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July 07, 2004
Please, someone explain the Imp...
I was flipping through some channels the other night when I ran into the Jack Van Imp show. I like to stop there sometimes to see what they're talking about. Rexella went through a series of newspaper articles about how the US is increasing military spending and highlighted several new projects. Her comment, immediately following the reading of these headlines, was "This is such a great time for President Bush."
Now, I'm no expert in Theology, but this struck me as odd. Why would someone who's preaching Christianity think it's good that any country is increasing its military spending? Do they think war is good? Are they excited by the Crusade against Islam? I've always just assumed that most religions are at least publically against war, based on my limited knowledge of their teachings. Is there some deeper level of insight, of theirs, that I'm missing which makes it OK to wage war?
At first I'm tempted to write this off as some fringe sect. However, these kinds of opinions are frighteningly on the rise here in the US, very evidently in the "Religious Right." This section of the population is also seen to be the most in favour of the US invasion of Iraq. Why is this so? Were I to naively believe that all Christians followed the teachings of the Bible to the letter, I would be forced to conclude that those who claim to follow it most closely would be opposed to any war. Can someone please explain to me why these sections of the population seem to align so closely?
What frightens me more and more is the feeling by some people here in the US, and to some extent the West in general, that the people in the Middle East are somehow less civilized and as a consequence worth less than us. Those are REAL people, with REAL relatives who cry REAL tears when their loved ones are murdered. And I think back to the night the latest Crusade agsinst Islam started, and our media is cheering that we were bombing the crap out of Baghdad. The city was in flames, with probably thousands of people dying, and we make it a fantastic media event. All for the entertainment of the people.
Maybe we've become too desensitized, since North Americans flock to movies flush with special effects of thousands of people being killed in an instant. It still strikes me as very odd how the death of just over 3,000 people here in the US got the entire world into an uproar, but the death of 11,000 people, conservatively, in Iraq at the hands of the US is a rallying point to prove that Bush is "tough on terror." I think the difference is that the entities in the uproar over 9/11 were governments (plus outpouring of goodwill from people) but the people in an uproar now are the people of the world.
For a description of the death toll estimates in Iraq visit http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
Posted by nthier at July 7, 2004 06:26 AM
Comments
"This is a great time" usually means something like, the prerequisites for the Second Coming are falling into place. Perhaps the spending and projects relate to Revelations prophecy.
I haven't checked in on Jack van and Rexella in a long time. They've got it all figured out, ya know...
Posted by: oyster at July 10, 2004 05:29 AM
Just a comment to oyster. You had a posting last year with a heading of "Please, someone explain the Imp...". You must be very young and hard headed. Your whole article boils down to the fact that you hate Bush and conseratives. It's like you're throwing a little tantram. You take everything and twist it with half truths to make your point of view. Well grow-up! I'm not defending Bush, I don't know his motives for the things he does. This I do know as truth, the Iraqi people were being oppressed by a dictator who held no value to the health or welfare of his people. Who started two wars and was personally reponsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He sanctified rape, torture and the gassing of tens of thousands of people, including children. If this does'nt touch your soul then there is something very wrong with you morally.
You said you were frightened by the feeling that you thought the people of the U.S. felt the peoples of the Middle East were worth less than us. I find this amusing since you are the one willing to turn your back on them, as if they're not worth helping. Actually, following your line of thinking to it's natural conclusion, we should not even have cops, if you saw someone getting raped you would not help them because you might hurt the rapist. The people of this world are our brothers and sisters, and they're worth helping.
I do think it's a shame that the war has gone on this long, that so many Iraqis have died needlessly, but this responsibility falls on the Iraqis themselves. Saddam has been gone a long time, but from generations of their hatred for each other (Sunni/Shiite) and their hatred for non-muslims (I'm not talking about all Iraqis of course), they keep initiating violence, and that violence begets violence. They had the opportunity for peace and THEY chose violence. They are even blowing up their own people, including children. Those are the ones you should be angry at, and the ones you should be verbally attacking, not our soldiers.
I especially like your choice of words in using the term "Crusade". A group of people whose stated vows are to kill those not like them (non-muslims), goes and kills 3000 innocent people, you call the fight against them a "Cusade" as if it's wrong to try to stop them. WAKE-UP! If America stopped all activities against them they would continue to try to kill us. If they stopped all activities against us that would be the end of it. So wherein does the problem lay.
Posted by: Magic at April 27, 2005 12:33 AM