• Sergeant Boggs has it right - the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is about idiocy in the midst of war.
   
• Bill Bennett called the ISG report an exercise in post-modernism, it answered a different question than was posed; instead of "How can we win the war?" the ISG addressed "How can we find common ground?"
   
• When you are fighting a war it's a bad time to look for common ground. Instead, we need clear, determined leadership. We've had that up until now, but...
   
• The Bush administration has been cozying up to the ISG like a holiday gift basket. No "serious concerns" or "serious disagreements." Instead...

"I urge the members of Congress to take this report seriously. While they won't agree with every proposal -- and we probably won't agree with every proposal -- it, nevertheless, is an opportunity to come together and to work together on this important issue."

Does that sound like clear, determined leadership? The commander with "shoot in his eye" is becoming president Jellyfish (Ref: TV show "24").

• I wonder how long it will take us to figure out after we've pulled all the troops out that the enemy is just that..a real enemy who wants to destroy us and our way of life. What city will we loose? How many thousands?

Like thousands of other Americans I have just finished watching ABC's docudrama "Path to 911. It has left me feeling numb, and reminds me how I felt the morning of September 11, 2001, as I watched with millions of Americans, the shocking images of our country under attack.

I was out of town at the time, traveling between Milwaukee, Chicago, and Saint Louis as part of an IT hardware upgrade the company I worked for was undertaking. We had flown to Milwaukee, done our laptop upgrades over a day and a half, and then drove to Chicago for the second stop on our whirlwind tour. There were a half dozen teams just like ours doing the same thing in various regions of the country. September 11, 2006 we found ourselves working the second migration at a hotel in a suburb of Chicago. In a banquet room full of old and new laptops our team was busily preparing the old for data transfers to the new.

A female security guard suddenly appeared at the door and said in a panicky voice, "A plane has just flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York." We looked at each other in disbelief, and then went back to work. I remember sitting there trying to figure out the meaning of what I'd just heard. "Maybe it was an accident. Those towers are big. Maybe some klutzy pilot had a heart attack and flew into one of them by accident." My work seemed to slow down to a crawl as I tried to make sense out of the news. And then, the woman was back, "Another plane just flew into the other tower!"

A sinking feeling came over me as a realization formed in my thoughts, "This is no accident. This is terrorism." Our IT team conversed among ourselves about it all even as we tried to maintain some semblance of work activity. But my need for more information got the better of me, so I left the room and made my way to the bar where people were gathered around a television set where CNN was playing out the unfolding horror at the Twin Towers. Soon there was word of another jet bombing - the Pentagon had been hit. No one had to tell me, we were at war.

Then, the first tower fell. And with it, so did my internal emotional fortitude. I needed to get alone somewhere fast. I made my way back up to my room, and once inside retreated to the bathroom, where I broke down and wept for all of the innocent lives that were just lost before my very eyes. I prayed for the people at the towers, at the Pentagon, and for our nations leaders. After a few minutes I reunited with my coworkers, we completed our tasks in Chicago, and then drove on to Saint Louis and finished the job there too.

For a time America was one nation. Political infighting was put aside. There was first the business of self-defense, and then retribution. And then, quite suddenly, there was another assault. America's fear factor rose another notch. The television again rang out in panic - ANTHRAX! Several more weeks of uncertainty and fear ensued before the second assault subsided and disappeared just as mysteriously as it had first appeared.

As the weeks crawled by I began to notice a change in tenore. I first noticed minor criticisms and snipes against President Bush and his administration foisted by Tom Dashel. I remember feeling utter disgust that Dashel would put his political interests ahead of the good of the country. It wasn't long before there were other political attacks, and congress began to make war within itself again as the President tried to get legislation passed that was designed to help us fight the new war on terror. Oh, the Democrats put up a good show about protecting the rights of Americans, but it was obvious the real motivator to the political infighting was pure hatred of George Bush.

There was plenty of hatred to go around on both sides however. They hated Bush. We hated Gore. They hated Cheney. We hated Dashel, or Kennedy, or whoever else was in the way. It was then that another sinking feeling came over me and a new realization formed in my thoughts, "These guys are going to get us all killed someday. They care more about their political ambitions and turf wars than they do about protecting our country. Our politicians will end up leaving a hundred open Avenues for UBL to smuggle more of his killing thugs into the states. And we're going to wake up some day and find that one of our cities has been nuked. God help these b*st*rd politicians then!"

God, help us all. We as a nation have a hundred different fronts to fight this war on, and a lot of them have to do with what's going on within each of us. Political ambitions. Power grabbing. Ideological prejudices. Political correctness. Blatant stupidity. And, overt hatred of each other. Welcome to dysfunction junction - the good 'ol U.S.A.

