[movermike] movermike: Reluctance to Face Evil

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by movermike:
Reluctance to Face Evil
http://www.movermike.com/posts/1172343274.shtml


   Do you remember the movie The Patriot starring Mel Gibson?

     Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is driven to lead the
     Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic
     British officer murders his son.

   I was reminded of the movie when I read the weekly column by J. R.
   Nyquist, this week titled [1]EVIL IN POLITICS. Nyquist writes:

     The sad truth is, we refuse to recognize evil because we donât want
     the responsibility and the risk involved in fighting evil. To see a
     great evil makes one responsible for doing something. The moral
     choice is clear. If you see a baby crawling towards a cliff, you
     have a responsibility to pull the baby from danger.

   From the actions of Sadaam, we knew he was evil. He killed hundreds of
   thousands of Iraqis; he gassed them, executed them. He invaded two
   countries. He committed acts of military aggression against two
   neighboring countries.

     His people suffered decades under a regime of arbitrary arrest,
     torture and murder.

   From the mouth of Ahmajinedad comes evil. He threatens a holocaust
   with his new nuclear weapons and he threatens the U.S. with
   destruction and he appears to be aligned with a resurgent Russia, who
   crows that its ICBMs named Satan are still aimed at America.

     Do we sense the danger? No. We are busy clinging to a high
     lifestyle. We want to enjoy the good things. We spend money we do
     not have. We borrow and encourage an entitlement mentality in our
     young people. Weâve lost our thrift. We no longer believe in duty.
     And now we havenât the time or the energy to recognize enemies
     (foreign and domestic). For those who think the U.S. is playing the
     âgreatâ international game, I have news. The U.S. isnât playing at
     all. The U.S. doesnât have a coherent strategy and doesnât possess
     institutions capable of coming up with one. We are fighting a war
     âagainst terrorâ while the big enemies with the big battalions set
     us up for the kill. America is not as powerful as people generally
     think. Military power is often misunderstood because of its
     complexity. You see, even if Russia and China are weaker than the
     United States (and that is debatable), their ruthlessness grants
     them a kind of power that we cannot master. It is the power that
     every dictator builds upon.

   And what do we do in this country in the face of evil. We see evil in
   President Bush who had the courage to stand up for the UN and take out
   Sadaam. We see our military as evil for making prisoners wear dresses
   or strip naked in front of women at Abu Ghraib. Do you know what
   Sadaam did to his prisoners? We nanner-nanner at the "wicked oil
   companies", while we drive SUVs that get 12 to 15 miles a gallon; a
   gallon which costs us less than $2.50, when it should be $5.00 to
   $7.00 per gallon to encourage us to utilize new technologies.

   We tolerate fools in this country who would wad our Constitution,
   destroy our currency, spend us into the poor house, make us beholden
   to foreigners, export the production of critical systems to China,
   count Putin as our friend and attempt to force our one friend in the
   Middle East, Israel, into stupid "land for peace" schemes. We worry
   more about the hoax of global warming and the death of Anna
   Nicole-Smith than about the evil that gloats at our ineptitude.

     There are voices today, just as there were in 1936. There are
     environmental fascists, socialists, minority racists and
     America-haters. Do we remember what such voices signify? Promising
     freedom they will deliver the exact opposite.

   Benjamin Martin reconized the dangers ahead and still he was reluctant
   to get involved until his son was murdered. Maybe, he was reluctant
   because remembered how dirty he had to get to counter evil. What will
   it take for us to get involved?

   [2]The Patriot [3]J. R. Nyquist [4]Iraq [5]Iran [6]Putin [7]Mover Mike

References

   1. http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/analysis.html
   2. http://technorati.com/tag/The+Patriot
   3. http://technorati.com/tag/J.+R.+Nyquist
   4. http://technorati.com/tag/Iraq
   5. http://technorati.com/tag/Iran
   6. http://technorati.com/tag/Putin
   7. http://technorati.com/tag/Mover+Mike