Which religion allows you to smite someone just because you think he might want to smite you? And ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ doesn’t leave much room for bombing girls’ schools
It's interesting how people pick and choose passages in the Bible to back their position. Perhaps these so called Christians should focus on passages such as Matthew 5: 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven".
Maybe it's s a new form of tough love. Bomb the hell out of them to show your love!
And there is considerable confusion about Bible passages that apply to individuals but not to nations. Many times I have seen the Bible quoted where the verse or verses apply to individuals as if it applied to nations. A good example is Romans 12 which applies to individuals and not governments. Read Romans 13 for instruction on God’s mandate for government.
Things appear to be working in our favor in Venezuela since the change. The new Supreme Leader got a short time to get on board or he will probably become a target if he isn't already.
Bill must have forgot about Tom's Oil Picks and the Trade of the Decade. Go back to connecting your dots and stay out of religion.
The investment case for oil and oil services companies isn't based on war, it structural under investment over decades that will have to unwind unless a miracle energy source is found.
War is harmful to mean reversion in this case by creating distortions through yet more government intervention.
I am listening to a Barbara Tuchman book about one century in the Middle Ages.
Anyone that thinks the origins of Western Civilization are enlightened…I have a bridge in Brooklyn.
These were times when religion, the pope, was a secular power. He raised armies and slaughtered.
I often wonder, where was God during all this consistent slaughter. Where was he during WW1, WW2 when 70 million died.
The Catholic Church reached people through a parish system, a system of indoctrination, man’s religion. It still exists today and does not preach Christ. The sole purpose seems to be raise money and perpetuate itself. One man rules it, and they say they control the keys of heaven.
I was raised by this system and when I found myself desperate, it did me no good. I experienced Christ, had a new foundation.
I still do not know what religion is, man’s creation or the term Church. I only know Christ lives, is God, came to earth as man, with a message of hope and salvation, the Key to the Kingdom of God, the peace and happiness beyond the understanding of the world.
I don’t go to church and have nothing to do with religions but live from by “The Word,” Christ. I have the same zeal for the Word as a Conquistador for gold.
"where was God during all this consistent slaughter. Where was he during WW1, WW2 when 70 million died."
I've often wondered the same thing. We've killed that many, and likely more, via legalized "right to privacy" abortion, and yet, the slaughter continues. At least I'm allowed to protest the killing in a war; I'm NOT allowed, at least in some jurisdictions, to protest the slaughter of innocents in the womb. It has often made me question why I should care at all about America, except the America I once knew didn't codify, much less tolerate such depravity. Best always. PM
According to locals, the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab was a former military facility converted into an all-girls elementary school.
At the time of the airstrikes, the school was located close to the Sayyid al-Shuhada military complex which includes the headquarters of the Asif Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy.
-
What kind of government intentionally adjoins girl's schools next to military installations?
bill is getting elderly and dementia is setting in if he was not in a state of dementia he would know that is the irgc that likes to target schools and innocent people maybe he just missed how many peaceful protesters they just mowed down with the machine guns or maybe he thought that was trump that did that
It probably doesn't matter much to those most involved if it was intentional or accidental. I tend to think of it as similar to the "felony murder rule" here is the U.S.
From AI
"The felony murder rule allows for a first-degree murder charge if a death occurs during the commission of an "inherently dangerous" felony (e.g., arson, robbery, burglary), even if the death was accidental or caused by a third party. It removes the requirement to prove intent to kill, focusing solely on the participant's involvement in the underlying crime."
Empires always expect the war to happen where it’s convenient for them.
At Stirling Bridge, the English expected a proper battlefield. Wallace waited until half their army was trapped on a narrow bridge and destroyed them.
In the American War of Independence, British troops expected orderly European warfare. Instead they got militias firing from behind trees and melting back into towns.
And in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most advanced military on Earth fought enemies who survived precisely by actually being civilians most of the time.
The weaker side doesn’t follow the stronger side’s rulebook. It can’t afford to.
Blaming the enemy for putting civilians “too close to the target” is a convenient moral escape hatch for the side choosing to drop the bombs.
If your cause is moral enough to justify dropping the bomb, it should also be moral enough to own where it lands.
If you weren't so angry you might read what I actually wrote rather than what you want to be angry about.
