Rich brought up some great questions in his comment yesterday. The answer to those questions trouble many, just like the confrontation of a needy person looking for a handout. This has always bothered me, I want to help, but how do you determine who is really in need, and who is just too lazy to work. We've always been told, "you are your brother's keeper," yet enabling the slothful is sinful as well. It's the age old struggle, who is sinful in their motives? Are the new regimes seeking freedom, or just their form of suppression? Are we assisting the Taliban, Hezbollah, or the Muslim Brotherhood, or truly on the side of freedom?
The beggar thing I solved, I simply give them the best help I can without knowing what their situation really is. I tell them if they are truly in need, and without resources, get to the nearest church. Charity for them starts there. I give my money so they can not only aid these people but counsel them back on the right path. This way I'm a good steward of the blessings God has entrusted to me, and I don't enable slothfulness.
One would think he UN would be the institution we could turn to for the same clarity in the Middle East matter. Honestly, we are the UN. It's just a counsel on how the Americans should spend their money and their efforts. The bulk of it's financial support rests on our shoulders, and the President is just using it to redistribute the blame assigned by others for getting involved. If the UN was to be effective, it should have a system set up to enter a toppled regime and establish and defend a voting system. Allow those people who yearned for freedom to vote for how they wish to live, without fear of reprisal. It should also include an education system to inform the people what they are voting for. Freedom is all about choices, and any multinational force should have the means to offer newly birthed governments those options. Then they've made the decision!
As far as when and where we should use force, that's still a conundrum. Humanitarian support shouldn't be determined by a dollar figure. It's never, ever justified to put money before life. If it's a legitimate need, we have the means to resolve, there isn't a question. It should be done! The question of the need is the secret we must unravel.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
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WOW a post mentioning me!!! I'm truly honored Capt Bill! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAt one point Capt, I’m sure that you know, our country was the greatest creditor nation in the world. Today however it is now common knowledge that this is no longer the case! I am still relatively young and working hard in my reading and research to get a full picture of history. That being said, based on my current limited understanding, I get the impression that as a nation, during our times of great economic growth and prosperity, countries and sheer ability placed upon us a feeling of obligation to help where we saw the need. (This could have also been motivated by the “Military Industrial Complex” according to President Eisenhower) I agree that at many times our intervention in years past was both needed and of great good to the world!
Today the situation is much different however. We are no longer as prosperous as a nation. We are now the world’s biggest debtor nation. Even if the motives in our interventions are pure, (highly questionable as they are in my opinion) I believe these actions are totally irresponsible. Would we expect the unemployed bankrupt family struggling to feed their own children, to borrow more money to feed or shelter the needy people across town??? Would it not be wise of them to save what resources they had and invest them into getting their situation turned around and stable???
The United States of America, is freedom’s last real stand on earth!!! I believe that our incredible leadership TEAM is a big part of the answer to: reuniting, reequipping and re-educating this nation. I think it’s time to temporarily set aside our wonderful compassion and focus on getting our nation to the point that we can once again afford to offer the hand up to the rest of the world!!! If not we’ll be unable to help anyone and we’ll be the ones in need… Who will be there to help when we cannot???
God Bless!
Rich
Re: “Humanitarian support shouldn't be determined by a dollar figure.”
ReplyDeleteCapt I don’t mean to seem uncompassionate! On the contrary I understand that that there is a great amount of killing going on in Libya for instance.
What I’m saying is:
1. We don’t know who is really involved.
2. We’ve trusted our gov to tell us these things and have been mislead before.
3. Our current economic situation does not afford us the luxury of letting it play out anymore.
4. Based on my research and it seems that any nation who wants to stand on their own, away from the G20 (NWO) finds itself and/or its government unfit.
My stand is if the people in Libya want freedom from either their current leadership or if it’s that their current leadership is now refusing to be controlled by the global banks??? Who knows??? The people closest to this must fight for it and find friends who can afford to help them! Americans continue to be weakened by these types of interventions and if we fail to recover, what does the future hold for us and our compassion???