No, I'm not one for throwing up my hands and walking away from it all. We do need to keep trying to find common ground, keep talking, look for common sense approaches and solve problems. But we also need to repent...of hating each other, of putting our ideologies ahead of our common welfare. Frankly, our lives depend on it.

• I just noticed that all of my weblog entries are under the topic of "A Culture of Life." Well, the topic choices at Townhall are limited, and we can't create our own topic categories, so ya get what ya pay for.
   
• I also just encountered a pop-up advertisement window when I visited my Townhall account site. OH, HOW I HATE POP-UPS! It may just drive me to say, "See ya later" and go back to posting on my personal blog. Hey! I don't care if Townhall loads up my sidebars with adds. But pop-ups are the scourge of the Internet, and they outta know better.
   
• The VIP was on Russert today - for the whole hour! Russert grilled the VIP mercilessly. I can't say as it was mean-spirited as much as it was just sooo much the democratic talking points on Russert's part. What a skewed perspective of the world!
   
  I have decided to depart from the Pubs on the "no WMD comeback." Bush-Cheney have been saying forever now, "Yes, we were wrong. But everyone was wrong. And if we had it to do over, we would still go into Iraq." I don't buy it. They wouldn't have had the support of the American people or the congress. It just isn't true. That said, you can still make the case that it worked out for the best - because if we hadn't gone in, you'd have both Saddam in Irag and the maniac in Iran marching toward acquiring WMD to use on both Israel and America. At least now one of the nutters is out of the way. Call it providence or just dumb luck - we got it wrong, but we ended up the better off for it.

• The Dem's are going to have a tough time making the case that it's a bad economy when the price at the pump is down from $2.99/gal to $2.49/gal (who'd ever think I'd be feeling giddy about topping off the tank for $2.49/gal!).
   
  And, what with the new oil find in the Gulf...they'll sound like a tired old song as they sing about "high energy prices."
   
• The Gulf oil find is good news, to be sure. Every bit helps where loosening the hold of the Cartel is concerned. But watch for environmental groups to oppose drilling and getting the Cartel off our backs - hey! we still can't drill off Florida.
   
• G.W. is talking tough on terror. Right words, but they'd be more believable if he was actually DOING something about the porus boarders. And if he really wants to wean us off of Cartel dependency, he could put the screws to his brother in Florida to allow offshore drilling, and make sure the greenheads don't hold up the show on the new Gulf drilling.
   
• I was just listening to Newt on H&C. I like Newt. He's a sharp guy who talks a sound line. But he doesn't stand a chance for the Presidential bid - sorry, but being ousted from congress for any reason makes for a bad executive office run. Still, he could make a great V.P.
   
• I've been emersed in Bill Bennett's "America: The Last Best Hope" since the holiday weekend. It was chilling to read about the Arab corsairs on the Barbary coast. "Various Arab rulers there would regularly declare war against European countries and then begin seizing their ships and men. The captured crews would be held for ransom or sold in the market as slaves." (p.182) More chilling still the response of the Arab diplomat who justified their tactics:
   
  "The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners." (p.182)
   
  Sound familiar? If they are "extremists, they've been extreme for a long, long time. Or, maybe this really is the face of Islam...
   
  Give us another Thomas Jefferson, Edward Preble (Commodore of the USS Constitution), Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, and William Eaton in our time! G.W. could be a close runner up to T.J. But, find your few good men, Mr. President, and get the gloves off and finish the job!

• The U.S. is getting tough on Iran - NOT! Sure, we've been hearing lots of news about threats of sanctions against Iran by the UN. But Russia and China will make sure any sanctions enacted are largely without teeth, and Iran will continue their nuclear program largely unhindered.
   
  The U.S. is becoming more and more irrelavant in the War on Terror as we allow the state department to call the shots for the administration on Iran and Lebanon/Hizbollah. No one wants a war, but we will one day wake up to find that others are waging war against us whether we want it or not. Oh wait! They are already doing that! So, maybe we won't wake up? 

 

From Sandra Levitt on August 2, 2006 (of Zola Levitt Ministries):

• Israel is fighting such a careful war to make sure someone—anyone—will say something nice about them. All they get back is nothing, and are asked to give away more land. Because that works? Has giving the Arabs land produced any peace for Israel? Is any resolution that the UN makes working? I am still waiting for the UN to tell me what the “observers” were observing and what they were waiting for in Lebanon. And why, if it was so dangerous, were they not told to leave the region? I am also still waiting for the UN to tell me why 1559 is not working. That’s the resolution that states that any and all terrorist groups like Hizbollah will be disarmed in Lebanon.
   
  Please no more! Let Israel do her job and finish the “battle” this time, once and for all. Of course, we all know that the real victory belongs to God and when Yeshua comes back, all Israel will be saved. Amen.

From Walid Shoebat:

• “Islam is like the song ‘Hotel California,’” said Shoebat. “You can check in, but you can’t check out. You can check out if you want – in a coffin.”