My point is simple: the enemy will do whatever they can to win, including putting civilians in the way. Not massing their troops in a convenient place to be bombed isn’t cowardice, it’s pragmatism. Weaker sides have always fought like that.
Wallace didn’t line his men up in a nice open field for the English cavalry at Stirling Bridge either. He played by local rules, and won, as did the Americans in the War of Independemce and the Afghans more recently
In conflicts where one side is overwhelmingly stronger, there are two ways to win:
Brutal dominance – make the cost so unbearable the enemy collapses.
Legitimacy / moral superiority – convince the population they’re better off with you.
The US today flip flops between brutal dominance from the air wrapped in the language of moral superiority about democracy.
History’s lesson is that if you try to do both, you don’t end the resistance.
Well Billy, if there's one thing you've mastered, it's quoting out of context, as laced throughout today's missive. Hey, whatever floats your boat, huh Billy?
"But which religion allows you to smite someone just because you think he might want to smite you?" Bill in today's missive
I guess our dear editor's head was in the sand, or somewhere else, when the Iranians were openly and brazenly chanting "Death to America!" (more than once). I don't know, where I come from that qualifies as more than "thinking" they wanted to smite us.
I got to hand to ol' Bill today. He is spot-on and thoroughly enjoy him rubbing MAGAs and zionist the wrong way. And, it is quite amazin' how you see almost no information or pictures out of Israel on Tel Aviv or Haifa. Wonder why? Must be their "Dome" defense is working so well. And, no news about the underground bunker being clobbered. Plus Trump's Grand Strategy is - well - is there one? Must be because doesn't God talk directly to him? America is blessed to have politicians (I meant real estate investors) running our country like Trump, Graham, and Cruz. They absolutely know whatever is best for Israel is best for us peons here in America too. After all, Trump is all in on America First!
I'm sorry, Mr. Graham aside, but when your enemy makes his religion also his politics, it is, by definition, a religious war. It has been since the days of the Prophet (peace be upon Him, please), and it is now. It's sad that such is the case, but acting as if religion is not at least a component in this particular campaign and in our overall political-cultural struggle ongoing is delusional. If it makes one side feel better about it to claim "Gott mit uns", so be it. It doesn't change the arrangement, which is, as von Clausewitz said, the continuance of politics by other means. Best always. PM
It's not just the Iranians who mix religion and politics. Nentanyu always mentions the Amaleks whom were exterminated by the Israelites according to their Bible. Even though their is no historical or archeological evidence that that tribe ever existed. Netanyahou and his ilk compare other people to the Amaleks to justify their actions. In that bookof moral certitude King Saul was punished by god for failing to complete the genocide because he spared their king and some animals.
I'm sorry; I did not mean to imply that Iran is exclusive in its application of religion as politics. I renounce the implication and apologize that I had not given the disclaimer upfront. My premise still stands: it's sadly, regrettably, and irrevocably a religious war, because one side has made it so. Despite my enjoying Mr. Graham's utterances with extreme caution, he is right on this one. Dead-nuts right, as they say out in the country ("country" in the sense of "rural area") where I live. Best always. PM
P.S. Your choice of word "mixing" is curious. Iran doesn't "mix" religion and politics.
Their religion IS their politics. No mixing at all, because to them, it's one and the same. PM
Same thing goes in Israel. They believe an old book authorizes them to expand their kingdom. One Israeli minister recently remarked that after Iran Turkey is next. Our best bet would to have listened to good ol' George Washington and avoid foreign entanglements. China is spending money on infrastructure while we're spending it on war. You mention Lindsey Graham saying that he's 100% with Israel. Washington and the boys probably would have had him imprisoned as a traitor.
I can't help what Israel does, thinks, or believes, or what they say is "next". My comment applied to Graham's remark that our current war with Iran is a religious war. I think he is correct.
Please, refrain from recharacterizing what I wrote. I said that Graham was 100% correct in his assessment that the current conflict between the US and Iran is a "religious war". I didn't say, anywhere, that Graham is 100% with Israel. OK? Many thanks. Best always. PM
Sorry, but it wasn't what you said about Graham, it's the fact that no member our government should be 100% with any country except the US. But personally I see Graham as a blood thirsty my war monger. But I would like to know that if this is a religious war which religions are fighting and what happened to the separation of church and state? I find it ironic that any Christian wants to fight a religious war when Jesus talked about loving your enemies and he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.
