Middle East ...

 

Concerns Re the Middle East

~ The Rev. Dr. Tom Eggebeen ~

In the midst of all the “news,” from one perspective or the other, it’s difficult, at best, to appreciate the complexities of the conflict. With this essay, I give expression to my understanding of the issues involved, and I hope it helps you, the reader, to better understand and think about the challenges of peace in the Middle East. I’m grateful to my friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Gary Sattler, whose comments, corrections, and additions have made this piece ever so much the better! 

None is righteous, no, not one!

So notes the Apostle Paul!

In all such things, wherein folks, or nations, or any other entity, try to claim the high moral ground, Paul’s sweeping generalization helps to set the record straight and put us on the right footing.

With the cease fire in effect, as I write, we have a chance to clear our own thinking and come to grips with the reality of the struggle since 1948, the founding of the State of Israel - in a land that had been under the jurisdiction of the Assyrian Empire (721 bce), the Babylonian Empire, Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, then the Byzantine Empire, until 634 CE, when the area was taken by Muslim armies from Arabia and then, finally, the Ottoman Empire; after WW1 and the defeat of the Ottomans (who had sided with the Austro-Hungarian and German nations), Palestine fell under British rule mandated by the Allies. With the inception of State of Israel, 1948, upwards of 300,000 Palestinians lost their land and their homes.

Meanwhile, across Christian lands, anti-semitism grew (it’s a long and horrible story) - Jews were labeled “Christ Killers” … and subject to repeated, sporadic, and sometimes horrendous pogroms - culminating in the Holocaust. Throughout Nazi-dominated Europe, plenty of Christians and their governments cooperated in the effort to eradicate the Jew. 

As early as the late 1800s, some Jews began to dream of a homeland, a place of safety, where they and their children could live without fear, and live their faith and culture. 

The British Balfour Declaration of 1917, during WW1, announced British support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people in Palestine,” while expressing concern for the rights of Palestinian Arabs.

 During WW2, nation after nation eventually closed their doors to Jews fleeing Germany; the United States turned away a ship of refugees, ultimately forcing the ship to return to Europe, and most everyone on board, to their death at the hands of the Nazis. More and more, Jews gave up hope of living with their Christian neighbors, and pushed all the more for a homeland. The Western Nations, with their own deep inbred anti-semitism, were more than happy to create a nation for the Jews.

With the inception of State of Israel, 1948, upwards of 300,000 Palestinians lost their land and their homes.

To make a long story short, bloodshed has been a tragic element of life in that part of the world for a very long time, and has remained a recurring event on both sides, since 1948.  It is our fervent hope that there is a solution to this dreadful situation.

Whatever that solution may finally be, it’s imperative, I believe, to support the State of Israel, while at the same time challenging the extremists who push for an expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the further expulsion of Palestinians; it’s equally important, I believe, to seek a two-state solution for the Palestinians, and to condemn the Hamas violence and its stated purpose: the destruction of Israel.

A carte blanche approval of everything the State of Israel does helps no one, not even its own citizens, any more than does a carte blanche approval of Hamas or other such groups. 

The question of the ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank has to be considered as part of the problem, even as is the failure of the Palestinians to face the reality of Israel’s existence.

For some conservative Christians groups in the US, the suggestion, as I read a few days ago, that this a godly struggle against a godless people is not at all helpful. A conservative pastor wrote: ”As Christians, we know that what’s happening in Israel is not a human struggle; it is a spiritual struggle against the forces of darkness.” 

The problem is this: such thinking violates the truth noted by Paul, and spiritualizes a very human, flesh-and-blood struggle that has gone on, and goes on, on every continent.  This world is not easily divided up between the good and the bad, and such thinking only adds to the problem, and blocks communication.

Israel must be protected, but so must the claims of the Palestinians (not to be confused with Hamas, the warlords of Palestine). Everyone has to be made to feel safe; everyone has to be protected, only then will people be able to speak and to listen.

Many years ago, I visited Israel, and had a Sunday afternoon chat with a Palestinian shopkeeper in Jerusalem, who served me delicious tea, for there were no customers at hand. I’ll never forget what he said, “We all just want to make a living, and there are crazies on both sides.”

Let us pray for the peace process, the continuation of the cease fire, and the delivery of aid. Let us pray that the moderate leaders on both sides will be given a chance to work for justice and peace.

It’s a complex situation, for which there are really no perfect answers, certainly no easy ones, but there are, I believe, answers that can be good enough, and just might work. We cannot guarantee success, but by trying nothing we can guarantee failure.  Let us continue to pray for Shalom, Salaam, Peace!

