WHY THE MIDDLE EAST? Pt 1
The 2003 Coalition War to rid the world of the Iraqi Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship is tucked away in the annals of history! It was all over in a matter of days. Doomsayers were completely confounded. Tens of thousands of protesters, and their professional demonstrators had their little moment in the sun.They would have faded away, or never got started had it not been for the existence and frenzy of the voracious international media.
United Nations Organization demonstrated its impotence, having dithered for 12years. For the few who could remember, their dismal performance looked ominously like a re-play of the 1930s equally impotent League of Nations. They had managed to self-destruct by their performance, or lack of it, in the lead-up to what plunged mankind into WW II.
Many feared war in Iraq could start a conflagration throughout the Middle East. Some thinking it be the prelude to a third WW III. For hundreds of millions around the world, though very temporary, it was a gripping focal point, exploited to the ultimate limit by the media.
Hundreds of millions, glued to their TV’S paused, watched, and held their breath, while the outcome was decided. As usual the great ‘silent majority’ watched with resignation, believing that something had to be done. International terrorism, and the threat from weapons of mass destruction, (WMD) confronted the United States in particular, and the Western World in general, with intolerable danger! It still does, and the U.S and her allies are still dealing with the aftermath of the war in accusations of “No WMD’S were there all along, it was about the oil!!! A typical response of the anti-west brigade, and the liberal left
With these recriminations and much finger pointing still going on, as well as danger from terrorism still continuing to plague the western world, due in part to their political correctness, and largely due to the left-leaning media, the U.S and her allies will continue to be a toothless tiger, stripped of their former greatness!
While the aftermath of Afghanistan, and Iraq will continue to challenge the United States and their allies, few though they may be, in the meantime, the remainder of the Western World sits on their collective hands, hoping nothing of a nasty nature will happen to them, while preferring to be re-active, rather than pro-avtive.
Today, Russia and China continue to back the evil regime of Iran, by vetoing the teddy-bear weak United Nations proposed financial sanctions. The once powerful United States of America has been reduced to attacking her enemies with drones, and lacks the military might and will to take the fight to the enemies of the “free-world”, in the west. Instead her President has taken her once mighty nation to the brink of bankruptcy, and become the laughing stock of rising super-powers such as China and India, once thought to be backward 3rd world nations living in filth and squalor. And, in many parts of these nations, that still holds to be true, an amazing paradox in our space-age, and technologically advanced world
Europe on the same hand has her share of problems, her financial woes at this time will remove, she is destined to rise again, as Bible prophecy predicts, (Rev.17:8-13) and then, “all-hell” will break loose. (Rev.17:Matt.24:21-22)
Who can understand where the present world goes from here? That’s among the big questions needing answered. How to deal with an increasingly uncertain, and agitated international scene, both politically & monetarily, and where man’s ego is concerned, draws in the ever worrying military element as the second question? Do today’s world leaders have the answers? That’s an equally disturbing third question.
The answers to these questions will determine much of the short-term future for mankind. In 1945, at the end of WW II, it was the American General, Douglas Macarthur who reminded the world that mankind is now having his last chance for peace.
Below is part of that tremendous transcript of the Generals last speech to the U.S congress.
“Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”
Since that time we have had the Cold War, involving the global threat from International Communism and global terrorism on a scale men like General MacArthur could never have imagined!
Our nations pit themselves one against another, fellow human being against fellow human being, to see who will be the “greatest”, have the most power and wealth, and with this folly comes great suffering and misery in the nations being thus ruled by heinous dictators, such as Robert Mugabe, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-Il, Franco, Mussolini, Tito, Idi Amin, Melosovic, Lenin, etc.
The west’s WW II allies, notably the United States of America, and the United Kingdom, faced this threat, backed of course by the English-speaking Commonwealth: Canada, Australia, New Zealand. At the same time, there was great post WW II turmoil, with so many countries breaking what most saw as the shackles of Empire, and colonialism. This was less than peaceful. Then there were multiple shooting wars on most continents.