Surely, you must agree that we have combatants or there would not be a war. One combatant, in this case Iran, uses religion as the basis for their politics. I think it's a spurious religion, but that is beside the point. They use religious reasons for what they do in their governance and politics. Therefore, I contend that the war is "religious", by definition, because one of the combatants is religious. It doesn't matter whether the other combatants are religious or not; we already have religion as an issue in the war. This is a religious war, because Iran makes it religious. We can chose to ignore that aspect of it, but that doesn't make it go away. Also, I can't help that Graham got something right, for once. Best always. PM
The Koran not only allows but actually commands the taxation and killing of all who are “non-believers”. Doesn’t require smiting by the neighbor. Just their existence is sufficient.
I've read five books on Islam and they ALL tell their people to kill the non believers. No exceptions. These books were co-authored by Muslims and English writers. Packed with references. Events from 632 AD to around 2008. There is no misunderstanding of the goal of Islam, eliminate non believers.
I do accept the bible as God word to his people. I also accept it is difficult at times to understand what it means. At least the bible doesn't command us to kill all no believers.
My grandfather told me we should always "Do unto others as they do unto you but do it first." I'm not sure what that meant but I am sure it fits into this conversation somewhere.
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” Abraham Lincoln said that in a far graver hour than ours—and it bears repeating today, because the temptation to claim divine sanction has never been stronger, nor more dangerous.
Which religion allows you to strike first because you think someone might strike you back? Fourteen centuries of history answer with a roar. Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West lays it bare—cities sacked, kingdoms toppled, campaigns waged under the banner of faith. These are not tales. These are not abstractions. This is blood, fire, and iron. And we dare ignore it at our peril.
Yet here we are, pretending all sides are equally innocent. Bombing girls’ schools? Horrific, unthinkable. But ignoring patterns of expansion, pretending history is a neutral observer? That is a sin of blindness. Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam reminds us that when faith met force, courage and discipline, forged in fire, held the line. Not speeches. Not self-declared prophets. Not those who claim whispers from heaven as a license to kill.
Look to Two Swords of Christ: Five Centuries of War Between Islam and Warrior Monks of Christendom. Monks, knights, clergy, women, laymen—they rose because reality demanded it. Because the innocent begged for protection. Because justice itself trembled under the march of swords. They did not act for glory. They acted because evil does not wait. It does not pause. It does not negotiate. And neither can we.
God blesses all families of the earth. Iranians. Israelis. Americans. All. But blessing does not excuse blindness. Love thy neighbor does not excuse ignoring history. Moral law is not optional. Historical clarity is not a suggestion. They are the slender reeds on which civilizations rest, and one false step snaps them. One misread threat, one act of naïve righteousness—and the world burns.
So before anyone claims God is “on their side,” remember Lincoln. It is not whose missiles fly fastest, whose rhetoric dazzles, or whose prayers echo loudest. The question is whether we ourselves are on God’s side. Standing in truth. Grounded in humility. Armed with moral clarity. Acting rightly when the world demands lies.
History does not lie. Scripture does not bend. Moral law does not wink. Evil will not wait. The world is not naïve. Neither should we be.
Please stop. You’re wasting my time with your pontificating. Stick to the financial ramifications of unfolding events. Your recent columns aren’t helpful; they’re annoying. Stick to your knitting, or get a replacement. Stephen West
Let's not ignore some salient facts. It is not and never has been, USA government policy to target civilians. Perhaps some people don't know this, so I will refrain from calling them liars. Perhaps they are simply ignorant.
My father was a WWII Bombardier. He gave up a full ride to Syracuse University after his freshman year in 1943, in order to enlist in the Army Air Corp. Was deployed in June 1944 in Lecce, Italy where the Americans took over a Nazi Air Base. He flew 24 missions before being shot down in December 1944. Hospitalized, with injuries he carried through life until his death in 2011.
The facts is that these USA Heavy Bomber units sustained the highest casualties (~30%) of any armed service branch in that war - ally or axis. Why? Because they directed their war against Nazi factories, railways and other industrial targets only. They avoided civilian casualties whenever possible. This policy required them to fly only in daylight hours and low enough to positively identify their targets. Thus, avoiding as much as humanly possible, collateral civilian casualties on the ground. This policy on the part of American fighting forces hasn't changed.
