June 19th, 2014
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
A HOUSE DIVIDED-IN AMERICA AND IRAQ!
Iraq is imploding as Republicans and Democrats alike are scratching their heads as to what went wrong. Meanwhile, party gridlock in Washington has brought any sense of responsible governing to a standstill. The President faces what may well turn out to be his single biggest crisis during his time in office, and he spent most of last week vacationing on California golf courses. Are we observing a freak show or what?
In the nation’s history, there has always been the loyal opposition by the political party out of power that served as a check and balance — a good thing. But there was still a sense on the part of both parties that some cooperation was needed to make progress and move the county forward. We saw such cooperation across party lines under Reagan in the 80s and Clinton in the 90s.
Then came 9/11, and after a short-lived euphoria of rallying the nation together, both parties saw an opportunity for political gain. Gridlock seeped in, and during the past ten years cooperative effort between the Republicans and Democrats has been non-existent. Over 90% of the members of congress profess to be Christians. Yet those we elected to lead have given little credence to the words of Jesus in Mathew 12:25. “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
The same non-negotiable division exists in Iraq today under the impotent leadership of President Nuri Maliki and his U.S.-installed Shia regime. The loyal and vicious opposition are the Sunnis, and the two religious factions have been at each other’s throats for 1400 years. Maliki failed miserably to bring in his opposition as part of a new Iraqi government, and the U.S. only gave lip service to a joint governing effort. Now it’s open warfare and any chance of peace seems out of the question.
You and I have been have been conned. That’s right — we’ve been lied to, deceived, hoodwinked and misinformed. We were told by Bush, Cheney and company that Iraq needed to be invaded because they had weapons of mass destruction that put our country at great risk. And then it turns out that there were no WMDs. None! Continue Reading……..
I did not run last week’s column due to circumstances beyond my immediate control thus its presentation today. I will run Jim’s new column this weekend.
I have been one that has been on the fence about the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions. I am all for getting rid of Al Qaeda and other hate groups but I think we took the Iraq situation too far. After the WMD’s were “not there” they should have pulled out. I can understand the Iraqi government asking for assistance due to the extreme embedded ignorance and weakness of their average citizens and its feeble “military.” At this point I would offer help but it would be in the form of small tactical air strikes, precision guided bombs, and small tactical nuclear weapons. That way, we could preserve American lives and force them to fight if they really want to keep freedom in their country.
we are in accord, and we believe that this one of mr. brown’s best opinion pieces. in fact, he has been spot on with all of his recent posts.
The only outcome of “bipartisanship” and “unity” has been to advance the size and intrusion of the State into our daily lives, Brownie, certainly “irresponsible governance.”
I’d gladly take the benefits of gridlock over the results of bipartisanship and unity any day.
Now, if bipartisanship and unity would result in a massive reduction of insufferable law and rules and the horde of officers suffering us with afflictions – yea, that would be a good thing.