The sheer volume of raging crises has grown so large, it is getting difficult to keep up with anything other than the latest developments that media outlets believe will generate the most interest. Putting them in some kind of order of importance would also be a daunting task, because some threaten the whole civilized world; some threaten the continued viability of the United States, which also has implications for the whole world. Where should we start? Will any of them ever be solved, or will they all continue to fester until chaos ensues everywhere?
The threat of ISIS has come front and center, resulting in perhaps the first declaration from the current administration that protection of the homeland and safety of Americans overseas is a priority. It comes a little late for our ambassador and the three others who lost their lives at Ben Ghazi, and for the American journalists whose heads were severed on camera. But now, at least there is a “strategy,” consisting largely of what we will not do to quell the ISIS threat. We know that there are hundreds of passport holders from western countries, including the U.S., that have traveled across uncontrolled borders to join the terrorists in Syria. That concern has resulted in stepped up efforts to screen entry back into the U.K., but no such assurances have been forthcoming for the U.S. Numerous reports of Middle Easterners and North Africans coming across the southern border of the United States have been published, but they’re always denied or played down by the responsible agencies.
Cult of Death
Colonel Ralph Peters declared that the terrorist band, having now fielded an army equipped with American tanks artillery and armored personnel carriers, is engaging in mass human sacrifice, as part of a religious ritual.Even the Nazi’s didn’t film beheading.
ISIS has conquered northern Iraq, seizing peoples’ property (Sunni and Shia alike), looting banks and museums, destroying historical monuments and mosques, declaring the establishment of a caliphate. Nearly every analyst credits the U.S. president’s order to hastily withdraw American forces for creating the vacuum terrorist ISIS has been able to exploit. It will be interesting to see how the Arab countries across the Middle East will respond to the blowing up of mosques, the looting of artifacts and destruction of antiquities. There has been some hope that these acts might inflame some passion against ISIS among the Arab countries. There is no sign of that yet, but the threat from al Bagdadi, to destroy the “kabah” (the black rock in Mecca that every Muslim regards as a religious imperative to visit and worship during the haj sometime in their lifetime) may yet see Muslim nations act against him. At least that’s what you’d think. Early indications are that none of the wealthy gulf kingdoms are willing to go to war against ISIS.
Not until tens of thousands of fleeing Kurds and “Christians” were stranded without food and water on a mountain in Kurdish territory did the U.S. intervene with humanitarian air drops and some strikes against ISIS positions. That may be ramping up to a more consistent effort, but the administration and State Department have rushed their spokesmen out before microphones and cameras to assure the American public and the world that U.S. troops will definitely not be deployed.
Ebola Panic
It is not our custom to panic every time there is a scare about some imported disease or virus. But the jury is still out as to whether Ebola will become a major health concern in the United States. Many are finding it almost unbelievable that the administration would categorically rule out any activity by special forces or any type of ground intervention against ISIS, no matter what the circumstances. But today they’re grappling with the news that 3000 military personnel have been dispatched to western Africa to “fight” Ebola.
Who would have guessed that something like this would fall to the responsibility of U.S. troops? Apparently, there’s no danger that U.S. armed services personnel will contract the disease. At least that’s what the administration is saying. But as we all know, doctors and aides who are experts on the disease, who were taking every precaution to avoid contracting it including wearing hazmat garb, came down with it anyway. After hog-tying the American military, having them “stand down” during the attacks in Ben Ghazi, preventing them from going after the bad guys in the Middle East, it must be insult on top of injury to order them into the midst of an Ebola epidemic. What if, contrary to official assurances, some do come down with the disease? Do you think for one minute they’ll be quarantined in Liberia?
Having refused to take seriously the tens of thousands here on expired visas from regions rife with terror; after refusing to stanch the flood of Central Americans continually pouring illegally into the United States; Ebola may well be the next unwelcome guest we’re expected to host. We can only wonder if it too will be covered by the promised executive order granting amnesty.