I am now reminded of a colleague of mine whose parents were Ukrainians, conscripted to work in an underground Nazi armament factory in Dresden. He took a position that the allies murdered civilians in the fires that engulfed Dresden. In this exchange, he was attempting to infer that my father was somehow responsible. Talk about "Chutzpah". His saintly parents and himself, dedicated antisemites, his parents, working for the Nazi's were, in his mind, the victims of America.
Never mind that my Dad was in the 15th AAC and never mind that, because of the aforementioned USA policy in avoiding casualties the American 8th AAC out of England only came into the fray on the third day of that campaign, because the rainy conditions didn't allow for the visibility needed by the Americans to hit their industrial targets on the outskirts of Dresden.
Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, when encountering the Nazi death camps insisted on a full photographic account be made of what the Americans found. He was quoted as saying that "someday, some bastard will deny that this ever happened". He was wise. We see this denial today in the Hamas cheerleaders mimicking Islamist denials - not only of the Holocaust, but of events as recently as October 7, 2024.
Here, Bill has insinuated that "Trumps" American Air Force had targeted a Girls School. I suppose when men better that yourself, with ethics better than your own, are presented to you. one can either deny, deflect or acknowledge the truth.
Bill, now, has sunk in my estimation. He's either totally ignorant of the truth or he can't handle the truth. Either way... He owes our fighting forces and their CIC an apology and I now truly doubt that he or his fellow "Progressive" critics, suffering their TDS tantrums, are even up to it.
It's interesting how people pick and choose passages in the Bible to back their position. Perhaps these so called Christians should focus on passages such as Matthew 5: 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven".
Maybe it's s a new form of tough love. Bomb the hell out of them to show your love!
And there is considerable confusion about Bible passages that apply to individuals but not to nations. Many times I have seen the Bible quoted where the verse or verses apply to individuals as if it applied to nations. A good example is Romans 12 which applies to individuals and not governments. Read Romans 13 for instruction on God’s mandate for government.
Things appear to be working in our favor in Venezuela since the change. The new Supreme Leader got a short time to get on board or he will probably become a target if he isn't already.
Bill must have forgot about Tom's Oil Picks and the Trade of the Decade. Go back to connecting your dots and stay out of religion.
The investment case for oil and oil services companies isn't based on war, it structural under investment over decades that will have to unwind unless a miracle energy source is found.
War is harmful to mean reversion in this case by creating distortions through yet more government intervention.
I am listening to a Barbara Tuchman book about one century in the Middle Ages.
Anyone that thinks the origins of Western Civilization are enlightened…I have a bridge in Brooklyn.
These were times when religion, the pope, was a secular power. He raised armies and slaughtered.
I often wonder, where was God during all this consistent slaughter. Where was he during WW1, WW2 when 70 million died.
The Catholic Church reached people through a parish system, a system of indoctrination, man’s religion. It still exists today and does not preach Christ. The sole purpose seems to be raise money and perpetuate itself. One man rules it, and they say they control the keys of heaven.
I was raised by this system and when I found myself desperate, it did me no good. I experienced Christ, had a new foundation.
I still do not know what religion is, man’s creation or the term Church. I only know Christ lives, is God, came to earth as man, with a message of hope and salvation, the Key to the Kingdom of God, the peace and happiness beyond the understanding of the world.
I don’t go to church and have nothing to do with religions but live from by “The Word,” Christ. I have the same zeal for the Word as a Conquistador for gold.
It is what I write about in substack.
"where was God during all this consistent slaughter. Where was he during WW1, WW2 when 70 million died."
I've often wondered the same thing. We've killed that many, and likely more, via legalized "right to privacy" abortion, and yet, the slaughter continues. At least I'm allowed to protest the killing in a war; I'm NOT allowed, at least in some jurisdictions, to protest the slaughter of innocents in the womb. It has often made me question why I should care at all about America, except the America I once knew didn't codify, much less tolerate such depravity. Best always. PM
According to locals, the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab was a former military facility converted into an all-girls elementary school.
At the time of the airstrikes, the school was located close to the Sayyid al-Shuhada military complex which includes the headquarters of the Asif Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy.
