Saturday, February 21, 2009

What does losing really mean?

The Church of Our Dear Lady in Dendermonde, Flanders (Belgium) features a late 17th century pulpit, sculpted in wood by Mattheus van Beveren, upheld by angels who are treading underfoot the false prophet Mohammed, who is leaning on the Al-Koran.

A very interesting read
Dr. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retired wrote:
Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:
1. When did the threat to us start? Many will say September 11, 2001.

The answer as far as the United State is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us:
* Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
* Beirut, Lebanon Embassy 1983;
* Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
* Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
* First New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
* Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996;
* Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998;
* Dares Salaam, Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
* Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000;
* New York World Trade Center 2001;
* Pentagon 2001.
(Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide).

2. Why were we attacked?Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms.
The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2.
We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.

3. Who were the attackers? In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.

4. What is the Muslim population of the World? 25%.

5. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful? Hopefully, but that is really not material.
There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests). (see http://www.nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm )

Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities.

Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others.Same with the Muslim terrorists.

They focus the world on the US, but kill all in their way -- their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else. The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us "infidels."

I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?

6. So who are we at war with?
There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal.

There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.

So with that background, now to the two major questions:

1. Can we lose this war?

2. What does losing really mean?

If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions.We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?

It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get.

What losing really means is:

We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet.

If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us, over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly, for terrorist to attack us, until we were neutered and submissive to them.

We would of course have no future support from other nations, for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see, we are impotent and cannot help them.

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us.

However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast!

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us, if they were threatened by the Muslims.

If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else?

The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost.

We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning.

And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war?

Again, the answer is simple.

We can lose the war by "imploding." That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose, and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort if we are united, there is no way that we can lose.

If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win!

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation.

President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling.

Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously?

This is war!

For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently.

And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII, and immediately restored them after the victory and in fact added many more since then.

Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him?No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness, and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war.

None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.

Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means.

Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause.

Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war, perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying.

We have recently had an issue, involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our military police. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.

And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type of enemy fighters, who recently were burning Americans, and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq.

And still more recently, the same type of enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of American prisoners they held.

Compare this with some of our press and politicians, who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the "humiliating" of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them.

Can this be for real?

The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can.

To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world.

Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife. Again I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal.

It simply means that they are absolutely oblivious to the magnitude, of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us, for many years.Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels!

That translates into ALL non-Muslims -- not just in the United State, but throughout the world.

We are the last bastion of defense.

We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant.' That charge is valid in at least one respect.

We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world!

We can't!

If we don't recognize this, our nation as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the world will survive if we are defeated.

And finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the world.

This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire .
If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less.

They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little, on the established French traditions.

The French will be fighting among themselves, over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve.

Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force.

Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece. And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.

They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses.

Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the "peaceful Muslims"?I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above.

If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. I hope now after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country.

It is your future we are talking about!

Do whatever you can to preserve it.

After reading the above, we all must do this not only for ourselves, but our children, our grandchildren, our country and the world

6 comments:

christian soldier said...

Awesome sculpture!!!
Insight-filled post....
C-CS

Anonymous said...

The threat to the US started well before 1979. . .Recall the words "from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli". Our Nation's Marine Corp. was birthed to respond to the threat posed by the Barbary pirates.
Suggested reading:
Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror 1801–1805, by Joseph Wheelan (2003)

To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines, by A. B. C. Whipple (1991, republished 2001)


Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation, by Joshua E. London (2005)

Linda Colley’s excellent book Captives, which shows the reaction of the English and American publics to a slave trade of which they were victims rather than perpetrators.

How many know that perhaps 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved in Islamic North Africa between 1530 and 1780? We dimly recall that Miguel de Cervantes was briefly in the galleys. But what of the people of the town of Baltimore in Ireland, all carried off by “corsair” raiders in a single night?
Jefferson, along with John Adams met with Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785. Inquiring by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping, enslaving both crews and passengers, America’s two foremost envoys were informed that “it was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”


Clearly the beginnings of this clash with the United States began much further back in history.

Anonymous said...

By the way, if that sculpture were to be mass produced, it would become a best selling item.

kevin said...

The sculpture is question is under police protection from Islamic threats.

http://amboytimes.typepad.com/the_amboy_times/2008/05/belgian-church.html

Anonymous said...

Great work Shiva. This post was great. Keep it up.

JaneDoeThreads said...

The Angels who are holding the Ark of the Covenant, [1 Samuel 3 & 4]...

can we lose this war?