The Thousand-Year War

William R. Polk, Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North. (Yale University Press, 632 pp., $37.50, 2018). ~ Reviewed by the Rev. Dr. Franklin Woo.

After the 9-11-01 attacks on the twin buildings of the World Trade Center which finally collapsed, President George W. Bush declared “War on Terror,” but not against Muslims as such. Initially his war was against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan as well as any country which harbors their terrorist network. Bush’s target was Osama Bin Laden. In 2003 Bush ordered air strikes on Iraq against Saddam Hussein who allegedly possessed weapons of mass destruction, as well as encouraging the young to be suicide bombers against Americans and others in the Global North. American leaders were able to identify the enemy against U.S. “freedom and democracy,” so Bush claimed. On May 2011 President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden. In 2014 the Islamic State (ISIS) appeared on the scene. In his 2018 State of the Union address, Trump pledged, “We will continue to fight until ISIS is defeated.”

Contrary to the tendency of American leaders to identify individuals who are the culprits in attacking the U.S., William Polk in his Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year Between the Muslim World and the Global North is a historical study of how the Muslim world sees the millennial war between itself and the modern West. By “Global North” he means countries such as “China, Russia, Europe, Britain, and America—and Muslim societies from Central Asia to West Africa.” For this short review, I will focus only on “America,” part of Polk’s Global North.

In 1953, American CIA with British intelligence overthrew the nationalist prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh who took over Iran’s oil industry from British control. They replaced

Mossadegh with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who ruled with repression, corruption, and extravagance for a quarter of a century. A coup in 1979 by anti-western clerics was led by Ayattollah Khomeini, whose youth captured the U.S. Embassy and held its personnel as hostages for 444 days. The Iranian Revolution established the nation as an Islamic Republic.

In 1971, Reza Pahlavi created a tent city in the Persepolis desert to house the 60 monarchs and
heads of state of the world invited, including UK’s Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne and
Spiro Agnew of the U.S. Maxim’s of Paris was the caterer for the occasion, which celebrated
2,500 years of Persian Empire. The estimated cost was $250 million, which Khomeini regarded
as a wasteful “Devil’s festival.” (Not mentioned by Polk, this event can be viewed on You-tube.)

Polk devotes a chapter on Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian Muslim fundamentalist who was a “philosopher
of the Iranian revolution.” He was executed by President Nasser in 1966. While a student in the
U.S. in 1950 Qutb saw America as “a cesspool of wasteful consumption, exaggerated sex, and
gross materialism.” ISIS may rise and fall, and the clash between Sunnism and Shiism may
persist, but Muslim fundamentalists (inspired by Qutb) will continue into the indefinite future.
Trump’s recent policy of ending the Iran deal which was jointly agreed by the U.S., UK, France,
Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union, along with Trump’s stringent sanctions
against Iran and threat of any country with commercial ties with it, plus his ban on immigration
from Muslim countries—all of these only exacerbate the “Thousand-Year War.”

The Problem of Knowing History

I know a bit of history ... 

I’ve given some attention over the last 10 years to WW1 and the aftermath, when the Western Powers, after promising Arabs autonomy if they sided with the allies and rebelled against the Ottoman Empire, broke all of their promises and gave the Levant to both France and England and then proceeded to create the current boundaries of the Middle East extending through Persia (Iran), so that England would have clear access, via land and sea, to India.

And, of course, oil.

France already had North Africa, England had Egypt ... 

Germany, in once sense, lucked out on this one - they lost all of their colonial possessions in Africa and elsewhere, so, interestingly, Germany has no association with the bitter colonial memories that still simmer in the ME.

In recent years, of course, Uncle Sam has played a fateful role, engineering coups and all sorts of adjustments to keep the oil flowing ... and, of course, the very sad story of the State of Israel ... a sore spot in the ME that won’t go away.

Now, to Paris, a great sadness ... but it’s not just a matter of “innocent” Europeans and “Evil” Muslim terrorists.

It’s a tragic mix of roosters coming home to the former colonial powers, and what better target than France with its long-standing, and often oppressive moves in North Africa and the Levant, all mixed up in the swamp of American oil interests and America’s devotion (some would say, “enslavement) to the State of Israel.

During WW2, various underground groups fought against the Nazis, and they were lauded by us as patriots and heroes, while the Nazis termed them criminals and terrorists. 