So, here we are, now numbering almost 7-billion human beings on planet earth. We are an exploding population no closer to international peace and harmony than when Gen., Douglas MacArthur sounded his ominous warning way back in 1945.
At the present time, the Middle East is, and will continue to be, the focal point of world inter-national attention.
What this world’s population has failed to see is that The Bible, the word of God, holds the keys to understanding the past, present, and future of the Middle East, and ultimately, the entirety of all civilizations, including the world to come!
There’s a well-known saying that: “Human beings sometimes fail to see the forest for the trees”. As for the literal “forest”, most of it is now long-gone from the Middle East anyway! On the other hand, if we think of the Middle East in terms of human problems, it is doubtful there has ever been a protracted time of peace. Perhaps the 40 year reign of King Solomon over the Kingdom of Judah was a notable exception.
We now stand more than ten years past the turn of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country of Australia. Despite these holocausts, America, though largely at the brink of financial bankruptcy, still remains the benchmark for the world, as well as the most influential nation in the world. Understandably proud of this preeminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
Throughout America’s adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.
To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people.
Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us a grievous hurt, both at home and abroad. Yet this arrogance is now the “norm” in our nations of ill-disciplined and untrained youth, as God said in Isaiah, chapter 3:1-5, 12. And to add further shame to our folly, Governments in the our western nations have weakly bowed the knee to the ever present liberal-left media, the press and the lowest of the people in allowing homosexuality, and “gay-rights” to become “legal” and even promoted in our educational facilities, in perverted “mardi-gras” celebrations! (Isa.3:9) As well, we have the sexualisation of our children in other perverted “beauty-queen” shows, where children as young as 5-years old are plastered with make-up, and paraded around like prize cattle! Does mankind in all his “wisdom” see how disgusting and perverted his way is, and how close he surely is coming to the time of Noah Jesus Christ warned against in Matthew.24:37-42)
Progress toward the west’s previously noble goals are persistently threatened by conflicts now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, and absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily, the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle – with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in the newer elements of our defenses; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research – these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel. Yet the false science of global warming, the inept dishonest and greedy grab for taxes by Governments in many parts of the world,, together with the false “values” of academia, the educated elite, the false education system of this world and the dumbing down of it’s citizens to swallow hook line and sinker everything the corrupt media portray to a gullible world held captive, continues to destabilize and further bring us all again to the grand smash finale’ of a third and final world conflict!!
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With all this to somehow contemplate, as if too much to chew already, we are expected to fathom the depths being plumbed by many nations globally, and the need to rescue their economies to prevent a full-on world depression, and that means austerity measures, belt tightening, fiscal responsibility in a world where honesty and integrity are long forgotten, as if fairy tales. But each proposal must be weighed in light of a broader consideration; the need to maintain balance in and among national programs – balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped for advantages – balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between the actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their Government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well in the face of threat and stress.
But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. Of these, I mention two only.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of our predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II, Korea, or Vietnam
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
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This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
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It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war – as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years – I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.
Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.
So – in this my last good night to you as your President – I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.
You and I – my fellow citizens – need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nations’ great goals.
To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing aspiration:
We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.
It is these long overlooked principals of wisdom, strength and values that have been rung down over a blinded humanity which has been stupified through modern education, while so far removed from it’s own Almighty Creator, and the reality of soon to be global annihilation! It is clear that man never learns the lessons history, and continues to repeat them.
For our part, as servants of the Living God, we do not advocate war as a means to an end, rather the spectre of war hangs over our collective heads by displaying weakness our once mighty nations previously held through strength, courage and a wily determination to uphold all that our forbears fought and died for.
With war comes total misery, poverty and great suffering. So what is the real answer to all of mans problems? For that we will give our answer in the next installment of this incredible and most daunting problem for mankind’s survival.
