How I See It

It is not entirely easy to identify the sides in this war. We are beginning to figure it out. It is also not entirely easy to identify exactly when war was declared. In a way, it was a piecemeal declaration.

There are those who think that all we have to do to bring this war to an end is refuse to defend ourselves. Often, they cite the success of Gandhi. What they don't realize is that the reason Gandhi was successful was because the British are civilized! Our present enemy is a collection of barbaric animals. They do not recognize pacifism as anything more than weakness. This is something that "antiwar" people have never realized. For many of them, the philosophy is entirely consistent. They oppose the right of a nation to go to the defense of another nation. They oppose the right of the strong to defend the weak. They oppose the right of self defense. And they oppose the right of the strong to defend women and children from abortionists. In short, they oppose the right of good to triumph over evil. They allow themselves to be used by the evil people who declared the war. Their philosophy is based on a warped idea that human beings are fundamentally good, and that all you have to do for good to triumph is to do nothing. But Edmund Burke was not so foolish. He said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

The "antiwar" people also do not understand that young children require discipline, that you cannot simply allow them to grow in a garden full of weeds and expect them to become beautiful trees. The "antiwar" people do not understand what a psychopath is. In this war, everyone on the "other" side is a psychopath. We have allowed them to influence and train each other in the ways of psychopathology. They are all members of a cult, and this cult has a lot of violent leaders. They teach their own adherents a message of darkness. They do not teach the innocent how to know God; instead, God is a capricious stranger. They teach evil and call it good. They even teach that God possesses these evil characteristics, and yet, God is good. They speak Newspeak, where evil is good and good is evil. In short, they are evil. They are also very slick of tongue. They convince many foolish people that their poverty is somehow the fault of good people who aren't experiencing poverty. Since it is our fault, we are obliged to pay the evil ones, and since we haven't done so, extortion is an acceptable method of forcing us to do so. They believe in plunder, as long as they get to do the plundering. They will plunder their own people and kill their own people to manipulate the thinking of foolish people. But I say that the moment any group resorts to extortion, their cause is no longer just, no matter how just it had been to begin with.

What I am about to say comes from within my Christian faith. But I have not left the perspective of the nonchristian unaddressed. I will speak to you once I am finished speaking of my faith.

In reality, this war is millenia old. It starts with the Jews. God chose the Jews for reasons only He can fathom, though I sort of understand. Jews are very, very intense people. If they are on the side of evil, they wreak havoc. The philosophy behind communism was developed by a Jew. If they are on the side of good, there is no stopping them. So God chose them. God owns the universe, and it therefore follows that God owns the earth. God can give any portion of the earth to anyone He chooses. God gave Eretz Israel to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac. Isaac is the legitimate son. God's picture of marriage is really a picture of the relationship between God and His people. Children are to be born only within marriage. Those who are born without do not receive the inheritance. But God in His kindness gave a vast land to the illegitimate son of Abraham as well. The land of the legitimate son blooms. The land of the illegitimate son does not bloom. Why is that? It is because the legitimate son works to water and till the ground. It has always been thus. You don't have to believe in a particular form of eschatology to study the past and learn from it. I don't even believe in the typical view of eschatology. That doesn't change the fact that 1. the legitimate sons of Abraham have continually occupied Eretz Israel since God gave the land to Abraham, except for a handful of years on a couple of occasions, even though many of them were scattered, and 2. the descendants of the illegitimate son have never had title to Eretz Israel, and have been fighting against God's gift from the beginning. What we are seeing is the warlike actions of the illegitimate descendants against those who support Eretz Israel. Because the United States supports Israel, we are the enemy. There isn't anything we could do about this but stop supporting Israel. But since God gave that land to Israel, we can only stop supporting Israel by turning our backs on God. I pray that we never do that.

The peculiar thing about this situation is that people who claim not to believe in the Jewish and Christian God act like they do. I say that because they react against God's edicts, such as giving the land to Israel. If they truly had no belief in God, He would be irrelevant. He and the nations who try to follow Him would not be considered the enemy.

This war, therefore, is not about oil. It is about Israel. And it is about September 11, 2001. Make no mistake about that.

