My son was out playing in our woods one afternoon when he suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream. Fortunately, I was nearby and could tell he was in serious trouble just from the sound. As I ran up to him I could see the yellow jackets pouring out of a hole in the ground, buzzing all around him in a frightful swarm. There were so many bees swirling around that little five-year-old it looked like a tornado – while he just stood there, frozen in place with fear.
Running at full speed, with tree branches slapping my face, I scooped my son up under my arm without even slowing down, swatting the majorly ticked-off bees from his clothes as I ran. When the swarm had finally ended their pursuit, and I had brushed off the last of them, I began a frantic search to see the extent of the damage. Miraculously, he was only stung a few times.
As I calmed down a little, I looked down and noticed that even though he had taken quite a pounding in the attack, his rapidly swelling hand was still tightly wrapped around a big stick. (I remember thinking, “Oh no, tell me you didn’t.”)
When his sobbing had finally subsided a bit I asked him, “Son, what were you doing with that stick?”
He hesitated a moment and then blurted out, “I was poking at the bees.”
“You were what?” I nearly shouted in disbelief. “Why would you do that?”
“I wanted to see what would happen,” He sobbed.
I was speechless for a few moments, not really sure whether to laugh or cry. I then gave him the only piece of fatherly advice I could think of, “Well son, you certainly found out!”
Fast forward to what seems like only five minutes later, and that five-year old boy has grown into a fine 20 year old man. Those same precious hands that used to carry a stick almost everywhere he went are now clasped around the grip of an M-16. So I have a little word of fatherly advice for his new boss…
Hey, Mr. President! That’s my son you dragged into an Iraqi hellhole! And guess what? If you take a big stick and drag it around in the nastiest places of the world, you are going to unleash every kind of evil! You can count on it!
We somehow managed to spend most of our first 200 years as a nation without having to fight a “war on terror.” The only thing that has really changed is that we have now become everything we used to fear.
There are nearly 400,000 American troops stationed in no less than 140 of the worlds 192 countries, including numerous places considered to be holy by over a billion Muslims. We have fourteen carrier battle groups lurking around the world’s oceans, backed up by stealth planes, cluster bombs, depleted uranium munitions, all of which are focused on projecting the belligerence of the sociopaths who have seized control of our country.
We invaded Iraq, a country that posed no threat to us, tearing it to pieces in a matter of days. So many tens of thousands have died in the subsequent occupation that we lost count. Yet we threaten Iran, a country that has invaded no one in over 200 years.
To support all of the warmongering, we will spend some $600 billion on our military over the next year, which is more than the rest of the world will spend on theirs – combined!
Is this to say there are no terrorists in the world who would like to chop off every American head? There probably are, but what can we expect? We have spent the last half-century dragging a big stick across the far corners of the earth, poking it around in places that, like a hornets nest, are best left alone. It should come as no big surprise that we are finally getting stung.
We have tried the “stirring up a hornets nest” style of diplomacy for many decades, and just look at the mess we have made of things. To my evangelical friends – Is this what Jesus would have done? Not very likely.
Maybe it is time for us to get back to some of the basics as laid out by our founders:
“…peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,
entangling alliances with none…” Thomas Jefferson
Is honest friendship really such a terrible thought? If we tried it, we might just find out that “they” do not hate us because we are free. We may find out that they only hate us because we stick our noses in their business, occupy their countries, and kill their people.
In supporting the madness of George Bush and his merry little band of cutthroats, my son’s unit is getting absolutely hammered in Iraq – with 10 dead in just the last month. Some may want to show their support for him and his buddies by leaving them to languish as sitting ducks in a vast Iraqi shooting gallery. That is the kind of “support” usually offered by those who are not putting themselves – or their own sons – in harms way.
Let’s give our troops the only real support they need. Let’s BRING THEM ALL HOME – IMMEDIATELY!
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”