Only One Choice in Face of Nuclear Terror
I just came across this brief editorial by one of my favorite writers, the immensely talented Dr. Thomas Sowell. What he had to say was grim…….and timely. If you have been following the fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, you know that Iran has no scruples about giving missiles and other armaments to people who use them against innocent civilians. We also know that our military personnel in Iraq are being killed and maimed by IED’s provided by Iran.
So, it should come as no surprise that the Mullahs of Iran will with hold no good thing in their soon to be developed nuclear arsenal from terrorists bent on destroying first Israel and then the United States of America.
Please take the time to read this article so that you will have this information as you prepare to cast your vote in the Presidential elections.
~~John Cronin~~
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=297558971216461
By: Dr. Thomas Sowell
Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes president of the United States in 2009.
At a time like this, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for a third party candidate to show our displeasure — at the cost of putting someone in the White House who isn’t up to the job.
Sen. John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, he has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.
On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Good thing is that the Israelis have recently promised that they will take out Iran’s nuke capacity shortly (something our headless Bush is too flummoxed to do himself). So Dr. Sowell, you and can I BOTH VOTE AGAINST McCAIN secure in the knowledge that we will be helping the Republican party to change the assinine primary systems and it’s incompetent leadership in Washington!
June 8th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Sorry about the typo “you and I” is what I meant.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I read Dr. Sowell’s article. Like you, I have enjoyed his past articles very much. But I must disagree with his argument in this article. He said basically that we really could not afford to vote third party or sit at home on election day, or else, we will see Iran bombing our cities. Here I disagree with him. First, it is not the leader who could save us, but only we, the People of America, could save ourselves. At this point, after a war that is considered much more mild (we lost less soliders in Iraq and Afghantian than we did during the peace-time under Carter!), we Americans already are dishearted and wanted to forget our children are even there in the first place. We simply do not have the willpower to combat Iran, and we never will, until we see another 9/11 tragedy. It is sad, but that is where we are at right now. It is unfortunately that we do not have any desire, collectively, to protect ourselves.
The second point I disagree with Dr. Sowell is the “turning point”. A lot of Islamic fanatics have been rattling swords against us. This will never end until they know the kind of dangerous beast we could become. Even if Iran does attacked a city or two of ours, we should be going after Iran retentless. That includes wiping out Iran entirely with tenths of our several thousands nuclear missiles. I know Russia and China would protest, but we should make the point very clear right now that we will hold Russia and China accountable for their failure to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and that we will hold Iran responsible for ANY nuclear attack. Iran won’t be able to get back at us because they only have the capabity to produce handful of nuclear warheads a year.
I am sorry, but voting for McCain won’t work, because he is not the man that could put heart in Americans to defend ourselves. He stinks to high heaven on his ability to reach out to public. He will fail to get the mighty of America behind him.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
The key definition is “shortly”. If the IDF means to take out the Iranian nukes before November 2008, then you are right, we can return to politics as usual. But if it hasn’t happened before the next President puts his hand on the Bible to take the Oath of Office, then things get immensely more complicated.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Its very disheartening that we don’t have the choice of an intelligent, competent leader in these troubled times. What this has to do with Senator McCain I have no idea. He was incredibly brave and honorable but not particularly successful the one time he was in a true leadership position. Unless McCain intends to make his campaign slogan “Hey, America may be screwed, but at least we’ll go down fighting Islamic terrorists” I don’t see how this makes McCain a valid choice for president. With the Democrats getting into their current position of power by bellyaching about war and how Republicans are untrustworthy, I don’t see them voting to authorize another war, no matter how necessary, unless we are attacked again, at which point even Obama would be forced to take action. Let’s just hope Israel takes care of this under Bush’s watch. It sounded imminent. Why would they announce their intentions and then wait and wait for Iran to prepare?
June 8th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
My understanding of Dr. Sowell’s comments was this:
In the face of nuclear terror, the choice is clear - McCain would take care of business and Obama would bow to his “decades” of friends criticizing America - McCain would be the choice between the two and we cannot risk splintering the votes with a third party.