Who is a member of the coalition that has declared war? It is a handful of national leaders, mostly Arab, and of individuals within nations that either cannot or will not expel them. When was war declared? Well, they declared it piecemeal, but the declaration was obvious when Iraq aggressed against its neighbors. It was painfully obvious when Iraq took over Kuwait. Saddam Hussein is rightfully called the Butcher of Baghdad. Saddam is another Hitler. You say what? Saddam invades and conquers his neighbors without provocation. Saddam gases his own people. Saddam is willing to place his army behind women and children (why does he experience no shame from hiding behind women and children, and why does his army experience no shame?) Saddam is willing to shoot anybody in the back who won't become part of his evil program. Saddam pays no attention to the Geneva Convention. Saddam pays no attention to the United Nations. In short, Saddam aggresses against any and every innocent person within his reach, by any and all means. Osama bin Laden is Saddam's sidekick. And we have an unwitting accomplice: Clinton. Clinton committed treason many times over. He eviscerated our military. He gave our military secrets to the Chinese in exchange for votes. We are now reaping the consequences of Clinton's support of evil. Praise God we were not saddled with Clinton's heir apparent: Gore.

For me, this isn't about supporting Bush. I don't agree with everything Bush does. But this time, he is right!

This situation is nothing new. Unlike the claims of the "antiwar" people, the United States has always had to be dragged kicking and screaming into standing up to the bullies of the world. We tried to stay out of WWII, and the result has been the slaughter of 100 million innocent people, and it is ongoing. We finally stood up to Hitler and Japan and Italy and stopped some of the slaughter. We never addressed China. China continues to slaughter her own people. She continues to slaughter the people of her neighbors. China continues to bully Tibet, and to kill her own unborn children. She continues a policy of medical rape of women. We never addressed Cuba. Cuba is small potatoes, but Castro is no less evil than Saddam or Mao or Hitler or Stalin. Even a petty tyrant is still a tyrant, to the innocent individual who becomes his victim! Heck, we made a pact with the devil and allowed Stalin to take over vast areas of Europe. And we are also still paying for THAT mistake. Finally, the United States failed to finish the job in Iraq, and sat here and did nothing for another decade. In the meantime, the bullies of the world have become more entrenched. In the same manner that they brainwashed their own people into thinking that God promotes their evil, they have brainwashed foolish people in the western world into supporting their right to brainwash and slaughter innocent people, unchecked by anybody.

The evil bullies finally brought the war to our own shores in a decisive way.

This war is not about oil. It is about September 11, 2001.

If you want peace, work for justice. Abandoning innocent people to the tyrants of the world is NOT justice!

God has given us the authority to use the sword to restore peace to the world. The sword is intended to punish and control those who will not respect His law of nonviolence. Every attack on an innocent human being is an attack on the image of God. When a people is enslaved to a tyrant who maims, rapes, and kills, then that people has no peace. At present, the United States is the only country with the ability to bring peace to oppressed peoples. Our freedoms are a blessing from God, and we don't have a right to hoard them to ourselves. Yes, our country has made mistakes. This is inevitable in a fallen world. But we are the only country which has fought for the freedom of the people who are being subjected to genocide, and then helped to restore the nation, against whom we fought, to prosperity, and then left. Sometimes we leave too soon! But lest you think Jesus is opposed to war and the use of force, remember that He threw the moneychangers out of the temple, bodily. The earth is God's footstool, and it has been corrupted with evil. Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34. And again, "But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his script: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." Luke 22:36. Seen in modern terms, this is also a grant of permission, and an instruction, to bear arms for the protection of the defenseless. The Apostle Paul also said, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Romans 13:1-4. For these reasons, our government has a mandate to use the sword to combat the evil of genocide, and also the mandate to bear the sword against the abortionist. We are violating God's law not to use it against abortionists. We must therefore repent and ask God for forgiveness for our failure to exercise the responsibilities He has given our government, and we must now use the sword for justice and peace. For God has blessed us in spite of ourselves; He has protected us from terrorism except as a warning. We could have lost 100,000 lives in the World Trade Center. Instead, we lost slightly less than 3000. We could have lost more lives at the Pentagon except that the plane flew into a part that was under renovation. 9/11 was a warning. We must bear the sword for justice and peace against genocide, or we will also be judged for this failure. We need ask permission from no one but God! We must stop putting the United Nations in the place of God, and tell them to take a hike! We must do what we must do, and we are answerable directly to God. If we had done this in the first place, we wouldn't be where we are today. We are our brother's keeper, and we do not have permission to ignore the plight of the victim of aggression.

You don't have to believe in God to understand that we have a right to defend ourselves. And you don't have to believe in God to understand that we have a right to defend the innocent. America's mistake has always been that we didn't defend the innocent enough, not that we did it too much.

We didn't start the present war. War was brought to our shores on September 11, 2001. Until that happened, we weren't bothering Osama, and we weren't bothering Saddam. We were only involved in the attempt by the United Nations to protect Saddam's people from him.