Southern Border
America’s southern border has become a gateway to “social justice,” as an ongoing flood of illiterate, utterly dependent Central Americans continues unabated. They’ve been secretly whisked to virtually every state in the union, arriving at unknown locations to be “processed” and released into society. It’s been described as an untold economic burden, as many are registered as “homeless” and therefore qualified for economic assistance from numerous government programs. Media outlets have been stonewalled by federal agencies in their quest to report on the situation, and many in the mainstream simply are not interested.
Even more secret is the identity and status of those from terrorist regions. Some apprehended crossing the border have reportedly been turned over to ICE or Homeland Security with no further word. The only thing we know for sure is that the southern border can be breached at will, and routinely is. Sheriff Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona says that he’s turned some illegals over to the Feds as many as twenty five times, only to catch and arrest them again. It is less than reassuring, even though we are routinely told that the border has never been more secure.
With unknown millions illegally subsisting in U.S. society at public expense, everyone is braced for an executive order that will magically bestow legal status upon them. This promised wave of wand has been delayed until after November for obvious reasons, which has really irked the president’s base of support.
Not only are the illegals and their lawyers ticked, the LGBT (no, its not a sandwich) crowd is reportedly going to take up the cause with mass demonstrations in DC and at the “holding centers” where they are housed before being released. Maybe this bunch can find out where they are!
Iran’s Nuclear Program
Iran continues its program to develop nuclear weapons. The mullahs and diplomats insist that their project is only for the production of power, but evidence shows otherwise. They are, according to every outside observer, pursuing their program in ways that can only be attributed to weaponization. Iran is also widely known to be the primary supplier of rockets and missiles to Hamas in Gaza. It appears that Iran, with sanctions having been largely dropped and attention shifted first to the conflict in Israel then to ISIS, is at liberty to forge ahead with its nefarious nuclear work. We’re going to hate the circumstances that bring the Iranian nuclear program back to the front pages.
Israel vs. Hamas
The explosive projectiles fired at Israeli population centers by the hundreds somehow failed to incite American passion against Hamas, even though an American teenager was kidnapped and murdered along with three other Israelis during the conflict.
Israel came under constant and unrelenting rocket attack from the longest-range projectiles seen from Gaza to date, demonstrated to be able to reach Tel Aviv, the international airport at Lod, and the outskirts of Jerusalem. The whole world watched, painfully, as Israel spent weeks with its soldiers on the ground in Gaza trying to ferret out tunnels and destroy rocket arsenals. The exercise turned much of Gaza to rubble, resulted in a couple of thousand Palestinian dead and some 66 dead Israelis before a cease fire finally held and the rockets ceased, for now.
We’ve seen similar scenarios play out over recent years, when the organized terrorist attacks from Lebanon or Gaza finally become too disruptive to Israel’s society to be allowed to continue. But something was decidedly different this time. While the current U.S. administration tried to find a “moral equivalence” quotient in its attempt to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign, several prominent Arab countries actually sided with Israel against Hamas, at least publicly.
Hamas is known to be a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was promoted by the administration and State Department in its “Occupy Wall Street” style takeover of Egypt. It took less than one year of despotic rule and shortages of basic necessities for an even larger revolution to run Morsi and his bearded band of religious autocrats out of power. The powers that be in D.C. were flabbergasted and outraged that their chosen Egyptian leaders were thrust out by an overwhelming majority of the Egyptian people. They turned to the respected Egyptian general Sisi, who had kept Egypt’s military forces at bay during the first revolution that overthrew President Mubarak, and the subsequent uprising against the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt elected Sisi president to the dismay of the current U.S. administration, and have you noticed? We’ve seen no more mass demonstrations in Tahrir Square. Obviously, the supply lines of basic necessities have been restored.
What will it take for the Palestinians in Gaza to realize that full immersion in hatred for Israel and unbridled blood-lust toward Jews can only destroy whatever pitiful modicum of civilized existence they’ve been able to enjoy under the brutal Hamas.
As for the Israelis, they’ve had about all the “advice” and pressure they can stand from the U.S. administration. “Leave us alone. Go focus on Syria,” said Uri Ariel, Knesset member and Israeli minister of housing, in a message intended for the American president. “We never thought it would be the Americans who would lead the pressure.”