For many in the ME, who have endured the long dark nights of colonialism and its lingering legacy, who have seen their nations repeatedly molested by Western interests, there is a rising tide of resentment, especially among the young, and some if this resentment is become highly militarized, seeing the West as enemy, an enemy that understands only violence (sadly, the kind of violence inflicted on the ME by the former colonial powers).

And now learning about the Bush Administration and its hand in all of this deadly ME story further complicating our understanding of how all this came to be.

There are no innocent hands here.

Someone asked me, “Well, what should be done?”

The worst response would be a military one, as if we could defeat nationalism, which is what this all about. In the past, England failed in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union did, and we’re not doing any better there ... and nowhere in the ME are there prospects of some kind of “victory” - e.g. Iraq.
The whole thing has the feel of a potential Vietnam (a former French colony, by the way, which the US took on as a war against Communism) - a quagmire from which there is no escape, and in which there is no “victory,” in spite of massive superior weaponry.

To move militarily right now is exactly what ISIS is counting on - Western hubris, with its trust in fire power ... boots on the ground, and all that. We’ll plunge into the deserts like we plunged in the jungles of Vietnam.

What’s needed now, more than ever, is restraint, diplomacy, and to work with Iran and other ME nations who are better equipped culturally to deal with ISIS. 

We continue doing what we’re doing, with clarity, however, that we can never be totally safe, any more than the Nazis were safe from the underground movements armed by the Allies. There is no absolute safety, and it’s insanity to think so. 

We keep on doing what we’re doing - yes, learning how to be more efficient, diligent, and mindful ... but there will always be surprises, broadsides, and death. The name of the game is wisdom, not wildness.

We need to respect the ME, and we have to deal with the State of Israel which has become a rogue nation depending on Uncle Sam to back it, no matter what, while it violates the Palestinians - Christian and Muslim alike - and everyone else it can.

Now is not the time for firepower and closed borders and hostile rhetoric ... now is the time for restraint and reason ... lest we find ourselves pulled into the trap of war on a massive scale, furthering our debt load, killing more of our soldiers, devastating more of the ME, accomplishing nothing, adding to the hatred, and feeding the dogs of war.

What If ... no Iraq Invasion

What-ifs are hardly worth the time, but sometimes, after a bad decision, or at least a decision that seems fraught with ill, it's worth while to indulge, if for no other reason than learning.

What if Bush hadn't pulled the trigger on Iraq, and instead, focused everything on the capture of Ben Laden?

Here are some of my thoughts.

Al Qaida would not be as potent as it is today, and Afghanistan and Pakistan might be more stable.

Israel and the Palestinian question would remain, but I wonder: would it be less volatile?

Iran might have taken care of Iraq, with another war, or something more clandestine to eliminate Saddam.

If not Iran, perhaps Saudi Arabia.

Or a stealth raid by Israeli commandos might have taken Saddam out.

Our debt-crisis would be far less.

The thousands of American soldiers returning home with severe emotional and physical injuries would be minimal.

And the nearly 6000 American deaths (Iraq and Afghanistan) would be considerable less.

Bush would have been able to claim credit for Ben Laden's capture or death.

Al Gore might have won.

Erik Prince and His Killing Machine - a Prince of a Guy!

A good friend and colleague, The Rev. Dr. Robert Dahl, recently wrote a thoughtful and hard-hitting piece about Erik Prince, America's Dark Night, so to speak. Since my friend and I have spent a lot of time in West Michigan (my friend still lives there), we have a considerable interest in the religious goings-on in that part of the world. Erik Prince, in my sense of things, is the perfect example of the devolution of right-wing insanity - from humanity to bestiality, with blood dripping from tooth and claw. Anyway, when I read my friend's essay, I knew that I wanted to share it with as many as I could.

Read on and learn from my friend and colleague.

------------------------------


"What a Prince of a Guy"

The Prince of Darkness?

What a clever, enterprising boy that Erik Prince is. What a prince of a guy!

It is so hard finding work in this economy, so ever resourceful Erik found employment in somebody else's economy. He recast himself as a modern day Paladin: "Have Gun, Will Travel."

No doubt he will send some of his hard earned cash back to the states to help out his family members. That's what a lot of Mexicans have been doing for years for their families. With at least as much risk of harm to their person as what Mr. Prince faces, Mexicans have crossed the US border to find work so they can send money back to their financially strapped families. Apparently, we are just catching on to the selfless, sacrificial conduct of these despised illegal aliens.

Thank goodness Mr. Prince is setting an altruistic example for the rest of us. I’m sure he got the proper documentation to enter Abu Dhabi, the country he now calls home.