This isn't about oil for me. It isn't about oil for most Americans. (In fact, we only get about 3.5% of our oil from Iraq, so oil isn't even an ISSUE for most of us.) It's about 9/11, and the fact that terrorists around the world now think they can strike thousands of people on our native soil with impunity because we won't do anything about it. It's about the fact that a group of people has declared war on the United States, and we have to defend the innocent people of our country. We can't simply ignore it, and the Bible doesn't give us permission to turn other people's cheeks! It's about the fact that Saddam Hussein is in thick with Al Qaeda (yes, I have studied this extensively, and I am quite convinced of this) and he has so terrorized his people that they are experiencing a fate worse than death, and there is NO opportunity for any of his Muslim subjects to hear the gospel! This madman systematically murders innocent women and children for his own purposes.

No, God doesn't pick sides. But at the same time, He has shown us clearly that sometimes we must bear the sword. There are times when the sword must be wielded to call an accounting on people who are doing the devil's work against innocent people.

We could have said the same things you are saying now about Hitler. Saddam IS another Hitler, no question about it. The longer we wait to deal with him, the more millions of innocent people will be killed in his conquest to control the world.

The verse that says, "Vengeance is Mine...I will repay!" has to do with harm done to US as individuals. It has nothing to do with harm done to other people. It's not about vengeance. It's about protecting Saddam's future victims.

To those who claim America is arrogant, I dispute that with every bone in my body. To those who claim it is America's lust and greed, I say, It is NOT America's lust and greed. It's Saddam Hussein's lust and greed. It is about Osama's lust and greed. It is about Yasser Arafat's lust and greed.

To those who say we may not go to war because God said "Thou shalt not kill," then you are going to have to explain to me why the same God Who said "Thou shalt not kill" also ordered the Israelites to exterminate entire peoples.

To those who say war is hell, I say, Yes, it is! All the more reason to make sure we do not comfort and encourage the enemy in any way. It is the ONLY way that we can shorten the war, save the lives of tens of thousands, and bring our people home. We have a choice: either bring our people home once we have deposed tyrants, or bring the tyrants home with them. Which choice will you make? I know which one I'll make.

Yes! War is hell. Yes! Our soldiers will suffer terribly from having to do the job they must do. In spite of that, some people have been called to wield the sword on behalf of the innocent. The same problem holds true for a police officer who must kill in the line of duty. Are we going to argue that we must not have police because one of them may have to kill to defend himself or someone else who is innocent?

Even as we speak, I am aware of a young Native woman with two preschool age children who is MIA. She was a single mother. She has probably been executed in violation of the Geneva Convention. Instead of enabling our enemies so that more people like her will be killed, we need to stop emboldening the tyrants in Iraq. When we oppose our necessary action in Iraq, that is exactly what we are doing. We are aiding and abetting an evil enemy. It is an act of treason!

Don't be misled by people who hate freedom, who are using honest people like you for their own agenda. You are being USED. Don't let them do that to you. It's all propaganda. The United States is NOT the horrible, evil entity these people are depicting.

When and where else has there ever been a nation that
1. does its darndest not to harm any civilians
2. provides relief work for the civilians during wartime by diverting troops to protect those who bring that relief
3. does its darndest not to destroy any of the civilian infrastructure
4. once the war is over, rebuilds the nation where the war took place, and then
5. LEAVES?

The United States is unique! We are NOT out there to form an empire as we are being accused of doing. Those of you who accuse the United States, please think about this! Your criticisms are badly misplaced. You are accusing and condemning the honorable people of this nation who are living righteously and seeking to free people who are made in the image of God and to whom we have been commanded to take the Gospel, who at present have no chance of hearing. These are people who are living in darkness and fear, who know no peace. I cannot accept that!!!!!!!!

This next discussion is addressed specifically toward those who are opposed to our perspective on the war in Iraq.

I was asked, "If you see Saddam as Hitler, then why don't all those Europeans in 1) France 2) Germany 3) Belgium 4) The Netherlands 5) Russia 6) China 7) India (china and india 2 billion/6 billion people on earth) 8) New Zealand? Are all these nations wrong?"

