut down), as well as the
erstwhile boondoggle of the financial bailout (opposed by Americans but
went through anyway).
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- The question of the day is how we should feel about
our new crop of leaders? Think back to where Hillary Clinton was in 1974.
At that time, then-President Nixon was fighting Cambodia's Khmer Rouge
and their soon-to-come Killing Fields. As a young lawyer Hillary Clinton
was actively working on Capital Hill to impeach Nixon and hamstring
the war effort. Yet rightly or wrongly, be it the plain truth or the imaginations
of the vast "right wing conspiracy,"
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- Hillary's husband got to stick around through LORAL's
satellite technology and missiles to Red China, "Coke Daddy Supremo"
in Mena, Arkansas, the alleged rape of Juanita Broderick ("You've
got two problems honey, one you're credible and two you're very credible"),
helping "Father" Aristide in Haiti, propping up the ANC, Wen
Ho Lee, Monica's dress, Ron Brown, Vince Foster, organizing demonstrations
vs. the U.S. during the Vietnam War in the UK, editing Communist and Soviet
propaganda documents in Eastern Europe and the rest of it.
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- William Jefferson even went back to Eastern Europe at
the end of his second term to visit his old Commie friends. These are our
leaders? Couldn't one man or woman in the United States Senate have
asked Hillary about any of this at her confirmation "hearing?"
Are they that cowardly or that pathetic? Why should these wicked, sick
and evil Marxist animals (think of Winnie Mandela on crack) get
a free pass?
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- Instead of fighting the enemies of God and humanity,
Hillary was on the front line to undercut Nixon. And of course
the Khmer Rouge were given a huge boost by Nixon's impeachment. They took
over Cambodia and murdered 25 percent of the population -- around 2 million
people. Now this woman will be in charge of the State Department.
And to think, what kind of a man would select this woman, drenched in blood
-- legalizing late term abortion and the bombing of Serbia -- to represent
our nation? And they invoke the name of Abraham Lincoln in doing
so. They are delusional beyond human imagination. Pity them as you pray
for them. Yes they're only human and no one can be perfect.
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- It's just that they lie to themselves as they "play
the great role" (as do many Republicans) while the remnant of real
Americans know better vis-a-vis Marxism, late term abortion, cloning, DNA,
stem cells, GE/GM foods, United Nations, EU, African Union, Big Pharma,
public schools, open borders, replacement migration, Tower of Babel, ANC,
MFN for China, the financial "bailout" and the rest of the
never ending nightmare.
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- Behind the media spin they most often seem anti-Christian,
anti-Bible, anti-family, anti-patriarchy and anti-white. They wage war
on everything that is pure and good and noble left in the world. All normal
people, black, white, gay, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Korean, Arab, Jewish
and so forth should see through their lies and agenda. They won't
be happy until we're all starving, homeless serfs dressed in rags
and pleading for them to "save us." It's already starting.
-
- As for McCain and Bush Jr., their cluster bombs for Iraq
and Afghanistan, use of depleted uranium and arms for Lebanon and
Gaza; they are beyond the pale on those anti-life issues. It's sad
how the Christian right waved the banner for them. What real choice did
Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants have for a true, 100
percent pro-life agenda in this past Presidential election? All of our
institutions are corrupt. It's no longer good vs. evil. It's corrupted
good vs. evil. What ever happened to "Thou Shall Not Kill?" Arab
blood is real -- they're not computer characters in a violent video game.
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- Hopefully the Republicans will enjoy their next twenty years
in the political wilderness. Just as he destroyed his oil company, Bush
Jr. has destroyed our nation, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
the Republican Party, the rightist Evangelical block, the border with
Mexico, Iraq ("God told me to strike them!" Sure bro ...) Afghanistan,
New Orleans and our economy. Add to that the happy times at Abu
Ghraib and Gitmo. And remember, just a few weeks before 9/11 Bush Jr. went
to New York City to tell us "immigration is not a problem to be solved."
How crazy was that? Didn't one of the 9/11 pilots get a visa renewal form
in the mail the following April? I think we're talking about Narnia. We
talking serious institutionalization.
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- As for President Obama, consider the message of
the International Herald Tribune of December 20th, 2008. In an
article by John L. Allen, the senior correspondent for The National
Catholic Reporter entitled "The Pope's Real Message for Obama"
we read; "Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, for example,
warned voters that their eternal salvation might be at stake if they supported
Obama ... Cardinal Francis Stafford, a former archbishop of Denver who
today heads a Vatican court, described Obama's rhetoric on abortion as
"aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic," and compared the election
results to the Garden of Gethsemane -- the spot where according to the
Bible, Jesus agonized before his crucifixion."
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- In the end, the nightmare in Iraq is merely a symptom
of a far greater American disease. Where there is no love, no honor and
no shame, there can be only false pride and ultimately, a decay into evil
and unreality. More bombs for Afghanistan and Pakistan are not the answers.
If "God is love" then in those three words alone will we find
the answers to the questions we seek. For now, we can only join Cardinal
Stafford in weeping for our once great nation.
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- Alas, Babylon! Clearly our new leaders cannot save
us. Our lives and our property are ours, not the elites. Yet President
Obama was right about one thing -- we are the people we've been waiting
for. Let's help him all we can, pray for him as he attempts to navigate
the current nightmare not of his own doing, and hope for the best in spite of
the long odds.
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- Anthony C. LoBaido is an American journalist and
photographer.
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