Russia’s Designs on East Europe
Russian annexation of Crimea poses a threat to eastern Ukraine and other former Soviet possessions in east Europe. Now Putin’s “separatist” proxies have shot down a civilian airliner with a Russian missile battery. The Dutch, who lost 189 of the 298 people on board the Boeing 777, are especially angry and holding Putin to blame. But, in another example of twisted logic, Putin is blaming the Ukrainian government for battling the “Russian separatists” in their attempt to carve out the eastern half of the country and annex it to Russia!
As we go to press, a cease-fire between the Russian separatists (known to be taking orders from Putin) and the Ukranian forces is in effect. But with the west, and particularly the U.S. telegraphing weakness, it can be only a matter of time before Putin probes further.
The Euro Debt Crisis
The crisis that threatens the European Union as we know it first emerged some four years ago. The nations of southern Europe, including Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, were defaulting on their debts, and just like every other crisis listed above, without a credible solution. The crisis was postponed with re-negotiations of national debts agreed to by Germany, against promises of salary cuts for bureaucrats and a steep reduction in social programs. The austerity measures have been deeply unpopular and the European economy has continued to stagnate. Now the European Central Bank and the European Union itself is beginning to fall out of popular favor all across Europe as recent parliamentary elections demonstrated. It also seems to have become conventional wisdom that the British will pull out of the EU in the next few years. The French are also getting fed up with economic regulations in the EU which prevent “quantitative easing” (currency printing of the sort practiced in the U.S.), and if France goes too, which looks increasingly likely, the EU will be irreparably defunct.
Though not the stuff of headlines, particularly in the current news environment, the British Economist says that popular sentiment in the depressed economies of Europe will bring this crisis back front and center, and the reemergence of the euro-crisis as a major factor is just over the horizon.
America’s Debt Crisis
It may actually not be a legitimate crisis at the moment. But it certainly has been at crucial moments when the government’s authority to spend money it doesn’t have has expired. The politicians have enshrined automatic “continuing resolutions” for these occasions, so that each deadline doesn’t result in another political cat-fight featuring threats to shut the government down along with the routine outrage and political recriminations. But no one denies, there is a day of reckoning somewhere down the road, and the current administration seems to have no qualms whatever about the ever-growing nanny-state status that has been imposed upon Americans, against the will of the vast majority who are economically productive.
We know that the number of people that have dropped out of the workforce in the U.S. has undergone a dramatic rise in recent years and is now calculated to be some 92,000,000. All 92 million are undoubtedly receiving their complement of government benefits. Over 46 million receive government food assistance at a cost of $71,800,000,000 annually. Add to that the unknowable vast footprint of government programs and agencies, and it’s a mind-boggling thing. Even the most prosperous nation in the history of the world cannot indefinitely finance everyone who would rather accept support than engage in productive work. Even so, there’s no shortage of advertising even on radio, and especially on the Internet, encouraging people to sign up for free government money.
Now that there are well over a hundred thousand illegal Central Americans in the U.S., the agencies of the current administration are anxious to see them fed, sheltered, educated, doctored and lawyered at taxpayer expense. “Oh, that’s just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of government expenditures,” the apologists respond.
But the system is being overloaded, and the bucket will one day overflow with debt. The dollar’s only salvation at present, is how much trouble the rest of the world’s currencies are in. For the moment, the dollar looks strong against the weakness of the euro, and depressed economies worldwide. But that day of reckoning is coming, the only question is when.
Americans who are paying attention (maybe 20 million or so?) know that our nation currently projects an image of weakness to the rest of the world. They know that our allies do not trust the current administration, and that our enemies both large and small neither fear nor respect today’s USA. The last time the nation made a dramatic turnaround of the magnitude needed was when Jimmy Carter left the White House and Ronald Reagan took the helm.
But matters are far more complicated now than then, and the necessary rehabilitation would be much more painful (perhaps impossible) given the dishonesty of the agenda-driven media and the near collapse of national morality. Near as we can tell there is no Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings, and no sign of a people ready to repent for having desecrated everything sacred.
Without the comfort of God’s truth, the knowledge of His Laws and the hope of salvation the whole situation would be overwhelmingly depressing. Serious observers can at least take heart in the fact that we can save our souls, if not our country.
