The Iraq War

      Just before the invasion of Iraq it was well known in my church bible study group that I felt the invasion of Iraq was a disaster waiting to happen.  It would be a trillion dollars, 15,000 dead Americans, and not matter if we were there for 5 years or 50 years, the day after we would inevitably leave, the next thug would rush into power and likely be even worse than Saddam Hussein.  It seemed clear that our Air Force through satellite technology and precision bombing could easily have dealt with any threat of  weapons of mass destruction. 13 Years later the actual cost of the war is at two trillion dollars, 4,500 hundred dead American  military personnel, 32,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of military children and families left with direct trauma from loved ones coming out of a war zone as well as the PTSD victims, 32 military personnel suicides a day, something much worse than Saddam Hussein taking his place, and the U.S. the blood of  hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and military personnel on its hands. The first president Nouri al-Maliki, whom the U.S. had put in power to replace Saddam Hussein, got the ball rolling in his new role by sentencing his political opponent to death (had to be smuggled to Turkey), and now Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslims, as well as their opponents, see no option other than large-scale, long-term violence until the other is crushed, oppressed, or dead.  There is enough revenge stored up against the West in all of the orphans and victims to last for centuries.

      And American's are left with the equivalent of verbal and political warfare at home launching blame at one another for the disaster of wasted time, money, and human lives.



 

  

findingthewisepath.com

By the way, as soon as I can get its domain name transferred from WIX to Squarespace, findingthewisepath.com will be off and running!

Celebrating "Tonight"

      I just remembered that some time ago I asked God that, if it was His will, and it fit in alright with the rest of His overall plan, could I please live until I'm around 90 (this would be for my daughter's sake).  And so, tonight it dawned on me, just in case, I had better start brushing my teeth twice a day.

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      The above post "Tonight" is actually a blog entry from 9/13/2005, and the second recorded blog entry I ever made.  It has been sitting there unpublished as a draft since that time, for the good reason that it should have been, and perhaps still should be -- but for the urge I had to go back tonight and see when this blogging all began for me. This blogging is where I found I could sit for 16 hours, studying, writing in Christian blogs, thinking, learning through debating with many others the multivaried doctrines of my new faith, without falling asleep.  I did not know I could do that, nor did I know how much I could enjoy it. I could sit for hours, day after day, studying, writing, exploring, discovering, clarifying, problem solving, learning, watching, seeking, finding, observing people with some of the highest levels of academic achievement disprove and devour each other, handily and summarily, day in, and day out. It caused me to begin to lose heart, to not even want to go into this new marketplace of ideas,  yet, surprisingly . . , I did not fall asleep. That, for a while, was my biggest surprise. And then something happened and I came to find a richer, unexpected surprise.  Blogging, pondering, simply writing . . . clarifying thoughts, was good for the soul.  It bore fruitful understanding.  Using the symbols of thought, to develop and clarify thought, produced finally useful, clear and well developed, much needed, and much appreciated thought. How handy this proved to be in a world whose information often gets abused.     

      I wish I had saved my first blog entry.  It seemed so primitive and cloddish at the time that I soon deleted it out of embarrassment.  It went something like, "o.k. then, let's see, one, two, three, let's let 'er fly", and I pushed the "publish" button and recorded my first blog entry.  Man I was exhilarated.  I thought that post lacked the  style of a real class occupant of the blogisphere at the time (laugh) but now, wow, I wish I had kept it for the record.

      An hour ago it was a minute past twelve.  I had just submitted the final paper in the final class of a Bachelor's Degree in Applied Behavioral Science.  The educational experience has reaffirmed my trust in the value of the basics. They are good.  "Keep it simple, stupid"!  Everybody has heard that one. Isn't that actually a warning to a "smart" person to not betray their intelligence by letting bloated reasonings distort a more easily understood?  There is power in the basics.  Big ideas many times fail.  The basics remain, unable to be denied, and available to be readily applied better the next time. I'm not talking about inventing a better spaceship, I am talking about going moment by moment through the day. How faithful they can be.  Additional proof that He is faithful. Yet, complexity can be beautiful when it is a soundly interwoven series of well established basics.

And finally, consider taking a big chance at learning more about things you did not know you were interested in; start a blog. Find out what's in there. Surprises await you.