June 8th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Okay, my opinion again (I know you folks are getting tired of me, but just humor me here). I truly and honestly believe that Romney knows McCain is a disaster. I’ve never met Mitt, but I feel that he realizes in his heart that McCain will be the effective end of the GOP for quite some time. But what can Mitt do other than what he is now doing? Can he run in 2012 and say “hey, you know a decade ago I was so and so. . . ?” No, he must keep up his Republican profile and street “cred” by supporting this leftist until the party realizes its HUGE mistake. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THAT JUST A FEW SHORT YEARS AGO McCAIN WAS GOING TO CAUCUS WITH THE DEMOCRATS? (and that was back when the Republicans were acting more like Ronald Reagan). Now, this SAME MAN is LEADING the Republican party! How could this happen without some fatal flaw in the primary system? And Romney is now caught in the vortex of this lousy system.
I just read on another political website about how Obama will have 300m at his disposal during the campaign while McCain will barely clear 85m. They note that McCain is not getting the bump in donations that Obama seems to enjoy currently. Why? Any McCain supporters care to tell me why Obama is trouncing McCain in financial support? Two reasons: 1) with the exception of a few insignificant early primary states, we hate McCain across the board; and 2) we know that he’ll lose–so why throw money at him?
I feel that I’m on the Titanic again. We’ve struck a berg and are sinking. I feel that I can stand anywhere on the sloping deck and pontificate about what the party should have done, but the truth is: the ship is sinking . . . the band is still playing . . . and the Republican passengers are still in denial.
I am not one to succumb to hopelessness, but this is certainly discouraging in the extreme.
June 8th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I’m sorry, I think we still have not learned our lesson from past pre-emptive strikes. For those of you with Christian backgrounds (or Jewish) for that matter, do we need to be reminded that the Lord has promised us he will protect us and fight our battles for us? But if not…we’ll all end up in a better place anyway. Perhaps some of you will not find it appropriate, but I’ll share it anyway because I believe Mr Kimball hit the nail on the head.
A very wise man named Spencer W. Kimball gave a great message about this back in 1977 around the Bicentennial Anniversary celebration of this nation’s birth:
“In spite of our delight in regarding ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had—in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people—a condition most repugnant to the Lord.
We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we align ourselves against the enemy instead of aligning ourselves with the kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:44–45.)
We forget that if we are righteous, the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us—and this is the special promise to the inhabitants of the land of the Americas (see 2 Ne. 1:7)—or he will fight our battles for us (Ex. 14:14; D&C 98:37, to name only two references of many). This he is able to do, for as he said at the time of his betrayal, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53.) We can imagine what fearsome soldiers they would be. King Jehoshaphat and his people were delivered by such a troop (see 2 Chr. 20), and when Elisha’s life was threatened, he comforted his servant by saying, “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kgs. 6:16). The Lord then opened the eyes of the servant, “And he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kgs. 6:17.)
Enoch, too, was a man of great faith who would not be distracted from his duties by the enemy: “And so great was the faith of Enoch, that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions were heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch.” (Moses 7:13.)
What are we to fear when the Lord is with us? Can we not take the Lord at his word and exercise a particle of faith in him? Our assignment is positive: to forsake the things of the world as goals in themselves; to desist from idolatry and press forward in faith; to carry the gospel to our enemies, that they might no longer be our enemies.
We must leave off the worship of modern-day idols and a reliance on the “arm of flesh,” for the Lord has said to all the world in our day, “I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.” (D&C 64:24.)
In a nutshell, we can’t expect to continue with “In God We Trust” if we are putting our trust in faithless leaders and their Gods of stone and steel. Are we going to be sucked in to attacking Iran the way we were sucked in to attacking Iraq?
