Yesterday Gen. Petraeus brought a report of how things are going in the war in Iraq to the Senate Armed Forces Committee. All 3 presidential candidates (Clinton, McCain, Obama) made statements and posed questions to the good general and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Patriots all, in my estimation.
The marathon back and forth offered very little in new information. The surge has had some success in some areas as we have already been told, but there remain many problems yet to be solved, which we also already knew. The general fended off many attempts to get him to project some date for completion of our mission in Iraq. One problem being that the mission seems to have evolved over time. What started as a gung-ho, kick butt military operation to depose Saddam Hussein and get control of imagined weapons of mass destruction that was supposed to be over in 6 months, has become a muddled, imprecise, quagmire of nation building, tribal mediation, economic development and law enforcement. Iraqi government officials are milking our presence and largesse to their advantage as much as possible as they drag out the process of solving their big issues. Why should they spend their resources to sustain the country as long as we are willing to foot the bill?
Barack Obama offered parameters that may help us get a sense of how to measure our progress. On one end of the scale is the Bush-Cheney-McCain ideal that Iraq somehow morph into a stable democracy, a beacon of freedom and civil rights in the heart of the middle east, and an oil rich friend of the United States. By any reasonable estimation that will take decades to happen if it is even possible. On the other end of the scale is the situation that exists now which Obama described as: "a messy, sloppy status quo but there's not huge outbreaks of violence, there's still corruption, but the country is struggling along, but it's not a threat to its neighbors and it's not an al-Qaida base."
So there you have it. After more than 5 years during which more than 4000 American service personnel have been killed (not to mention ally losses and many thousands of civilians), at a cost of a half trillion dollars, what we have to show for it is a messy, sloppy status quo with ongoing violence and rampant corruption. And no end is in sight.
Whose idea was this? I don't get it.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
...On Second Thought
Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ...Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear... Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:25-32).
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But I have to confess that I struggle to understand how that works in the “real” world. As one who considers Jesus Christ to be the ideal role model, I wrestle with how his referring to some people he encountered as “white-washed tombs,” and, to their faces calling them “You snakes!” and “hypocrites” fits with Paul’s words. Those labels don’t seem particularly helpful or tenderhearted to me. Evidently those on the receiving end of Jesus’ name calling didn’t appreciate it either. They conspired to kill him.
Since I believe Jesus lived a sinless life, I have to conclude that it is possible to be angry and confrontational without crossing the line into inappropriate slander and maliciousness. The truth can hurt, even when it is spoken in love. Sometimes the best and most loving thing we can do for someone is to get in their face, as Jesus did, and tell them they are full of b.s.
That said; I must remember that I ain’t Jesus. My anger, more often than not, does not take me in the direction of building up the recipient. It usually takes me on the slippery slope toward bitterness, slander and malice--winning at another's expense. Being angry without sinning is a state of being few of us master. That’s why it is essential to put one’s energies into cultivating kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness. I need to work on that.
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ...Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear... Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:25-32).
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But I have to confess that I struggle to understand how that works in the “real” world. As one who considers Jesus Christ to be the ideal role model, I wrestle with how his referring to some people he encountered as “white-washed tombs,” and, to their faces calling them “You snakes!” and “hypocrites” fits with Paul’s words. Those labels don’t seem particularly helpful or tenderhearted to me. Evidently those on the receiving end of Jesus’ name calling didn’t appreciate it either. They conspired to kill him.
Since I believe Jesus lived a sinless life, I have to conclude that it is possible to be angry and confrontational without crossing the line into inappropriate slander and maliciousness. The truth can hurt, even when it is spoken in love. Sometimes the best and most loving thing we can do for someone is to get in their face, as Jesus did, and tell them they are full of b.s.
That said; I must remember that I ain’t Jesus. My anger, more often than not, does not take me in the direction of building up the recipient. It usually takes me on the slippery slope toward bitterness, slander and malice--winning at another's expense. Being angry without sinning is a state of being few of us master. That’s why it is essential to put one’s energies into cultivating kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness. I need to work on that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)