…the rest of the story
Just finished 2 days of intense meetings about vision, staff, direction, and ultimately budget. Tough decisions but in these economic times they have to be made. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Pray that what we do we do with gentleness and kindness and that it will ultimately honor God.
Second tough situation…Bob Moses and I visited with the family of Ryan King yesterday. Ryan was a 22 year old from Dallas, GA that was killed in combat in Afghanistan May 1. He had attended WRC when we was in high school before he joined the Army and moved away. The family was obviously shaken. Angry. Confused. All that you would expect from a family that had lost a healthy young man. Ryan graduated from East Paulding High School. He was an athlete. Popular. Joined the Army right out of high school. He died protecting our freedom. My freedom.
People sometimes try to make comparisons of Vietnam (my era) and the Middle East. To me there is no comparison. I know I will hurt some of your sensibilities. I protested Vietnam. I did not protest our soldiers, I had many friends that fought and a few that died, I would not dishonor them. I protested the government that consistently and intentionally lied to us and killed 500,000 young people of my generation to protect a French Govt that has consistently turned their backs on the U.S. everytime we bail them out. Vietnam, nor any of their armies ever attacked the U.S. before our involvement in the war. The countries of the Middle East have consistently subverted and conspired to attack the U.S. in dozens of places around the world. I am afraid I have an Old Testament view of war. I believe that if someone attacks you you react as God commanded Israel. Israel was commanded not to leave a man, woman, or child standing. When they did, this came back to bite them. If you attack me I will do all in my power to protect myself and destroy you. I will not pick a fight but I would intend to end it. And here’s a secret I don’t believe in a fair fight. Whatever it takes I will do.
I do not view this as a holy war. I do not believe the vast majority of Muslims have it in for the U.S. But…if I were running the world if your nation, tribe, or community attacked the U.S. I would run over you like a bulldozer on steroids and there would be not one building, one person, one thing left standing. You hit New York, let’s see if you can find a place in the desert to live as we destroy Baghdad, Tehran, or whatever city you want to name. It is hard to attack me from the grave. Sherman as he was running over Atlanta said, “War is hell.” If I were President this would be my motto, “War is Hell. Attack the U.S. and you will experience it.” Sorry about the rant.
Remember this is my opinion not the opinion of WRC or any of its ministries. I am passionate about this subject
War is not fair. Last weeks paper was crying about the number of civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sorry, but don’t harbor international terrorist and these people probablywould not have died. If that’s mean so be it. But I do not believe that any more of our brave and honorable young men and women should die because some nut doesn’t like us. I do not like making ministry visits of this kind. It is uncomfortable for everyone. But in my opinion we could have ended this several years ago by leveling Baghdad and challenging them as to what we destroy next. We should have burned that city to the ground the way Sherman burned Atlanta. Let’s end this thing in victory and not run home with our tails between our legs as we did 40 years ago.
To the King family. We thank you for your sacrifice and for raising a young man that served his country with honor and bravery and gave his life for our freedom. May God give you comfort in your time of need.
