Saturday, January 29, 2005

Truth or Fiction?

I received an interesting email from an army vet friend. The email purported to be the words of retired General Richard E. Hawley. It was really good. The problem is how do we know what to believe in all the forwarded emails we receive? We all receive so many, and many of the ones we receive are truly inspirational! As it turns out, the email from my friend was not true. A great resource for checking these email “urban legends” is truthorfiction.com. Below is the truth from General Hawley and the email version from Larry Miller at The Weekly Standard. (Thanks to JerseyGOP.com and Truthorfiction.com).



The Real Words of General Richard Hawley from TruthOrFiction.com:

1) Goodness, Evil and Relativity: There are some really good people in this
world. They volunteer to help those who need it, and ask nothing in return.
There are also some really bad people in this world. They exploit those who
need help, or who have less wit or "charisma", and motivate them to join in
committing unspeakable acts of cruelty against people they don't even know.
Then there are the rest of us. Average people who try each day to do no
harm, to provide for their families, to do an occasional act of kindness.
The evil that was perpetrated against our land on 9/11 was the product of
Mullahs who see our prosperity and power as a threat to their control over
the uneducated Muslim masses on whose shoulders they ride through life. And
so they preach hate. They are evil.

2) Violence begets violence: It's true. Violence does beget violence. But
sometimes there is no alternative but to confront those who would perpetrate
evil acts against us. This is one of those times. We are blessed to have
courageous men and women willing to put their lives on the line to track
down and annihilate those who have been so imbued with evil as to be beyond
redemption. But violence is not a strategy. It is a necessary and fully
justified reaction to an unimaginable threat. But it is not a strategy. If
we are to win this war, we must defeat the Mullahs. And to defeat the
Mullahs, we must find ways to separate them from their uneducated flocks. We
cannot kill all those who have been taught to hate us, nor should we wish
to. Far better to change their minds than to change their state of being.

3) The intelligence community let us down: Well, maybe just a little. Lots
of senior and not so senior intelligence people became just as enamored of
high tech gadgets as their political masters. The protests over our
evisceration of the human intelligence component of the agency were not very
loud or forceful. Keeping spies on the ground is a high risk and often dirty
business, and it wasn't just liberal politicians who didn't have much
stomach for it.

4) Poverty is the breeding ground for terrorists: No, it isn't; but
religious extremism is. The Mullahs fear our wealth and power because it
shows that a secular society with democratic institutions and a free market
economy can do a better job of taking care of its peoples' needs, both
spiritual and physical, than the oppressive Islamic regimes that they aspire
to lead. The Mullahs are the problem, not poverty, but poverty does make it
easier for the Mullahs to spread their evil - as do governments that
tolerate and even reinforce their hateful message.

5) Profiling: We are at war here! We are not talking about traffic stops. If
we were at war with Iceland, I would expect those charged with our defense
to pay very close attention to any Icelander who ventured near our shores.
In this war I expect them to pay very close attention to Muslims with ties
to the places that spew hatred against us. Random checks when there are no
such obvious targets available are a good way to keep the evil ones
guessing, but let's not make small children and grandmothers take their
shoes off while we watch far more likely candidates walk aboard unchecked.

6) Resolutions:
A. Never forget that what happened on September the 11th of 2001 was an act
of war.
B. Never sit silently by while someone tries to justify what happened on
that day as an understandable reaction to U.S. policies in the Middle East
or elsewhere.
C. Fly our nation's flag proudly - it represents this world's greatest hope
to move beyond the pain and suffering that inflict so many across the globe.
Richard E. Hawley
General, USAF, Retired
Former Commander, Air Combat Command

Larry Miller's Piece from The Weekly Standard"You Say You Want a Resolution"

"PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MAKING New Year's resolutions for a long time. Usually they're personal and last no longer than a smoke ring or one of Tom Daschle's smiles. You know the drill: "I'm going to cut down on my drinking, lose a few pounds, and read more books." Of course, by January 3rd, you get drunk, order a pizza, and buy a satellite dish.
This year, though, my resolutions won't be personal, and they won't look forward. They'll look back. Four months back. As you know, since September 11, our leaders and soldiers have done a fine job, frequently a brilliant job. (I mean, please, how about that Rumsfeld? If he were a woman, I'd--Wait. Come to think of it, I'd still do nothing.) I don't even care that so many of our fellow Americans have been contrary and mealy-mouthed. What makes me want to scream like an actress and throw things is this:
Since the attack [9-11], I have seen, heard, and read thoughts
of such surpassing stupidity that they must be addressed. You've
heard them too. Here they are:

1) "We're not good, they're not evil, everything is relative."
Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say
it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying "We're
good" doesn't mean, "We're perfect." Okay? The only perfect being is
the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact
is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always
been and always will be the greatest beacon of freedom, charity,
opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all
the borders on Earth and see what happens.

