The news coming out of the mid-east is disturbing. Hezbollah has fired over 700 rockets at Israel, and the IDF is retaliating in a big way, but with focus.
I'm becoming somewhat pessimistic about the War on Terrorism. It looks like Congress is not taking the war seriously, and I wonder if the administration is taking it seriously too?? Why the waffling on border security? Why did the Senate after approving the construction of a border fence, vote against it's funding!?
In the meantime, our church just said good-bye to a family that was returning to their home in Israel. They were here while the husband was attending seminary. He graduated, found a position in a ministry, and they moved back last week. They are a wonderful family with small children and I am worried for them. Please be in prayer for them and for the nation of Israel and for peace in that area.
I'm confident in God's sovereignty in history, but that doesn't mean I think we (the U.S.A. ) should not be a force for peace and democracy. In fact, in light of the many blessings God has bestowed on this nation, I believe we have a duty to fight international evil like the Jihadists.
You might wonder why I use the word "Jihadist". Well, I think "Terrorist" is somewhat accurate, but doesn't really paint the character or nature of the enemy. Jihadists are militant Islamic fascists who will stop at nothing to further their agenda of spreading Islam by force and defeating Western culture. They are a culture of death, and view their own death as sufficient reward for their pursuit of violence. Hezbollah and Hamas are jihadist organizations supported and sponsored by Syrian Bathists and Sunni, Iranian Shiites, and Saudi's Sunni Wahabists. They are want to restore the Caliphate, but of course they all have different ideas of what that Caliphate would be like. If they didn't have the West to vent their violence on, they would be killing each other, much like the sectarian violence in Baghdad the last few weeks.
The sad thing is, even if they were successful in cowing the west and wiping Israel off the map, the Caliphate would never arise because they have no unifying ideology other than a culture of violence. In the past the Caliphate was a product of strong and unifying leaders who knew how to conquer and rule from cultures that had more to offer than bleak death. The Jihadists only know how to deal out death and violence.
Until our culture truly understands the nature of evil that these Jihadists represent and the threat they are to our civilization, we will continue to be their victims.
