209 – “Step in Time”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE

By Hetty Gray

February 20, 2015

# 209

“Step in time…”

 

No, not Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in a rollicking melody from “Mary Poppins”…. Far from it, sadly.

 

People seldom consider that the passing days of their lives are also pages in the history of the world. For more than a thousand years, fury and war have raged among the peoples of the Middle East. The same differences that sparked the earliest conflicts continue to fuel those we see today.

 

Some paid attention to the gathering storm a few years ago; but, for the most part, world governments simply ignored the spreading furor — thinking that the volatile Middle East would define the physical limits of its battlefield.

 

Not so. The specter of a worldwide caliphate was not possible in the centuries preceding ours. Now, with technology connecting people easily, no area of our world is truly safe from the ongoing threat of ISIS and other like groups. Most of us might not think about existential threats, but those threats really do exist.

 

The late 1930s saw the pacifists who sought to appease Hitler drown out those recognizing the menacing threat of the Third Reich looming over Europe. Hitler’s appetite for conquest and control of his neighbors was not to be satiated. Neither concession nor promises of non-involvement swayed him from his heinous plot.

 

History is our greatest teacher, but the White House ignores the events and refuses to name the enemy for what it is. If, in fact, every administration is a virtual “step in time,” then we must have stepped into a warp curve of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone.”

 

For the first time in our history, a non-governmental entity seeks to inflict terrible carnage and barbarism upon innocent people, including not only Muslims who will not comply with their view of Islam, but Jews and Christians.

More over, their plans are not bound to Europe and the Middle East. They have us in their crosshairs.  One comment from Libya’s shores last week said it clearly, “Next stop, Rome!” The Pope sees the threat. He names it.

 

While Popes rarely come forth with profound political statements, his words on Islamic terrorists says it bluntly and without reservation. The Pope preaches love between and among people with the core of that love a family.

 

Contrast, if you will, the difference between an American mother who purposefully tries to steer her twelve-year-old son into an interest that could lead to a good job with the fanatical Muslim mother who urges her son to become a suicide bomber. Stark? Yes. Alien to Western culture? Definitely. Real? Yes, real and growing — a deadly threat to each and every one of us.

 

Every freedom we have in this country puts us at risk in some way or another. However, our porous borders and our refusal to monitor illegal immigrants is further complicated by the lax, dismissive attitude at the White House that puts Americans at the highest risk since our founding. Add to that the military communications office that divulges ISIS battle plans to its enemy months ahead of time and the result is a situation that not only defies logic, but also begs redress.

 

Pray that someone turns the tide. Pray that someone takes that one first step to face the exploding, relentless spread of militant Islamic terrorists. To date, several presidents have died in office and one has resigned. The U.S. Constitution includes the mechanism to remove a president, but “High crimes and misdemeanors” is an objective and ambiguous. We have become so acceptance of deceit and ineptitude, I do not look for a groundswell of protest from the population at large to challenge decisions being made with reference to our military strategy and delivery.

 

So, in the end, we are left with a painful dilemma. For me, as an American, it spawns a question I never expected.   How can America defend herself if those entrusted to do so will not? Think about it.

 

 

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