Yes, in more ways than one, sad to say. Jeremiah 10:11-25 [you can look up and read]

and

many may not Think this applies to us today, but, it does...[when we seek Him its amazing what He shows us, when we offer not sacrifices or offerings but a broken/contrite heart that is even by His Grace, He really does change the backslidden, anyway--while below is from the Old Testament, it can also be perceived from a secular view as well, about not just how our nation has gone, but our society as a whole, what this nation Used to represent and by that I mean, lived by, and what it has become today, and not just in the area of economics or religion, etc or even in Constitutional Laws.]

Jeremiah 22:5 [to the Kings/Government, and remember, WE the People are the Government--]

"This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or Violence to the alien [immigrant/migrant], the Fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place."

and yet another Warning, that, fellow soldiers, I think it would be Wise, to take heed to,

Jeremiah 23-26 [its too long, just look it up and read]

To America, Ezekiel 28:1-10

"The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, "This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

"In the pride of your heart you say, "I am a god
in the heart of the seas."

But you are a man and not a god, though you Think you are as wise as a god.
Are you wiser than Daniel.? Is no secret hidden from you? By your wisdom and understanding you have Gained Wealth for Yourself and Amassed Gold and Silver in your treasures.
By your great skill in Trading you have increased your wealth, and Because of your Wealth your Heart HAS GROWN PROUD.

"Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

"'Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the Most Ruthless of Nations; they will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom and pierce your shining splendor. They will bring you down to the pit and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas. Will you then say,

"I am a god," in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a man,

not a god, in the hands of those who slay you. You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners.

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.'"

But it doesn't end there, there is more,

Joel 2:12-14

"Even now, declares the LORD, return to ME with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.

Rend your heart and not your garments, Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in Love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing--grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

_______________

There is so much WISDOM in the above passages, even if, for the secular, there is so much WISDOM,

if, IF there is to be an Army of Maccubees, there Must be,

changes in the hearts of men and women.

I find it really interesting that in the Lord of the Rings, [Tolkien], that the last battle, if you look at depictions of the battles between the Maccubees and the Syrians [166 B.C.?], they are identical,

could Tolkien used these battles as symbols of times to come? Maybe? [I believe both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, both were very keen on the ties between history and the future, both having intimate knowledge of living/or fighting in times of horrid war and living in dark times of tyrants]

I realize many will simply scoff at all this as nonsense,

and they are free to do so. But, the statue is, the angels with the Ark of the Covenant, after all, or as in this statue the Pulpit which yes, is symbolic of God's Presence among His people,

you can take both symbols,

and as even C.S. Lewis wrote in Narnia,

when Lucy (?) or Susan says, 'remember, we didn't defeat the White Witch alone', not without Azlan... the White Witch that can be symbolic of so many things from evil, fascism to even joining forces with Stalin to defeat Hitler, which, hey,

proved to be true did it not????? The thorn in our side for How long and even still? [if one hasn't read the books, including last chapter, "The Last Battle", I strongly suggest one does AND also read Lewis's other works/and bio, so much bad commentary online in regards]

My point is, the symbols are Everywhere as is the Writing on the Wall,

and many know, maybe they don't want to see but they know,

It isn't enough that we just stand against Islam or oppose Islam or even the Moslems,

we must stand against all the forces as well as

change what we have become and/or return

to what we know is right.

For me I will say, return to God,

to many that don't believe in God, I would ask that they do not close their hearts but seek,

[out of respect here etc] but to seek, what we once held dear in this nation and it wasn't just the love of property or consumption,

we have fallen so much in this nation, so, so much. Our moral fabric is simply

gone.

What standards to we hold dear, not just in word, but in our lives?

We fight evil yet we hold onto it too,

that simply cannot be, not in light of the enemy we are facing, and will face.

I believe strongly many of you here know this, or you wouldn't BE HERE,

the line is being drawn in our world today, not just in opposition to Islam but in opposition to Evil,

all kinds of evil that we have become complacent, apathetic And indifferent to OR we have rationalized, even embraced.

Taking their gods and their idols, its the same thing...

regardless of what your beliefs are, we are here in agreement as to what is right and just and what is to be fought against,

the war against not just humanity but human dignity.

I, like many others see this from a spiritual perspective as well as the secular, therefore it is very important that we be very honest,

with ourselves, with the nation[as the People] and yes,

with God.

This, this and other things is what I've been seeing, not by my own insight or wisdom, not even, not even a grain of,

but by change of heart and seeking God's face,

more about myself I will say, but in the process,

so much more, on such a larger scale, and I dare to risk and say so here,

because if we are to see an Army of the LORD such as was in the days of the Crusades,

we must first,

Submit to the LORD,

for we cannot

fight

the white witch alone, not without His blessing and protection, without Him,

we can do nothing. And yes, we will lose more than just

this

war.

Peace.