You know with the economy in the states being what it is, any good, red, white and blue blooded American should consider "Peace Corp" type work like Erik. We could all go to Abu Dhabi as ambassadors of good will like Mr. Prince and improve the image of the stereotypical "ugly American."

Besides, if any of us gets into legal trouble back home, we couldn't be extradited. What a fortunate side benefit! With all of Mr. Princes' surely bogus but bothersome legal issues that just don't seem to want to go away, I wonder if Mr. Princes' lawyers thought of that? Mr. Prince has gone away, and he can't be sent back.

A mercenary army of 800 soldiers employed by the Muslim country is owned by Erik Prince and hires all non-Muslims to fight for it because Muslim mercenaries couldn't be counted on to kill other Muslims. Imagine that -- religious people with a conscience. They have reservations about killing other religious people, well religious people like they are.

During the last century and now into this century, the same couldn't be said for Christians. Apparently Christians will kill anyone anytime regardless of religion. Christians killed millions of Christians not to mention millions of Jews in the 20th Century. The potential enemies the Muslim country employing Mr. Prince are concerned about, apparently for now, are other Muslims. So, the political leaders of the Muslim country don’t mind killing other Muslims; it’s just the everyday, ordinary Muslims who aren’t crazy about the idea.

Hiring non-Muslims to do the killing is not without its problems. According to the New York Times and the Grand Rapids Press in a May 15, 2011 article, Prince employs South African mercenaries who have been employed by African dictators and Columbian mercenaries who have previously done what? Protect drug cartels? Who knows? Maybe they were all, as children, good do bees and acolytes at mass. Of course, many of the Columbians have washed out of boot camp in the desert because of drug problems. Go figure. However, we can assume that the mercenaries from South Africa and Columbia are Christians hired to help Muslims kill Muslims. At least there is no problem there. You can bet on those Christians not having a conscience.

But what about the language barrier and awareness of cultural differences? South Africans speak Afrikaans and English; Columbians speak Spanish. Who speaks Gulf Arabic? Have the South Africans and Columbians, at least the ones who are left, been to cultural sensitivity training? On a cold night, you don’t want African and Columbian Christians burning Korans to keep warm. Just leave that to fundamentalist Christian preachers in the US.

Erik Prince, a child of the Christian Reformed Church and now a Roman Catholic, attributes his Christian faith, his high moral principles and patriotic loyalties to what he learned as a child growing up in the conservative West Michigan community of Holland. Bravo for the second happiest city in America! There goes one more happy kid to kill for Christ.

As you may well know, Mr. Prince spoke at Tulip Time a year ago at Hope College's DeVos Field House, named after Erik's sister's in-laws. He gave the Tulip Time Luncheon speech. Of course the event it was sold out. Everyone wanted to bask in the glory of the local boy who made good. The guests were probably popping their buttons with pride. I'm sure all the Hollanders were happier than ever except for a few old party poopers who gathered outside DeVos Fieldhouse to protest Mr. Prince’s appearance at Tulip Time and the use of Hope College property for his speech.

Eric Prince, now owner of a mercenary army hired by a Muslim country to kill enemies of that Muslim country, was hosted by Hope College, a Christian school, to give a speech on Hope property donated by Prince's sister's in-laws who happen to be super-rich evangelical Christians with right wing political views. At the time, mercenary employees of the company that Prince then owned, Blackwater, were killing civilian Muslims in Iraq.

He was contracted by the American state department to kill Muslims if need be. He got into a lot of trouble doing that. It seems a lot of innocent civilians got in the crosshairs. How could that be? Now he's contracted by Muslims to kill Muslims if need be. Perhaps in Abu Dhabi he needn’t be as concerned about civilians in the crosshairs.

I guess Erik's mercenary troops aren't exactly ready to get out there and do an efficient job of killing, so in the mean time, to hold up the guys' spirits they were taken from the secretive compound into town for a quick visit to a brothel. Hey, that's a good Old Testament practice.

Maybe Erik, who is known for his righteous, religious stance against homosexuality otherwise known to psychologists as homophobia, wanted to make sure the guys kept shooting straight. Let's see, in the general population anywhere from ten to fifteen percent if not higher are homosexual. So, out of 800 soldiers maybe a hundred of those macho boys are gay. Good grief! I hope Erik has a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy" and someone to keep constant surveillance on the shower room.

Gee, where do Hope and Western stand with all this? Well, it's obvious where they stand regarding gays. Hope has its own version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and it comes with a big religious stigma and Old Testament type judgment. That, of course, fits right in with the opinions of some of the schools' major donors.