-
What kind of government intentionally adjoins girl's schools next to military installations?
And ridiculous to imply that a girl's school was targeted. They would not waste a bomb.
bill is getting elderly and dementia is setting in if he was not in a state of dementia he would know that is the irgc that likes to target schools and innocent people maybe he just missed how many peaceful protesters they just mowed down with the machine guns or maybe he thought that was trump that did that
It probably doesn't matter much to those most involved if it was intentional or accidental. I tend to think of it as similar to the "felony murder rule" here is the U.S.
From AI
"The felony murder rule allows for a first-degree murder charge if a death occurs during the commission of an "inherently dangerous" felony (e.g., arson, robbery, burglary), even if the death was accidental or caused by a third party. It removes the requirement to prove intent to kill, focusing solely on the participant's involvement in the underlying crime."
Empires always expect the war to happen where it’s convenient for them.
At Stirling Bridge, the English expected a proper battlefield. Wallace waited until half their army was trapped on a narrow bridge and destroyed them.
In the American War of Independence, British troops expected orderly European warfare. Instead they got militias firing from behind trees and melting back into towns.
And in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most advanced military on Earth fought enemies who survived precisely by actually being civilians most of the time.
The weaker side doesn’t follow the stronger side’s rulebook. It can’t afford to.
Blaming the enemy for putting civilians “too close to the target” is a convenient moral escape hatch for the side choosing to drop the bombs.
If your cause is moral enough to justify dropping the bomb, it should also be moral enough to own where it lands.
According to you, the enemy only has to surround themselves with children and they win.
Killing for defense is not an immoral act.
Intentionally placing innocence in harm's way is...
If you weren't so angry you might read what I actually wrote rather than what you want to be angry about.
My point is simple: the enemy will do whatever they can to win, including putting civilians in the way. Not massing their troops in a convenient place to be bombed isn’t cowardice, it’s pragmatism. Weaker sides have always fought like that.
Wallace didn’t line his men up in a nice open field for the English cavalry at Stirling Bridge either. He played by local rules, and won, as did the Americans in the War of Independemce and the Afghans more recently
In conflicts where one side is overwhelmingly stronger, there are two ways to win:
Brutal dominance – make the cost so unbearable the enemy collapses.
Legitimacy / moral superiority – convince the population they’re better off with you.
The US today flip flops between brutal dominance from the air wrapped in the language of moral superiority about democracy.
History’s lesson is that if you try to do both, you don’t end the resistance.
You create the next generation of it.
I'm not angry, I am laughing...
From your posting:
"My point is simple: the enemy will do whatever they can to win,"
"If your cause is moral enough to justify dropping the bomb, it should also be moral enough to own where it lands."
Got it...
Well Billy, if there's one thing you've mastered, it's quoting out of context, as laced throughout today's missive. Hey, whatever floats your boat, huh Billy?
"But which religion allows you to smite someone just because you think he might want to smite you?" Bill in today's missive
I guess our dear editor's head was in the sand, or somewhere else, when the Iranians were openly and brazenly chanting "Death to America!" (more than once). I don't know, where I come from that qualifies as more than "thinking" they wanted to smite us.
Yes, somewhere else. Up his arse.
I got to hand to ol' Bill today. He is spot-on and thoroughly enjoy him rubbing MAGAs and zionist the wrong way. And, it is quite amazin' how you see almost no information or pictures out of Israel on Tel Aviv or Haifa. Wonder why? Must be their "Dome" defense is working so well. And, no news about the underground bunker being clobbered. Plus Trump's Grand Strategy is - well - is there one? Must be because doesn't God talk directly to him? America is blessed to have politicians (I meant real estate investors) running our country like Trump, Graham, and Cruz. They absolutely know whatever is best for Israel is best for us peons here in America too. After all, Trump is all in on America First!
...because Minneapolis is such a safe place for Christians I suppose.
Right !!!!!!!
