Why We Lost in the Middle East
When others find out I am a veteran, they usually offer me the typical “Thank you for your service” compliment that is so customary of our society. I smile back or mumble “thank you” if I can manage it, but many times I can’t, because, dear reader, I am suppressing a gag reflex, not at the person offering their thanks but at the phrase itself. “Thank you for your service” has a bitter meaning for me because I didn’t serve the right master in the middle east.
I deployed over 20 years ago, and by now time is sealing up a lot of memories from that experience and glossing over some others, but one fresh in my mind, and that’s the reason we didn’t come home with a clear victory. It’s because we didn’t bring and boast of the one thing that could take Political Islam down: Jesus Christ.
We didn’t because we were ordered not to. Pre deployment briefs were clear and insistent: DO NOT share your religion. Even though your religion says to, don’t do it. They threatened UCMJ if we did, which could mean anything from dishonorable discharge to a term at Leavenworth prison. I heard this directive countless times-before and during my stay in Iraq.
Sadly, I followed orders as did others. It is one of the greatest regrets of my life, and I do wonder how different the middle east would be today if we had disobeyed. We had firepower, food, and spiritual food. We shared the first two but not the last.
We explained democracy, but not the philosophy behind it, which, when you think about it, is like trying to put a roof on a home with no walls. Our US Constitution is based on the idea that every man is a sovereign creation of God-that we are all equal and should be treated as such by our government.
In contrast Political Islam says that not all men are equal. It puts society in a pyramid, with Muslim men at the top, Muslim women below them and different levels of Kafirs (non-Muslims) below them. Because not all men are equal, Islam’s Sharia Law allows a three-tiered justice system: Muslim men are treated one-way, Muslim women another, and Kafirs or non-believers yet another. It is a system based upon the god you pray to, not the God that made you.
Our political system won’t work for a people who don’t share our understanding of man, his worth, and his relationship to the Creator. For democracy to work in the Middle East, most of them would have to convert to Christianity, but with no one to explain or invite them, how can this happen?
It can’t. Thus, it didn’t, and so here we are.
This has been on my mind for a while and I’m glad I was finally able to share it. The public deserves to know what went wrong. God bless you all; please know that this old vet is sorry for what she failed to do.
And for what it’s worth, Happy Fourth of July. Celebrate America everyone, at least what’s left of her.
I deployed over 20 years ago, and by now time is sealing up a lot of memories from that experience and glossing over some others, but one fresh in my mind, and that’s the reason we didn’t come home with a clear victory. It’s because we didn’t bring and boast of the one thing that could take Political Islam down: Jesus Christ.
We didn’t because we were ordered not to. Pre deployment briefs were clear and insistent: DO NOT share your religion. Even though your religion says to, don’t do it. They threatened UCMJ if we did, which could mean anything from dishonorable discharge to a term at Leavenworth prison. I heard this directive countless times-before and during my stay in Iraq.
Sadly, I followed orders as did others. It is one of the greatest regrets of my life, and I do wonder how different the middle east would be today if we had disobeyed. We had firepower, food, and spiritual food. We shared the first two but not the last.
We explained democracy, but not the philosophy behind it, which, when you think about it, is like trying to put a roof on a home with no walls. Our US Constitution is based on the idea that every man is a sovereign creation of God-that we are all equal and should be treated as such by our government.
In contrast Political Islam says that not all men are equal. It puts society in a pyramid, with Muslim men at the top, Muslim women below them and different levels of Kafirs (non-Muslims) below them. Because not all men are equal, Islam’s Sharia Law allows a three-tiered justice system: Muslim men are treated one-way, Muslim women another, and Kafirs or non-believers yet another. It is a system based upon the god you pray to, not the God that made you.
Our political system won’t work for a people who don’t share our understanding of man, his worth, and his relationship to the Creator. For democracy to work in the Middle East, most of them would have to convert to Christianity, but with no one to explain or invite them, how can this happen?
It can’t. Thus, it didn’t, and so here we are.
This has been on my mind for a while and I’m glad I was finally able to share it. The public deserves to know what went wrong. God bless you all; please know that this old vet is sorry for what she failed to do.
And for what it’s worth, Happy Fourth of July. Celebrate America everyone, at least what’s left of her.
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You Can Only Do So Much
Thoughts on our current situation as Americans and what literature can teach us about our limitations over current affairs.
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