Yes! France refused to defend itself in WWII. Germany aggressed on many nations of Europe. The Netherlands lacks gratitute (they had been under the thumb of Germany, also). Having stood up to the Nazis even at the cost of lives, and refusing to turn over the medical records of the people, the medical profession now kills innocent people simply because they are too old or too disabled. They were in the forefront in resisting Naziism, and now they are in the forefront of promoting it! Russia has a legacy of 30 million innocent people killed, and they have never repudiated that legacy. China even now represses Tibetans and their own women. Perhaps the smaller nations you mentioned have a right to an opinion. But that doesn't mean it is the right opinion. Furthermore, don't forget that this opinion may be formed out of fear. They don't want to be attacked by terrorists. They think they can appease terrorists. Folks, you CANNOT appease terrorists! It doesn't work! You CANNOT appease evil people. They will simply take advantage of you. I have addressed India elsewhere. India was able to employ nonviolence because the occupying force was civilized, and that makes all the difference. You gave me a list of 8 countries. How about the 50+ and growing who are supporting us? How long before the rest of the world understands what we see? Just keep in mind that Saddam has now placed himself squarely in league with terrorists. He is now employing suicide bombers. Nothing else needs to be said.

I was asked, "If every nation has the right to protect itself, then should we be each free to attack each other, or only the United States?"

Every nation has the right to protect itself. Not all nations have the means. If they don't have the means, I want our country to help out. No nation has the right to aggress.

Many people seem to think they love the American people but hate our government. They characterize our government as a global bully who has taken out a contract to kill whoever it doesn't like or sees as tyrant.

Sorry, but I don't agree, and I don't like the hate. If peace means never defending one's own country, then hate is inappropriate. We are not being a global bully. Once more: what global bully ever does its best to spare civilians, pours large sums of money into developing weapons that won't hit civilians by mistake, compromises the safety of its own troops to protect the civilians of the other country, as well as their infrastructure, expends resources to make it safe for humanitarian aid to be brought in, provides humanitarian aid, protects the natural resources of the other country by seeking to prevent the ruler from destroying them (burning oil wells), rebuilds a country after the war is over, and leaves????? We are doing all of that, and have done all of that in the past.

Some people are comparing us to nations that practiced colonialism in the past. But we are different from those colonialists because we LEAVE. Nevertheless, those colonialists are more like us than like Saddam or Osama. This is because they are civilized. When Gandhi decided to try passive resistance to aggression and occupation, it worked, because the British are civilized. That would never work with many Asian cultures that believe only in strength and getting what you want through warfare. In any culture where weakness is not prized, and where there is no recognition of strength through peace, one can only achieve peace by working for justice. And one can only work for justice by insisting on the accountability of aggressors. Not the relatives of aggressors who are not involved in aggression; not their descendants who are not involved and have never been involved, and not the countrymen of aggressors who are not involved. Each person must be held accountable for his own aggression. One must never acquiesce to aggression. One must see clearly what aggression is. Aggression is whenever any person harms someone who has not harmed him. I have never harmed Osama bin Laden, and I have never harmed Saddam Hussein. None of the Kurds have ever harmed Saddam Hussein. The Kuwaitis never harmed Saddam Hussein. Defending oneself and others against aggression is not aggression, and it is not harm. People must distinguish between the aggressive use of force and the responsive use of force. The responsive use of force is always licit. I believe in the concept of a just war. A just war is fought against aggression. It is fought to win. It is fought with a minimum loss of life and destruction. It is fought to shorten the conflict. Our war of defense of self and others is a just war. Do not blame the victims of aggression for defending themselves and others.

Some people want to force the descendants of tyrants to pay the debt of tyrants. We do not owe that debt, and the people to whom that debt is owed are often long dead. There were tyrants in the colonies and the United States who aggressed against the Natives. It was some people who enslaved and killed them. A lot of us don't approve, and a lot of us never got involved. The sins of tyrants do not affect the legitimacy of seeking justice. It never can.

To those of you from other countries who do not agree with me, I say: I would like to remain friends, but please stop trashing my country. We have a right to defend ourselves, and we are doing it with honor. My son is over there because he believes in the right of the Iraqis to be free, and because he believes in our right to defend ourselves. He believes in the right of all people everywhere to hear the Gospel, and he went SPECIFICALLY to take the Gospel to others. He is a noncombatant. He is there to protect a chaplain. He could lose his life over there. I can't handle your attitude. If you want to be friends, you need to think about it and try to see where I am coming from.

By trashing my country, you are aiding and abetting tyrants. They take comfort from your words, and they refuse to relinquish their hold over innocent people. The result is MORE death and MORE evil, not less! You can never, ever get rid of evil by encouraging the evil!

I know you hate war. So do I. But there are times when there is nothing else we can do. We have already tried everything else. None of it worked.

"Forbid it, Almighty God -- I know not what course others may take; but as for me -- give me liberty or give me death!"

Yea, with Patrick Henry, again I say, "Give me liberty or give me death!" For death is liberty in Christ. But for now, I will fight for the liberty of those who are forbidden to know Christ, so that they, too, may experience ultimate liberty.