I'm sorry, Mr. Graham aside, but when your enemy makes his religion also his politics, it is, by definition, a religious war. It has been since the days of the Prophet (peace be upon Him, please), and it is now. It's sad that such is the case, but acting as if religion is not at least a component in this particular campaign and in our overall political-cultural struggle ongoing is delusional. If it makes one side feel better about it to claim "Gott mit uns", so be it. It doesn't change the arrangement, which is, as von Clausewitz said, the continuance of politics by other means. Best always. PM
It's not just the Iranians who mix religion and politics. Nentanyu always mentions the Amaleks whom were exterminated by the Israelites according to their Bible. Even though their is no historical or archeological evidence that that tribe ever existed. Netanyahou and his ilk compare other people to the Amaleks to justify their actions. In that bookof moral certitude King Saul was punished by god for failing to complete the genocide because he spared their king and some animals.
I'm sorry; I did not mean to imply that Iran is exclusive in its application of religion as politics. I renounce the implication and apologize that I had not given the disclaimer upfront. My premise still stands: it's sadly, regrettably, and irrevocably a religious war, because one side has made it so. Despite my enjoying Mr. Graham's utterances with extreme caution, he is right on this one. Dead-nuts right, as they say out in the country ("country" in the sense of "rural area") where I live. Best always. PM
P.S. Your choice of word "mixing" is curious. Iran doesn't "mix" religion and politics.
Their religion IS their politics. No mixing at all, because to them, it's one and the same. PM
Same thing goes in Israel. They believe an old book authorizes them to expand their kingdom. One Israeli minister recently remarked that after Iran Turkey is next. Our best bet would to have listened to good ol' George Washington and avoid foreign entanglements. China is spending money on infrastructure while we're spending it on war. You mention Lindsey Graham saying that he's 100% with Israel. Washington and the boys probably would have had him imprisoned as a traitor.
I can't help what Israel does, thinks, or believes, or what they say is "next". My comment applied to Graham's remark that our current war with Iran is a religious war. I think he is correct.
Please, refrain from recharacterizing what I wrote. I said that Graham was 100% correct in his assessment that the current conflict between the US and Iran is a "religious war". I didn't say, anywhere, that Graham is 100% with Israel. OK? Many thanks. Best always. PM
Sorry, but it wasn't what you said about Graham, it's the fact that no member our government should be 100% with any country except the US. But personally I see Graham as a blood thirsty my war monger. But I would like to know that if this is a religious war which religions are fighting and what happened to the separation of church and state? I find it ironic that any Christian wants to fight a religious war when Jesus talked about loving your enemies and he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.
Surely, you must agree that we have combatants or there would not be a war. One combatant, in this case Iran, uses religion as the basis for their politics. I think it's a spurious religion, but that is beside the point. They use religious reasons for what they do in their governance and politics. Therefore, I contend that the war is "religious", by definition, because one of the combatants is religious. It doesn't matter whether the other combatants are religious or not; we already have religion as an issue in the war. This is a religious war, because Iran makes it religious. We can chose to ignore that aspect of it, but that doesn't make it go away. Also, I can't help that Graham got something right, for once. Best always. PM
The Koran not only allows but actually commands the taxation and killing of all who are “non-believers”. Doesn’t require smiting by the neighbor. Just their existence is sufficient.
I've read five books on Islam and they ALL tell their people to kill the non believers. No exceptions. These books were co-authored by Muslims and English writers. Packed with references. Events from 632 AD to around 2008. There is no misunderstanding of the goal of Islam, eliminate non believers.
I do accept the bible as God word to his people. I also accept it is difficult at times to understand what it means. At least the bible doesn't command us to kill all no believers.
Jim Marshall
Some days I'm too busy to stop and read BPR. Then when I do, I kind of feel like I haven't missed anything.
That's the nature of soap opera. And it's by design. Best always. PM
And you probably feel you need to take a shower.
My grandfather told me we should always "Do unto others as they do unto you but do it first." I'm not sure what that meant but I am sure it fits into this conversation somewhere.
Mr. Bonner,
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” Abraham Lincoln said that in a far graver hour than ours—and it bears repeating today, because the temptation to claim divine sanction has never been stronger, nor more dangerous.
Which religion allows you to strike first because you think someone might strike you back? Fourteen centuries of history answer with a roar. Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West lays it bare—cities sacked, kingdoms toppled, campaigns waged under the banner of faith. These are not tales. These are not abstractions. This is blood, fire, and iron. And we dare ignore it at our peril.