2) "Violence only leads to more violence." This one is so
stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League
university to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads
and hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more
violence. Limp, panicky, half measures lead to more violence.
However, complete, fully thought through, professional, well executed
violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards,
the other guys are all dead. That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not
"reeducated," not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead.

3) "The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community have
failed us." For 25 years we have chained our spies like dogs to a
stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed, we yell
at them for not protecting us. Starting in the late seventies, under
Carter appointee Stansfield Turner, the giant brains who get these
giant ideas decided that the best way to gather international
intelligence was to use spy satellites. "After all, (they reasoned,)
you can see a license plate from 200 miles away." This is very
helpful if you've been attacked by a license plate. Unfortunately, we
were attacked by humans. Finding humans is not possible with
satellites. You have to use other humans. When we bought all our
satellites, we fired all our humans, and here's the really stupid
part. It takes years, decades to infiltrate new humans into the worst
places of the world. You can't just have a guy who looks like Gary
Busey in a Spring Break '93 sweatshirt plop himself down in a coffee
shop in Kabul and say "Hiya, boys. Gee, I sure would like to meet
that bin Laden fella. "Well, you can, but all you'd be doing is
giving the bad guys a story they'll be telling for years.

4) "These people are poor and helpless, and that's why they're
angry at us." Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer's frozen head collection was
just a desperate cry for help. The terrorists and their backers are
richer than Elton John and, ironically, a good deal less annoying.
The poor helpless people, you see, are the villagers they tortured
and murdered to stay in power. Mohammed Atta, one of the evil
scumbags who steered those planes into the killing grounds is the son
of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew this, too. In the sixties and
seventies, all the pinheads marching against the war were
upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause they could
think of to get out of their final papers and spend more time
drinking. It's the same today.

5) "Any profiling is racial profiling." Who's killing us here,
the Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times had an
article saying dozens of extended members of the gazillionaire bin
Laden family living in America were afraid of reprisals and left in a
huff, never to return to studying at Harvard and using too much
Drakkar. I'm crushed. Please come back. Let's all stop singing "We
Are the World" for a minute and think practically. I don't want to be
sitting on the floor in the back of a plane four seconds away from
hitting Mt.Rushmore and turn, grinning, to the guy next to me to say,
"Well, at least we didn't offend them."

SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year: Never to forget our
murdered brothers and sisters. Never to let the relativists get away
with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your
daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this.
Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas"? I
wish I had one that says, "No More Pearl Harbors."

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

The Faith of a Little Child

I know it’s been a while. Sorry. The past ten days have been very difficult. A week ago, I discovered that my dad has cancer, this on top of my brother dealing with serious health problems too. Work hasn’t been all that pleasant either. All this makes the theologian and philosopher in me go into overdrive!! I have been a Christian since I was sixteen years old. At times, I have been quite sure of what I believed and at other times, I have questioned EVERYTHING!! It is good, at hard times like I’m going through now, that I have a solid faith. That I have gone through those times of questioning and have discovered REAL answers. Answers that I can now DEPEND on!! A LORD Whose Word is not empty, but does what He intended it to do!! A FATHER whose LOVE for me does NOT fail!! All day today, I have been singing a song in my mind. A song written by Donna McLaughlin, but I know it from a tape I used to have of songs sung by B. J. Thomas. This is what the scripture tells us. This is what I believe. Tonight, I am encouraged.

The Faith Of A Little Child

Behold
I give you power
To tread upon serpants and scorpions
And over all the power of the enemy
And nothing shall by any means hurt you
And I will never, never desert you
For lo, I am with you
Forever and ever

And if you say
Unto this mountain
be thou removed
and be cast into the sea
It will obey you
If you have the faith of a mustard seed
You've got all the faith
All the faith you need
Walk along with the king
You can do anything
If you
If you have the faith of a little child

In my name shall demons flee
The deaf will hear and the blind will see
And ye shall speak with tongues of angels
And from your mouth I shall bring prophecy
Ye shall be like a watered tree
The pow'r of of God shall be in your ministry
And I will draw all men to me

And if you say
Unto this mountain
be thou removed
and be cast into the sea
It will obey you
If you have the faith of a mustard seed
You've got all the faith
All the faith you need
Walk along with the king
You can do anything
If you
If you have the faith of a little child

The King of glory reigns on high
In grandeur beyond the sky
And we shall greet him somewhere in eternity
His ways are higher than the eye can see
You know the King died for you and me
Though you may be a pauper or a millionaire
We'll all have an equal share

And if you say
Unto this mountain
Be thou removed
And be cast into the sea
It will obey you
If you have the faith of a mustard seed
You've got all the faith
All the faith you need
Walk along with the king
You can do anything
Move those mountains
With your faith in God
If you have the faith of a little child

He's all you need
If you have the faith
Talking about Jesus
If you have the faith
Reach out to him
If you have the faith of a little child

You can
Move those mountains
With your faith in God
If you have the faith
He's all you need
Just talk to Jesus
You've got to trust your faith in God
You can reach
Reach out to Him