If you are feared, your power is limited to that which you can physically control. If you are loved, that power is unlimited and beyond physical control! The future succes of our nation lay between these two principles. Right now we are feared, what must we do to be loved. ~ G.L.M.
With all that's going on in the world today, the price for true justice has never been higher. It is one thing to say that you are just; it is an entirely different matter to support that claim honestly. True justice is supported by a bold nobility which is unafraid to lead with the chin. Which is to say that true justice stakes it's claim and holds it's ground despite the fact that it knows it's going to be struck in the process. This is the price of true justice! And it cannot be marginalized or circumvented. If you are going to play the justifier, you must be willing to face the possibility of being sucker punched. And you must face it with resolute self-control. The just must be willing to sacrifice self for the sake of justice, or it is merely an empty posture.
It is no mystery that the civilian casualty rates from World War I until our most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone through the roof. Here are some statistics to validate this claim. World War I - 10%; World War II - 50%; Vietnam - 70%; Iraq and Afghanistan - 90%! These numbers are a matter of public record. What these numbers tell me is that the U.S. is more than willing to play the justifier, but not so willing to pay the cost in terms of military casualties. I believe this lack of commitment speaks to the world in this way: #1 - Our blood is more valuable than yours, and we will not sacrifice ourselves for you. #2 - We will fight if it's in our best interest, we will not if it is not. And finally, we will avoid personal casualties at all cost, and we will do whatever necessary to ensure this. Now while all this may sound wise and noble, it is most certainly not just. I believe the numbers speak for themselves. A 90% civilian casualty rate is not just under any circumstances.
If we are to be loved rather than feared, and we are to sustain our power as a nation, we must re-evaluate our sense of justice in terms of our physical commitment to war. We must be willing to take our just ideologies and put them to visible action. The survival of this nation rests in the heart of each and every one of us. We can choose simply to win, or we can choose to actually be winners. The choice is ours! How shall we be remembered in history?
Authors note:
Fear is not a life sustaining quality apart from sheer survival. For it feeds upon itself in such a way that neither the hunter nor the hunted are every truly free of it's grip. It is a kill or be killed equation which allows no rest and fosters no solution apart from death.
'When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love, and love never fails.' ~ I Cor. 13:11-13
P.S. During World War II, American and British pilots flew over the English Channel at night to drop flyers on the German people warning them that they were about to get bombed. We had not even declared war on Iraq before we struck them, let alone warning the citizenry. We are two worlds away from where we were as a nation at that time.
'Therefore I exhort first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.' ~ I Tim. 2:1-4
Commentary by:
G.L. Miller
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