Yet here we are, pretending all sides are equally innocent. Bombing girls’ schools? Horrific, unthinkable. But ignoring patterns of expansion, pretending history is a neutral observer? That is a sin of blindness. Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam reminds us that when faith met force, courage and discipline, forged in fire, held the line. Not speeches. Not self-declared prophets. Not those who claim whispers from heaven as a license to kill.
Look to Two Swords of Christ: Five Centuries of War Between Islam and Warrior Monks of Christendom. Monks, knights, clergy, women, laymen—they rose because reality demanded it. Because the innocent begged for protection. Because justice itself trembled under the march of swords. They did not act for glory. They acted because evil does not wait. It does not pause. It does not negotiate. And neither can we.
God blesses all families of the earth. Iranians. Israelis. Americans. All. But blessing does not excuse blindness. Love thy neighbor does not excuse ignoring history. Moral law is not optional. Historical clarity is not a suggestion. They are the slender reeds on which civilizations rest, and one false step snaps them. One misread threat, one act of naïve righteousness—and the world burns.
So before anyone claims God is “on their side,” remember Lincoln. It is not whose missiles fly fastest, whose rhetoric dazzles, or whose prayers echo loudest. The question is whether we ourselves are on God’s side. Standing in truth. Grounded in humility. Armed with moral clarity. Acting rightly when the world demands lies.
History does not lie. Scripture does not bend. Moral law does not wink. Evil will not wait. The world is not naïve. Neither should we be.
Yours, discernment, and witness,
Jack Chadwell
Please stop. You’re wasting my time with your pontificating. Stick to the financial ramifications of unfolding events. Your recent columns aren’t helpful; they’re annoying. Stick to your knitting, or get a replacement. Stephen West
Bill you mentioned it yourself this morning. I will bless those who bless you and curse those (Iran) that curse you. Seems to me to be from God.
Let's not ignore some salient facts. It is not and never has been, USA government policy to target civilians. Perhaps some people don't know this, so I will refrain from calling them liars. Perhaps they are simply ignorant.
My father was a WWII Bombardier. He gave up a full ride to Syracuse University after his freshman year in 1943, in order to enlist in the Army Air Corp. Was deployed in June 1944 in Lecce, Italy where the Americans took over a Nazi Air Base. He flew 24 missions before being shot down in December 1944. Hospitalized, with injuries he carried through life until his death in 2011.
The facts is that these USA Heavy Bomber units sustained the highest casualties (~30%) of any armed service branch in that war - ally or axis. Why? Because they directed their war against Nazi factories, railways and other industrial targets only. They avoided civilian casualties whenever possible. This policy required them to fly only in daylight hours and low enough to positively identify their targets. Thus, avoiding as much as humanly possible, collateral civilian casualties on the ground. This policy on the part of American fighting forces hasn't changed.
I am now reminded of a colleague of mine whose parents were Ukrainians, conscripted to work in an underground Nazi armament factory in Dresden. He took a position that the allies murdered civilians in the fires that engulfed Dresden. In this exchange, he was attempting to infer that my father was somehow responsible. Talk about "Chutzpah". His saintly parents and himself, dedicated antisemites, his parents, working for the Nazi's were, in his mind, the victims of America.
Never mind that my Dad was in the 15th AAC and never mind that, because of the aforementioned USA policy in avoiding casualties the American 8th AAC out of England only came into the fray on the third day of that campaign, because the rainy conditions didn't allow for the visibility needed by the Americans to hit their industrial targets on the outskirts of Dresden.
Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, when encountering the Nazi death camps insisted on a full photographic account be made of what the Americans found. He was quoted as saying that "someday, some bastard will deny that this ever happened". He was wise. We see this denial today in the Hamas cheerleaders mimicking Islamist denials - not only of the Holocaust, but of events as recently as October 7, 2024.
Here, Bill has insinuated that "Trumps" American Air Force had targeted a Girls School. I suppose when men better that yourself, with ethics better than your own, are presented to you. one can either deny, deflect or acknowledge the truth.
Bill, now, has sunk in my estimation. He's either totally ignorant of the truth or he can't handle the truth. Either way... He owes our fighting forces and their CIC an apology and I now truly doubt that he or his fellow "Progressive" critics, suffering their TDS tantrums, are even up to it.
when dementia sets in you cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys
Did God set this all in motion with Issac and Ishmael?