Persistent claims that President Bush lied in order to propel the United States into Iraq are, themselves, lies. They begin with the assumption that he lied and then set out to prove that he did. Doing so is intended to undermine the rational justifications for the war itself. The argument is flawed partly because it is based on 20/20 hindsight and partly based upon a radical and dangerous oversimplification of international geopolitics. For my part, I do not give a tinker’s damn whether the specific reasons that were advanced at the outset proved to be 100% valid when everything was said and done. (It is not lying to have simply been wrong on one point or another.) What is really important is that the war has served a significant moral good.
Continue reading "Christopher Hitchens: Justifying the Iraq War" »
I have purchased Jim Wallis' book, God's Politics, for study and analysis. For my part, I would never be so presumptuous as to claim that my politics are God's as well, but I am willing to give Mr. Wallis' motives the benefit of the doubt. (I am no man's judge.) I have not yet read any of the book, but I have looked at the table of contents. The title of Part III is "When Did Jesus Become Pro-war?" This is a staggering title given what we know of the history of the Twentieth Century.
Continue reading "Is War a Sin?" »
The following prayer is taken from scripture (Psalm 94) and it clearly applies to our times. If you are a believer, please pray this for our nation as we move into and through the election period.
Continue reading "Please Pray for Our Nation" »
On this day three years ago, I was at home preparing to go to work when my mother called. It was a very strange thing for her to call at such a time, and I recall feeling a tinge of worry upon seeing my parent's number on the phone's display. In the brief instant that passed between seeing the number and answering the phone, that worry produced fleeting thoughts of accident or sudden illness. I could think of no other reason that they might be calling at that time on a week day—especially since we do not exchange that many phone calls. Following my hurried greeting, my mother asked, "Do you think this is the end?", or something very like that. The strange tone in her voice was fueling my fears of family distress, but the words she spoke tended toward another direction. I asked what she meant by that. Realizing that I did not know what was going on, she excitedly told me to turn on the news. When I did, they were showing a replay of the second World Trade Center tower being struck by an airliner, and seeing in the footage that the first tower was already in flames, I realized that something horrible had been happening for some time.
Continue reading "A Day of Infamy" »
When the question of what to do about Saddam Hussein came up in 2002, the debate was not between regime change or the status quo. International sentiment was rapidly moving toward the abandonment of the status quo. The only question was what would follow, and there were two ideas on the table: regime change or the lifting of all political and economic restraints on Saddam Hussein. The real debate, then, was not on whether to maintain the sanctions or go to war but whether to lift the sanctions or go to war. As a result, the real question was whether the world was safer with an unrestrained Saddam Hussein or a dead one.
Continue reading "On the Iraq War" »