• “Most Americans think that terrorism starts by some group coming to recruit you. The recruitment already happens at the mosque,” Shoebat explained. “It already happens at the school. They’re already part of the whole system of education. You don’t need to recruit. The people are willing souls ready to die for martyrdom, or ready to die for Palestine. Ready to die for the cause of Allah.”

• Shoebat’s new-found faith [Christianity] cost him his father and his siblings. He now lives in an undisclosed location, where he heads the Walid Shoebat Foundation, a pro-Israel group. He’s also written a book detailing his journey called Why I Left Jihad.

  But he’s disappointed that his message hasn’t been well received by some in the West.

  “Here’s the ironic thing. The day that I hated Jews, I wanted to kill them, I wanted to blow them up – I was called a freedom fighter by the world and by the press. The day that I turned around and said, you know what? I don’t hate Jews, I don’t hate blacks, I love everybody – I love everybody equally; that’s when I became a racist. Go figure,” Shoebat said.

I listened to Walid on the latest Zola Levitt Presents T.V. program. When asked if Democracy was the solution to the Middle-East conflict Walid stated in no uncertain terms that the Muslim nations of the Middle-East aren't interested in it.

• Look at what happened when the Palestinians got a chance to vote - they elected Hamas.
• If you allowed free elections in Muslim states you'd get totalitarian leaders and Sharia law. We need to forget about changing Muslim nations into democracies.

Hugh Hewitt summed it up succinctly today (which I express in my own verbiage):

1. Our North and South boarders are still, like, totally porous.
    
2. We still don't have an effective system in place to track down VISA holders and violators (all of the terrorists who acted on 911 were here legally on VISA's, by the way).
    
3. Today, lefty U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit ruled against President Bush's warrant less surveillance program - the very one that was instrumental in helping expose the airline terrorist plot uncovered by Great Britain.
    
4. Oh! And, Israel just lost it's first war in decades against a blatantly terrorist regime named Hezbollah, who'd just as soon annihilate the U.S. right along with Israel. And both the U.S. and Israel are in like TOTAL DENIAL about the major screw-up.

That sound like things are going well to you?

Noticings from the past few days:

• President Bush called the cease-fire agreement a defeat for Hizbollah. George, what ARE you smoking? Talk about "spin." Hizbollah met an Israeli army conducting war with a failed methodology and backed by a spineless leader, and for the first time in decades an enemy brought Israel to a stalemate. The Islamic fascists are the one's who are celebrating.
   
• Since the cease-fire agreement people are pouring back into Lebanon. Huh? Don't they know this won't last? Hizbollah is pouring back into Lebanon too. How long do you think it will take before we see young people throwing rocks at the Israelis to provoke them to battle? How long before the first staged Israeli "atrocity" on defenseless Lebanese? How long before the missiles start firing again to reign down "retribution" on Israel? And all of it orchestrated by a people drunk on hatred and antisemitism.
   
• I've seen Walid Shoebat a couple of times lately on a Christian television show. Visited his website tonight. Walid is a former Palestinian terrorist, who after moving to America and taking up the challenge from his wife to review the Bible for himself became a Christian. Now he fights to confront the insanity of Islamic fundamentalism and educate the world on it's dangers. Walid's first hand witness is that the Islamic nations of the Middle East are themselves training grounds for hatred and antisemitism. He was totally indoctrinated by his religious culture to hate the Jew.
   
• As an American Christian I often wonder, "Are these the 'End Times' we were taught about?" It would be easy to feign knowledge and say "Yes!" and end up being wrong. We have misread the times often enough before that we should live more humbly where this question is concerned. And it's not so much that we have misread as we do not have the inside information to answer the question definitively. Even so, as I look at the Middle East aflame with rage and hatred toward Israel - Israel surrounded by nations that want it's very annihilation - a madman in Iran sounding like Hitler all over again, and funding military assaults against Israel, and the world watching, waiting and hoping that madman doesn't get his hands on a nuke, it would be a good time to consider your relationship with Almighty God, and though it's always a good time to do so, it is even more so now.

FoxNews TV has the following byline on the TV screen:

"All UN agrees to end Mideast War"

So, all the "useless nations" agree to end it? Great! Now all they have to do is tell Hezbollah, Syria, and the maniac in Iran who wants to end the world.

Noticings from the past few days:

• The president has started using the term "Islamo-fascists" to describe the enemy in the "War on Terror."
   
  It's about time!! Now, lets start calling it the "War on Islamic-fascism" Mr. President. Terror is just the modus-operandi. The enemy is Islamic fascism, just like the enemy in the 40's was fascism that had it's home in Germany. Only this time we are not fighting fascism in just one country - Islamic fascism is operating freely in a growing number of countries. It **IS** a global conflict.
   
