CRASH AND BURN

Evil men are stupid! They see only short-term gain.
The Bible says the wise man looks to long term
consequences, and avoids the evil ones, while the
foolish man plunges ahead and is punished.

This illustrates well the difference between bogus
pragmatism and the real thing: the bogus is short-
term, tactical, expedient, unprincipled. It is well
exemplified by the Scooter Libby debacle, and
indeed, the larger fiasco in Iraq. False pragmatism
is base on lies and then has to keep lying. We've
seen that over and over. It's dishonest from day
one!

The popular misunderstanding of pragmatism is
that it is unprincipled. It isn't. Real pragmatism,
the kind taught by William James, John Dewey
and earlier by Confucius, the Buddha, and
other great teachers, is highly principled. Jesus
said, for example, "By their fruits you shall know
them." Fruit is a long term production. You plant
a tree and wait. Little kids keep running out to
see if there is any fruit yet. When it does appear,
they can't wait for it to ripen. When you plant
an apple tree, you shouldn't be surprised when
you get apples. You should be surprised if you
don't! You reap what you sow. It's natural law:
karma. William James said, "Sow a thought,
reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow
a habit, reap a destiny." Our destiny in the
Middle East is a direct and predictable result
of our actions we have sowed and are sowing.

To the Muslim world, the West is a "world of
false gods." Among these are rationalism,
materialism, hedonism, skepticism, and
militarism, to name a few. This is what
makes us "infidels," in their eyes. That word
means "unfaithful." They don't use that term
for true Christians who actually practice the
teachings of Jesus. Christians in Shia Iran
are respected and protected.

Muslims know that Christian moral teachings
such as "just war doctrine" require humane
treatment of prisoners, and forbid killing non-
combatants. Both of these are regularly
violated by us in Iraq and Afghanistan, where
civilians are frequently killed in our attacks
on bad guys. Our air-mail bombs are much
deadlier than those hand-delivered by
suicides. But we keep no count of civilian
casualties, which tells Muslims: we don't
care. It says that there lives mean little to
us.

As for our massive and notorius mistreat-
ment of prisoners, this is a shocking and
ongoing denial of basic human decency that
is widely broadcast throughout the Muslim
world, and well documented in their media.
We have zero moral credibility in their eyes.
We are truly "infidels."

It is justified on our part by bogus pragma-
tism. It sacrifices our long-term interest for
illusory short-term gains. In addition to the
torture at Guantanamo verified by our FBI,
and the ongoing daily abuse there, extra
outrage and contempt is occasioned by our
official lying, not only about prisoner treat-
ment, but also about the legal basis for
putting prisoners beyond the reach of any
court or judge or means of legal protection.
Remember, these are suspects. They have
not been found guilty of anything! Out of
over 400, only 10 have ever been charged
with anything, and after five years, none of
them have been brought to trial.

Prisoners at Guantanamo have no contact
with their families, most of whom don't
know where they are. Suicides and attempts
are common there, as people give up hope
of ever getting a fair trial or seeing their
families again.

The Muslim world is increasingly bitter about
this travesty. Next to the apartheid being
clamped on the Palestinians (with our help
and financial support), Guantanamo and the
rest of the gulag system recruits more young
people into violent Islamism than any other
single issue. These atrocities are tragically
and severely staining the history and
testimony of this "Christian nation."

I referred above to the legal fiction that
Guantanamo is on foreign soil and not part
of the United States. The facts are that our
naval base there has been ours for over
100 years, on a permenent lease that can't
be changed without our consent. That, my
friends, constitutes ownership. We are
there against Cuba's will, and they refuse
to accept rent or recognize our right to be
there. Every realtor understands that
when property is held openly in a hostile
manner over a long period of time (usually
ten years), ownership passes by "adverse
possession" to the party holding the land.
Every bank recognizes the same thing, and
loans on the basis that a permanent lease
that can't be broken is the same as owner-
ship. Since we own the naval base at
Guantanamo, we are lying when we say
it's not U. S. territory. It's as much ours
as Guam or Saipan, which we claim as ours.

Still wondering why a lot them (and more
all the time) hate us?

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net