Vision

On or about the same time that the British reported they had lost over 200 soldiers in the Afghanistan fighting, it was reported that 12 times more opium leaves Afghanistan now than before the war started 8 years ago. The world's love for smack is probably the reason this bogus war is being fought. I have been in Afghanistan three times in my life, the Hindu Kush mountains are the most formidable terrain on earth. There is nothing in the entire country that would cause anyone to want it: Russians, British, US or anyone else. The only possible reason countries continue to fight over this poor, desolate unforgiving country, is the poppy crop which supplies the world with opium. Is it really worth the fight?

In the War of 1812, a headline came out in one paper, “Great Battle Won. Only One Man Killed.” Just one man was killed in this battle, but for the mother of that man, the wife of that man, the children of that man, it was the end of their world. A few years ago, in one Russia battle to gain a foothold in Afghanistan, a young Russian soldier was killed and his remains were sent home to his family in a casket which was sealed and which was accompanied by another solider. There was a time even in this country, when battle casualties were brought home in flag-draped caskets with an accompanying honor guard. (Now, pictures are not even made of caskets at Dover). The Russian mother of this dead solider thought she could see her dead son in the casket in uniform and she so begged the guards to open the casket. Someone should have prepared this family as all families about the condition of casualties in modern war. Anyway, she put some sleeping tablets in some tea, which she gave the guard and when he passed out, she got a crow bar and got the casket open. She, nor anyone else could be prepared for what she saw. Often, when explosives, even with suicide bombers do their damage, there is not much left that anyone would want to see.

Young men who have been reared in the sanity and sanitized life style of most Americans are not prepared for what they see in warfare, certainly not in modern warfare. At Fort Campbell, KY, the 101st “Screaming Eagles' ” commander, Brig. Gen. Townsend, who has lost an average of two men a week to suicide said, "Suicide is a permanent solution to what is only a temporary problem. Screaming Eagles don't quit. No matter how bad your problem seems today, trust me, it's not the end of the world. It will be better tomorrow. Don't take away your tomorrow."

Military investigators have found that most suicides result from drugs, financial problems and marital problems. But, I attribute many of the problems in the military to the anti-Christian attitude taken by the military in recent years. It is reported that Bibles are not considered important.

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.

Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed."
According to the military officials, the Bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. Reuters says the soldier brought them to the Bible study class where they were filmed.

It has been reliably reported to me that on some military bases, NCO's are confiscating personal bibles of soldiers. If there is ever a time in a young man or a young woman's life, when a personal relationship with God and the Bible is needed, it is a time of military service, especially in a combat zone. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18) It is a certainty, that all deaths reported as suicide are not suicides. Two of the most famous are Admiral Borta who reportedly committed suicide and NFL football's, Pat Tillman who was supposedly killed by friendly fire. Many feel that Tillman knew things about the bogus Afghan war to which some might listen because of his prominence. In 1978, at a military conference involving terrorism, the FBI is reported to have said that they could make any death appear to be suicide or natural.
It does not take dumbed-down, pleasure-seeking Americans long to tire of an unpopular war. After the planes supposedly destroyed the World Trade Center and one supposedly hit the Pentagon (small hole by big plane, the explanation for the Pentagon plane explosion - never understood) on September 11th, 2001 (9-11). There was an outburst of patriotism for about two weeks. Someone said to me, “I have never seen so many flags.” I said, “It will be over real quick. American patriotism and the flying of flags is short-lived.” It reminds me of an old man in the country church who went to the alter in repentance every time the church had a revival. His salvation did not last very long. His wife once said, “If it would only stick.”
Young men and women are never prepared for the horrors of warfare, the destruction, the dead, the mangled. Any disaster leaves an unforgettable impression. Traveling through India by train, the railroad built high, so the train could make it through a flooded area, I was not prepared to see the bloated animals in the flood waters. Nor was I prepared for the desperation of the people. Every time the train stopped, women and children were clambering and begging for drinking water. Of our senses, vision leaves the greatest impression. In a fraction of a second, what we see, travels through the cortex of the brain and is usually forever remembered. Young warriors never recover from war. Think of what it does to the children in the war-torn areas who are living with the Uranium-coated bullets polluting THEIR soil. Sounds of gunfire and helicopter blades will only be forgotten with the passage of time.

In the Bible, kings were only remembered as either good or evil. In America, presidents are supposed to leave some legacy. It is truly tragic that most leave a legacy of warfare involvement where young warriors are killed and countries are made desolate. Politicians are very charming. How else could they get elected? A governor said that Russia's Gorbachev and his wife were two of the most charming people one could imagine. A congressmen said that George. W. Bush and his wife were two of the most charming people one could imagine. One loses charm in combat boots and helmets. But you never lose the stench of death.

My father was the toughest man I have ever known in war or elsewhere. I never knew him to cry but 3 times, when my mother died, when a barn burned, and I understood he cried when he learned I had lost eyesight. Get the vision. FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.