June 9th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Jon:
In a nutshell - God also teaches us not to be stupid to the point of our own destruction.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
God didn’t exactly turn Hitler and Hirohito into pillars of salt for us. We don’t live in Old Testament times. God helps those who help themselves. We should love our enemy on a PERSONAL level, but turning the other cheek is in response to a slap or indignity. It doesn’t mean turning over a second child to a child murderer, for instance.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Jon, since you quoted from Kimball, I suppose you are a LDS, like me. If that is so, you would know that we should do everything we could to protect ourselves — like Captain Moroni. We also should be careful about thrist for blood, like Captain Mormon tried to resolve before his people was destroyed. Even Jesus himself said that we need to take upon ourselves swords to defend ourselves. Said he, “Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” (Luke 22:36, KJV). True, we had a people in Book of Mormon that won’t wield swords against their fellowmen. It is only because they have delighted in bloodshedding until the point when they learned the Gospel, and repented. They have swored never to shed blood of anyone ever again. Lord does provide a way for them to secure safety, behind those they once sworn to destroy. Their own children have grew up to be the greatest soliders ever — those stripling warriors of Helaman.
True, the situation related to Iraq was not as clear for many of us, whether it was “righteous” war or not. We only have the history to show us, and the data we had at that time. Saddam had shown us he was willing to march forth against other nations, like he tried with Iran, and successed with Kuwait. He would have moved on if it was not for us and our allies. He showed many signs that he would do it again, but on a greater scale of destruction. Every single intelligence, which has been proved to be incorrect, showed he was very aggressive in defeating other countries in the region. We did the best with what we knew, and sadly, we have learned since that we were mistaken.
Yes, I agree with you that we would be better off if we are more spiritual as a nation. For sure, we won’t be seeing attacks from the left side like we are now — MSM being silent on all successes in Iraq and so on. For sure, more of our good men and women would be willing to lead us, rather than those thieves like Kennedy, Pelios and Reid (yes, a LDS like you and I).
But, we as a nation have voted wicked people to the positions of leaderships. We will suffer because of it — for one, they are eroding our military might, and we will eventually arrive at point we could not defend ourselves.
We do need to defend ourselves, only after we acknowledge Lord’s hand in everything, and we have lost both.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
No BIGMO, God did not intervene, at least in such a dramatic fashion as the Old Testament days. Does that mean God does not protect us anymore? Not if we put our trust in the arm of flesh he won’t, and we have been pretty good at that over the years. I still believe (sure, call me naive) that God will fight our battles for us if we have our priorities straight.
Yes, SGS, I am very aware of Captain Moroni as he is one of my heroes. After all he did in defense of his family and nation, what did he do? He went home and retired from his role as military leader, rather than ride the coattails of his success into “bigger and better things” such as politics. What a guy! Did he ever invade another nation? Did the Nephites ever succeed in defeating the Gadianton robbers by attacking them in the mountains? Some (non LDS especially) may say “Well, that was then, this is now.” The BOM is loaded with political situations applicable to today and I think we ignore them at our own peril. I’m not here to Bible/BOM bash, but just to give another perspective. We all got carried away with 9/11 (media included) and took out our frustrations on a country that had nothing to do with the attack on our nation. If there was any nation to attack, it probably should have been Saudi Arabia since the majority of the hijackers came from there. But that’s still not a good enough reason. Sure, Saddam was a monster but there are monsters ruling other nations around the world. Can we afford to be the world police? Yes, we must defend U.S. soil, but we really stretch it when we invade other countries “preemptively” for our safety or convenience.
I am well aware that we have to do everything we need to do to defend ourselves. Capt. Moroni used some brilliant tactics and defenses. But he was always quick to stop the fighting when it looked like the enemy was weakened. He was a great warrior and leader but first and foremost, he was a man of God.
Yes, absolutely, we need to defend ourselves. But I don’t believe that includes invading other countries and pre-emptive bombing or nukes. Sure, Hiroshima and Nagasaki probably stopped a prolonged war with the Japanese only because they had nothing to match the atom bomb. Unfortunately, the playing field is leveling out. If Israel wants to take out plants in Iran, that’s their choice.
Just my opinion of course, but I see the problem is not Iran, or North Korea, or Russia, or whoever. The enemy is quickly becoming ourselves: this nation is rapidly becoming a Godless one. One that will no longer enjoy God’s providence if we continue to stay the course. That’s why it was so refreshing to have Mitt Romney in the presidential race. No, the guy is not perfect or the messiah (as some are proclaiming Obama to be!) but he is a man who recognizes that the foundation of this nation was one built by God fearing men and that the constitution was truly inspired.