You know, I thought the schools' mission, in part, was to advance the cause of the Prince of Peace. How could they, in good conscience, accept money from those who advocate violence and killing, let alone killing for profit?

By now I am so confused. I thought evangelical, right wing Christians supported Israel against Muslims. Israel is part of the original covenant and they, along with true Christians, are part of the covenant community. Muslims are anti-Israel and anti-Christian according to right wing Christians. They are to be converted to Christianity or they will be lost. Now, a right wing Christian American patriot is working for Muslims. I'm having a hard time figuring out where Jesus is in all this.

Maybe the saving grace or rationale is that this patriotic American, conservative Christian makes his really big money running a mercenary army employed by a Muslim country to kill other Muslims who might threaten the country he works for.

Okay, I'm beginning to get it. Make a gazillion bucks working for Muslims to kill other Muslims, presumably all to the glory of God and Allah and perhaps, in a stretch, for the good old US of A. Muslims killing Muslims. That's okay. Americans getting money from Muslims to kill Muslims? Priceless.

But what if Christians and Jews get in the way somewhere along the way? Or what if, on down the line, his Muslim employers call on Erik, the super American patriot, to kill Americans for some reason? You know international politics and how fickle countries can be. However, you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you and that's not chicken feed Mr. Prince is getting. Even a super patriotic American has to champion the cause of market capitalism. That’s where religion comes in. Anybody knows that the Christian God endorses free market capitalism. The first Christians tried socialism and that was a total failure. The first apostles heard the Word from on high, “Now get out there and make some money!”


Can we all now all sing "Onward Christian Soldiers Making Mucho Money Marching for Muslims to Kill Muslims and then Anyone Else Who Might Happen to Get in the Way”?

Hey, this might even afford a fund raising opportunity for Hope College and Western Theological Seminary. The development offices could contact the Prince family, those family members who are still in the states, congratulating them on Erik's good luck and wishing them all the best. Actually no one short of the presidents is called for here. The personal touch helps during these tough economic times.

A lot of Americans are having a hard time keeping food on the table let alone a roof over their heads what with all the foreclosures. We just don't know how much the Princes have to share during these tough times. Yes, the personal touch is essential if donations are to be made.

Okay, now I get it. The money the schools might get will come from families that support Muslims killing Muslims. I guess that leaves the Christians and Jews safe to wait for the rapture. Let's hope the rapture comes before Erik is called on to kill Christians and Jews or just plain old American citizens for a Muslim country.

By the way, are there any new building projects on the campuses? If so, what names will adorn them?

In a play on words, perhaps one could be named "Piece of Prince."

Or even better, how about "Kingfish Hall," after Erik Prince's code name instead of "King of Kings Hall"?

In conclusion and on a somber note, what I hadn’t previously mentioned in this article, but which can safely be assumed given Prince is working for an undemocratic regime, is that the American patriot Erik Prince was hired, in part, to help put down any potential pro-democratic uprisings among the citizens of Abu Dhabi.

How ironic is that? Erik Prince may be called on to kill people simply seeking to be politically free and have a vote.

Diplomacy? Iran?

Roger Cohen writes a thoughtful piece about the international chess game we call diplomacy ... click HERE to read more.

Bush Fails Right to the End

With the latest over-the-top aggression by an incoherent Israel, Bush tells Hamas to lay off the rocket attacks, and if so, this will bring about a peaceful resolution.

That's like telling the hens to lay off the fox for awhile - sure, the rockets hurt, but now there are 300 dead Palestinians and how many more wounded - many times more than dead and wounded Israelis.

Let's be truthful - Israel, illicitly founded in 1948, has been America's bad boy ever since, and with tacit American approval, Israel is bent upon eradicating both Palestinians and Christian Arabs within its boundaries.

Not every Israeli favor this madness, but the henchmen of death hold all the cards.

A two-state arrangement - "yes, yes" everyone says, but Israel will never allow it, and as long as America refuses to both challenge and protect Israel, this will be "war to the end."

The brutal treatment of the Palestinians is inexcusable and continues unabated, and when Palestinian resentment and despair reach a boiling point, then American jumps all over them, "condemning" the violence and cheering on the Israelis, to keep the Middle East destabilized, because a Mid-east in turmoil is beneficial to the Neo-con dream of oil domination. A peaceful Middle East would pose an enormous threat to our hegemony, just like the European Union does.

