ChristianPolitics

Nobody has any guts even when they know what needs to be done. Israel has been said to be mulling over a truce because of international pressure. This may just be conjecture or it may have some truth to it. I guess I could understand if they wanted a little truce for humanitarian purposes because they really don’t want to hurt civilians but a truce to give up the whole operation would be pointless. Caving to pressure to go back to the status quo was the problem Israel had in Lebanon a few years ago. This would solve nothing. Israel needs to complete the job so this won’t have to be done again. Continuing now could possibly save more lives later. Only the good guys cave to pressure though the bad guys just keep on doing what they’re doing. It’s just like passing gun laws that only law abiding citizens pass. On the other hand Gov Blago in Illinois continues to do whatever he wants despite pressure otherwise. This guy really has some, well some hutzpah you might say, but in this case it’s all for not because Blago is about to be impeached and even his own party is saying his moves to name a replacement for Obama’s senate seat won’t be allow

As the new year comes be prepared do things for yourself. Regardless of the fact that Obama will become president on the 20^th of January don’t expect Obama to start paying your electric bill or providing so many government programs that you won’t have to. With the economic situation the way that it is don’t expect to be saved, regardless of your political affiliation it’s time to start working hard to do what needs to be done for you financial needs. It’s also time to expect others to do the same. For those who can’t we should do all we can to help them. Now is not the time to expect the government to help everyone because they really can’t afford to and shouldn’t anyway.

Politics seems to clearly on some level at least be a game. If you don’t see that it’s a game then you’ll never understand what’s really happening. When politicians speak they don’t always say either exactly what they mean or they something without saying it. This is a lesson all in itself and could be it’s own post but I bring this up for a reason.  Earlier this week I speculated that Israel may go into Gaza and it’s main purpose would be to remove Hamas. Today on Fox News Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni responded to the question of weather or not they were going in to remove Hamas and she said “no, not at this time”. Just a few days earlier she said she wanted to remove Hamas, but she is not yet Prime Minister. The answer of not yet implies that a time either will come or it may come. The question is, if not now then when? They seem to be making this one of the biggest campaigns into Gaza in quite some time. Will they launch a bigger campaign later? I don’t think so. I see one of three possibilities, they could either be hoping this shakes Hamas up and straightens them out, which is unlikely, or they are planning to take them out at the end of this campaign but not now at the beginning or they are planning to make them so weak that Fatah will almost have to come in and take over. The leadership in Israel keeps saying they want to change the reality on the ground. If this doesn’t mean removing the Hamas government I can’t think of anything else that might change the reality on the ground except for Israel to remove absolutely every Hamas and government building and remove pretty much every rocket and all rocket making and firing material. This would seem to be very difficult without reoccupying the Gaza strip inch by inch and securing it. However Israel has also said they will not reoccupy Gaza. So although I hope it doesn’t, I think this operation is not likely to stop all of the rocket fire into Israel from Gaza.

There is a time for peace and a time for war. Israel sees now as the time for war against Hamas in the Gaza strip. Let us pray for Israel’s prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the rest of Israel’s leaders but lets also remember to pray for George Bush and Barrack Obama as well as other leaders around the world during this time and in the future. The time in which we live has many troubles both complicated and simple but regardless of the threat we need to pray that the leaders in this world are wise and that they have courage to do what is right and especially so when it is hard and most importantly that they acknowledge and listen to God.

When you have only one option you have already lost because you have no options. This is what appeasers don’t understand. When referring to the failed negotiation process with North Korea over it’s nuclear program Gary Samore at the Council on Foreign Relations said, “I think we’re sort of condemned to that process, because we don’t really have any alternative.” This kind of thinking is ludicrous. When you say the only option you have is the same failed option that hasn’t worked in the pass. The problem with appeasement is that it does not work, at best it works temporarily but as we learned with Hitler temporary isn’t good enough. Even if appeasement worked long term I still wouldn’t address the underlying issues. Now a days however we understand that appeasement does not even work in the short term because the appeasers are satisfied with just talking and the appeasement process and the other side is happy to talk and demand outrageous things because it gives them the ability to go on doing whatever they want without being stopped. Therefore when it seems like there is only one choice you must think of what would otherwise be unthinkable, this is why you must have the option of punishment and conflict when other punishments don’t work. But it must be more than in name only otherwise it will became apparent that the option is nothing but a empty threats. We know from teaching children that empty threats do nothing. Saying this does not make me or anyone else a warmonger but someone who understand that to have peace you must sometimes have war. When others know you are willing to back up your words with action than words have meaning and action doesn’t always have to be taken. You can not force someone to negotiate because you keep begging them, because they have no incentive to compromise on anything. When the other party is forced to negotiate because they know they will loose something if they don’t then negotiations can work.

