The wake-up call

[Snowden]

The wake-up call
By Bill O'Reilly
Saturday, July 22, 2006


While millions of Americans are enjoying the summer, taking nice trips and relaxing on the sand, the leaders of Hezbollah are also enjoying the season. From their sanctuary in Iran, the terrorists have announced that they are armed and ready for World War III. Taking a cue from President Bush, the killers are gleefully trotting out the taunt: "Bring it on!"

So now we have al Qaeda and Hezbollah threatening to kill Americans, and what are many Americans doing about it? Playing politics or ignoring the situation, that's what.

Instead of presenting a united front to the world, the USA is bickering over the "rights" of captured terror suspects, war strategy in Iraq, and whether it's bad for newspapers to alert terrorists about top-secret investigations designed to stop them from murdering people.

When are we all going to wake up? I mean, what is it going to take for "we the people" to understand the goal of the terrorists? There is no reasoning with this group, no negotiating with them. They hate Jews and Americans and, in general, all non-Muslims. They want to cause as much destruction as possible. They love this recent violence in the Middle East, which they, alone, started.

Are you hearing me, San Francisco?

Immediately after 9/11, the vast majority of Americans were engaged in the terror war. We wanted strong leaders who would right that terrible wrong. We demanded action, justice for the murders of 3,000 Americans. We didn't care to hear Phil Donahue say the invasion of Afghanistan was wrong. We condemned loopy University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill for comparing the 9/11 victims to Nazis. The American public was in a fighting mood.

No longer.

Now we are weary of this unending, complicated terror war business. We are besieged with misinformation spit out to us by ideologues on both sides who seek to use the terror war to advance a political agenda. We are exhausted.

But that is no excuse, because we are also in grave danger. Iran is the primary threat. That country is enjoying the death and destruction its terror proxies are causing, and it desperately wants to up the ante by developing a nuclear weapon.

The sad truth is that apathetic and misguided Americans are actually helping the fanatical Iranian leaders as well as the terror killers themselves. Every political division in this country is cheered on by our enemies. They believe the American people are selfish and weak, a group more interested in foolish entertainment and blind ideology than in aggressively defending itself.

The Germans and Japanese made the same calculation in the 1940s, and they were wrong. But Ho Chi Minh was right when he said America would not pay the price in Vietnam.

So who's correct now? Will Americans pay the painful price to win the war on terror? Or will we retreat to our Blackberries and iPods and video games? Will we continue to allow partisan politics to divert attention from the real threat, or will we demand that our leaders win the conflict?

In the summer of 2006, that is the hot question. And, at this point, there is no clear answer.


http://www.townhall.com/columnists/B...e_wake-up_call

[Caldric]

They are not the only ones gleeful. US evangelical Christians are running around talking about the coming or something or another. The final battle whatever. They are pretty gleeful themselves. Kind of silly to me. Rapture and such was invented when 19th century?

[Scrappy]

Caldric,

I hope you understand what you just said, I have no comfort by the sarcasm. All is well with my soul, but I worry about you. I hope you understand that His return will be enjoyed, but till then we continually worry and preoccupy ourselves with those who don't know Jesus. You are right it is quick in coming...

[Snowden]

Originally Posted by Caldric

They are not the only ones gleeful. US evangelical Christians are running around talking about the coming or something or another. The final battle whatever. They are pretty gleeful themselves. Kind of silly to me. Rapture and such was invented when 19th century?

Something like that, yes, Scott. There is really nothing in the Bible to support it. That Christ will return, yes - but mostly the Book of Revelation is misinterpreted to come up with this. On the other hand, all but the last few chapters have been identified with history.

I don't pretend to understand that book. I go by what Jesus told His Apostles in the Gospels, since He set it out very clearly - no cloudy mystery there. And I think every generation for these past 2000 years has seen a good many of the things happen that He warned would happen. But the assumption of the Rapture seems to me to be little more than trying to make human sense out of spiritual mysteries.

There is, of course, modern technology that, for the first time, could make humanly possible some of the things that were for so long assumed to need spiritual empowerment. So - who knows?

[Woodmonkey]

Originally Posted by Caldric

They are not the only ones gleeful. US evangelical Christians are running around talking about the coming or something or another. The final battle whatever. They are pretty gleeful themselves. Kind of silly to me. Rapture and such was invented when 19th century?

I don't think anyone can know when the world will end.

As a Catholic, this is what I believe.

Catholics refer to the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel in which Christ says that "no one knows the hour or the day," except the Father. While Catholics believe the prediction of dates or times is futile, many believe that Jesus foretold of signs which would indicate that the "end of days" was near. Some of these signs include natural disasters, civil problems, and other catastrophes. Of the precise time, however, it will come like a "thief in the night."

As for the latter with "natural disasters, civil problems and other catastrophes," when has the world been free of them? There was a sect of people in Medievaol times who thought the world was ending. That was during the Plague when half of Europe died off. Wars have always been with us. There were dark times when Krakatoa blew and that affected the globe.

Who can say when the end is near? No one can know because all of the conditions set as signs of the end have been with us throughout history.

[RAMESES the Great]

Hey Guys and Gals, you are way off O'Reilly's Topic. When are tjhe Americans going to wake up and face the monster that Islamic Religious Terrorism is? When will be stop "Taking it" and start dishing it out? The answer is that Bush, as much as I admire most of his handling of the Global War on Terror, has allowed the fevor of 9-11 to be disipated and dilluted with too much unimportant distractions.

We will wake up when we are seriously hurt again! Until then we will squabble about everything else, Like Revelations, overempowering airport security, listing Hamburger Joints and Auto Malls as Terror Targets, imposing POW status on terrorists that do not derserve the title of soldiers, national debate about turing Hummers into tanks, protesting war for protests sqke, etc. ad nausium. Anything to shift the focus from the Jihad (holy war) we should be fighting against the radical fanatical elements of Islam!

They have made this a Jihad and we should fight the war as a Crusade, targeting every cleric that preaches Jihad and every mosque it is preached from, and supporting those Islamic leaders that oppose the Jihad. We need to require them to stand up and be counted and punish them who choose to walk on the dark side. The people of Iraq and the rest of the Islamic World need to be taught that to Jihad is wrong and will be punished by the world.

Since it religious and for the hearts and minds of the people, our actions should be tolerant but religious oriented, if some of you are allowed to Jihad your most precious religious sites and relics will be destroyed, one for every future act of Jihad, until they are all gone.