As long as the neighbors are fighting amongst themselves, we're at liberty to pick their apples, and if they get a little fussy about it, we just stir 'em up a little bit more - see HERE for a BBC article.

American policy is abysmal - a failure in every respect, and though I believe Israel to be an illegitimate state, it exists, and there's no going back in time.

The Palestinians need restoration; they need to be freed from their virtual imprisonment in Gaza and elsewhere, and Israel needs to protected.

This could be accomplished in a heartbeat, but for the lack of American resolve and the madness gripping much of the current Israeli leadership.

Check out THIS for more insight ...

Bush Insane?

A Middle East trip for peace ... and all the man does is obsessively ramp up the threat-level to Iran ... is Bush insane?

Can the man talk about anything other than war?

Is he even capable of talking peace?

He has utterly lost his balance - if he ever had it - and he's taking our nation further into the insanity of fear.

Robert Frost once wrote: "There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people."

Because scared people, when scared for a long time, begin doing insane things, like torturing prisoners, when experts agree: torture yields poor results, and more importantly, such behavior is a violation of our nation's sacred principles. We are behaving badly, and our president has only made matters worse with behavior unbecoming to the Office and inconsistent with our nation's character.

John McCain recently notes: we're doing things to prisoners that we called war crimes when they were done by the Japanese in WW 2.

Let's face it: we use torture because we can. It's not about security, it's all about power, and there are are arenas of our government drunk on power.

We need a President who can help regain our balance and stop living in fear.

Surely, the dangers of our world are real, but our reactions have been way over the top. Our fear is causing us to lay aside our principles and our reputation among the nations of the world is suffering as a result.

We can do better, we must do better, we will do better.

P.S. For a fine editorial, see John Buchanan, Christian Century, Jan 15 ed: http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=4202

Bush in Israel

First time in his presidency to be in Israel ... where in the world has this man been for the last seven years?

Israel/Palestine, the flash-point of the Middle East ... and now a few more troops for Afghanistan, another flash-point long ignored so Bush and Gang could pursue their dreams of oil domination ... there isn't a thing here that makes any sense, and now in the closing days of his disastrous term, he's bumbling his way through the Middle East looking and sounding totally uncomfortable in his role as statesman.

Thankfully, the troop surge has diminished violence in Iraq and is bringing greater opportunity to that beleaguered nation, yet the fundamental cause of Middle East unrest - the unresolved issues in Palestine - has been ignored, leaving it in the hands of the Israelis, which is bit like hiring the fox to guard the hen house.

The troop surge, also, like a heavy dose of antibiotics, stems the local infection, but the cause of the infection remains the same.

Iraq is stabilizing - I suspect our generals understood this five years ago when Rummy maintained a much lower estimate of needed troops.

Does anyone anywhere in this world understand this administration and those who drove its ideology?

Anyway, may peace prevail in Iraq, may Bush achieve some good results - God works through all of us, so we try our best.

Grapes of Wrath

Been reading Grapes of Wrath - have to admit, I've never read it before, and thanks to a friend, I now have a copy of it. Amazing how Steinbeck captured the dialect (I lived 12 years in Oklahoma) and the tragedy of losing everything.

Also reading, in preparation for Advent, Dickens' Christmas Carol, wherein Scrooge believes that the poor can have all the shelter they need - in prisons and workhouses.

Both Steinbeck and Dickens hold before the reader the hardship of poverty, yet never lose sight of the poor as real people, with hopes and fears, longings and loves, just like everyone else.

Heard a specialist in Middle East last night - a simple reminder that Americans rarely hear the whole story on the Palestinians and are poorly informed on history. Imagine that!

Unfortunately, much of our Middle East policy in the last ten years has been influenced by the far right, the religious kooks who can hardly wait for "the war" which will usher in the Golden Age of Jesus. They want to preserve the nation of Israel so that it will be the place of slaughter when the time comes. Does this make sense? Of course not.

By the way, I'm committed to Hillary ... can hardly wait to have a new president and a fresh voice of reason and social responsibility in the Oval Office - send its present occupant back to the bush country of Texas where he can whack weeds and spit. In two terms, he has bankrupted our economy, profoundly damaged our international reputation, told our allies to take a hike, presented a Scrooge-like philosophy on the poor, sent thousands of troops to their death or a life of suffering, catered to big oil interests, tried to take over the world while posturing behind spiritual subterfuge, and twisted patriotism into a hideous passion. My only comfort is that history will determine his presidency to be our worst.

Been reading a bit about Lincoln - now there was a great president.