Read more about this topic here Column One: The ‘realist’ fantasy

There’s a big uproar about Warren praying at Obama’s inauguration. All the liberals have a problem because he’s a conservative Christian. In reality Warren is not a conservative you do here much complaining on the other side but there is some including an article written by noted conservative Joseph Farra. The main problem as I see it is that Warren seems a lot more concerned about social outreach than the Gospel and preaching the truth. It’s important to reach out to others especially those in need and it is important we do all we can to help those less fortunate. But Warren seems much too focused on popular causes. Even if Warren’s motives were totally pure he’s supposed to be a preacher of the Gospel and not a social activist. You can be both but as a pastor you have certain priorities. Warren has done other things like speak to foreign governments like Syria which our own government does not talk to because it’s a state sponsor of Terror but the country of Syria is not known for treating Christians very nice and the government can and did use such visits to prop itself up. Finally the fact that Warren considers Obama his friends says something about his judgment. Warren says we disagree on some issues but there’s a difference between disagreeing on who gets tax breaks vs murder being allowed. Could Warren and Hitler have been friends but just disagreed on some issues. Warren also said on a recent dateline that no Republicans have done anything recently to change abortion laws. Considering that President Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion ban when Clinton vetoed it twice Warren seems to be either way under informed or he’s distorting the facts. So people looking at Warren being invited to pray at Obama’s inauguration seeing it as Obama being open and being more of a middle of the road politician are not seeing the whole story. The invite to Warren by Obama may look like an outreach to conservatives but I think it’s just for appearances.

 When it comes to our relationship with God there’s an old hymn that’s called Trust and Obey and that’s what we should do. As far as people and politics Ronald Reagan said Trust but Verify. This was true with the Russians back in the 1980’s and is still true today. Russia is saying they have not sent the s300 missile defense systems to Iran yet be the US government is saying they are sending them.

The reason this matters is that once Iran receives these systems it will be much harder for Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. It seems to have been a game of cat and mouse with information about whether or not Israel will strike or be allowed to strike these installations by the US. One story comes out saying Israel is going to do it then we see another story about how the US won’t give Israel the green light. So does this mean we are now letting Israel know now is the time to strike? Maybe but not necessarily. All of these stories taken individually could be taken to mean one thing or another but together it is really hard to try to figure out if this information means anything or if it is dis-information or it just has nothing to do with the politics of the situation.

Reflecting back on president Bush I must say I am profoundly disappointed. While I voted for Bush and think that he is smarter than many will ever give him credit for, I have to say that he was not a good conservative president. There are three legs of true conservatism, limited government, social conservatism and financial conservatism. As far as financial Bush has spent more than any president ever and he recently said he sacrificed free market principles to save the economy, even though it won’t. As for limited government, Bush created a whole gigantic new department in the DHS and is all in favor of the government bailing out everybody. As for social, Bush has been the best here but at the same time he really hasn’t done that much. He did sign the Partial Birth Abortion ban and accomplished a few other things but there was so much more he could have fought for and done.

The other thing that I am disappointed in is that it seems President Bush played the religion card to get elected. Many people thought president Bush was a Christian and while I can’t say that he isn’t, it has become more clear that something just doesn’t seem right. When he was running for president the first time he said that and many people thought that he was just a good ole country boy who believed in God and country and evangelicals thought that he was really an evangelical. But when we hear that president Bush has said things like all religions pray to the same God we realize that President Bush is either very uneducated as a Christian or he doesn’t know what it means to be a Christian. The foundation of Christianity and what Jesus basically taught is that He is the only way to the only God. I don’t know if President Bush is a Christian or not and if he isn’t that in itself doesn’t make him a bad president. However for those of us who thought Bush was a Christian and if he wasn’t then it may explain some things. This should also be a lesson that just because someone says

Israel is threatening to launch a major offensive into Gaza, because of the end to the cease fire a few days ago between Israel and Hamas. This could be much worse than it sounds because although Israel has launched offensives into Gaza more than a few times in recent years, this time leaders in Israel have talked about toppling the democratically elected government of Hamas. This would create several major problems. The leaders in Israel have said that it is only a matter of time before they have to topple the government of Hamas. This may be true because the government, though elected, is a terrorist government that is continuing to attack Israel. The problem however is more than meets the eye. If Israel removes Hamas, there will be a vacuum of power that I believe is part of the plan for Israel to help reinstall the Fatah government which Israel believes it can deal with. If this is the case and even if it works I believe this plan could really backfire and lead to a very dangerous situation.

As I talked about yesterday there are many issues facing us in the short run. Not the least of these issues we face is the current economic situation that may continue to get worse. Many people and not just crazy people are talking about storing up or buying up survival items, gear and food. This may or may not be necessary for the short run, but it is probably a good idea for the long run. Regardless of how or when we recover from the current economic downturn times will be tough again and next time it may be for any number of reasons other than just the mortgage crisis or may even have little to do with pure economics but could be based on something like a terrorist attack or even worse. When I say worse, yes there can be worse things than a terrorist attack. One thing that can be worse than a terrorist attack is giving up certain parts of our liberty and sovereignty to protect us against terrorists. Though I’m in favor of doing what it takes to stop terrorists we should not give up our freedom to protect it.

We don’t know what tomorrow holds and we should not store up stuff that will be wasted but it might be a good idea to have a plan and to be prepared for at least a few days worth of an emergency.