• What is this clown "OMERT" doing?! Does he want to fight this battle all over again in a couple of years - a replay of what's happening now? How can he accept a UN cease-fire agreement before KNOWING that there will be a force with teeth to disarm Hezbollah? Right now THERE IS a force with teeth - the Israeli army. LET THEM GET THE JOB DONE!
   
• Mike Wallace is going to suck up to Ahmadinejad. He's prepared to make the same stupid blunder that Neville Chamberlain made, who was "convinced that Hitler was no threat either. But Chamberlain was wrong and tens of millions died by such horrific miscalculations. And Ahmadinejad wants to bring about the end of the world, deny the Holocaust, and wipe Israel and the U.S. "off the map,"" (see J. Rosenberg)
   
• Score a big one for the British. Now, thanks to phone surveillance, we know that "the British suspects placed calls to several cities in the United States before their arrests. At least some of the calls were placed to people in New York, Washington, Chicago and Detroit, one official said." (www.FoxNews.com) Yea. Let's keep listening in, shall we?

Dennis Prager dedicated two hours of his show today to the topic of liberalism (you can get podcasts here). And he proudly announced that he had "found the holy grail of liberalism." It is, in Dennis's words, "the supremacy of feelings."

Liberals take positions based on their feelings about the matter. For example, liberals tend to want open southern boarders because they "feel" for the plight of the illegal immigrant. At one point Dennis read from one of the latest rants of Cindy Sheehan, who attacked George Bush as a criminal and murderer. For Sheehan it's all about feelings - she's still morning the death of her son and it's easier to blame the one he worked for than it is the one's who killed him. It's safer to blame a president who's part of a democracy where freedom of speech is guaranteed than it is to take on the conflict of Islamic fascism that deals with descent much more threateningly. I think Dennis is on to something profound here.

At one point Dennis posed the question (to paraphrase), "And where does this central focus on feelings come from?" and he replied "it comes from the supremacy of the psychological over the moral." I would put it another way - it comes from a focus on the "internal" to the exclusion of the "external." And here, "external" would refer to anything outside of one's self, such as logic, or principles, or objective authority. For the liberal, authority always comes from the perspective of the internal. And this too has a root source, namely the rejection of God and moral absolutes.

Liberals must put themselves at the center of their universe, and everything then flows from that idolatrous perspective - what is "right" or "wrong" must be judged by how I feel about it (from the "internal"). But it's not just their own "internal" god that they must bow to, it is also all of the other god's out there who have their own "internal" sanctums that must be protected - thus, the liberal position on immigration puts the "internal" welfare of the illegal immigrant ahead of the "external" economic and national security welfare of the United States. How could we be so cruel as to make those people go home and become the problem their own dysfunctional government chooses to ignore?

Too judgemental? Too intolerant? I did use that highly provocative word - "idolatrous." No, it's not hate speech. It's a logical conclusion that emanates from accepting, for the moment, that there is an objective God, and then what term would be applied when we make ourselves the center of the universe? I don't view "feeling" liberals as evil people. Rather, I expect most are, as Hugh Hewitt says, "good people who are just plain wrong." But that doesn't mean their perspectives don't have far-reaching consequences for themselves and the rest of us. The liberal redefinition of marriage threatens to undermine the Family as we know it (or, knew it). And the liberal argument is largely based on the supremacy of feelings, or of exalting their and other's feelings over and above any theocratic source of right and wrong. Discard the idea of God, and accountability to moral absolutes, and eventually you will redefine marriage to include those who wish to view it in a different way. How could we be so intolerant as to tell them they too can't be married! If our "Internal" guides us, how can we say their "Internal" is any less entitled to guide them or the rest of us?

So, do conservatives throw feelings out the window and make decisions only on the basis of their black and white book of rules? Well...that book tells the story of how the God of the universe developed personal relationships with, among others, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Was it pure expediency on his part, or do we see evidence of feelings in God? Would he have lamented over his people, as we often see in the messages of the prophets, if he did not feel? And yet, at the same time that God felt great compassion for his people and urged them to return to his guidance and care (or, to fidelity in their relationships with him), he did not excuse their infidelity and immorality, and there were consequences. Dare I say "judgement" and "justice?"

One of Dennis's callers today said,
"Liberals appear to believe that thinking often does not take feeling into account...[that] thinking is largely mechanical and is [should be] given its direction by 'enlightened' feelings."

To which Dennis replied, "Your right! The opposition to slavery emanated from a combination of feelings and standards. I’m not against feelings. I’m saying though that feelings have to be mediated by many, many other questions when making social policy. That is why I always say that on micro-issues I always tend to be liberal. It’s on macro-issues that I’m conservative. Compassion should dominate in your relationships with your friends and your family. Yes. But not in making social policy."

My thanks to "Rabbi Prager" for another golden teaching moment. The conversation and debate will undoubtedly continue.