My last posting was highly critical of the power brokers in Washington, D.C. Current military policies are not abating the violence; however, the Democrats have no strategy other than withdrawl and a UN presence. The lessons of the 1970s have not been learned by either side in this conflict.

Our momentary military strikes overseas are necessary actions in our war against terrorism. Our permanent occupying presence is detrimental. We must create new boundaries and strategies against enemies that not only threaten Israel and the West, but every current Islamic regime as well. Our enemies will be satisfied with nothing less than Shari’a Law in every land. There is no pluralism or tolerance in their world-view. So how do we proceed forward?

Our military needs to be intelligent, lethal and mobile against known terrorist locales. We should alert allies and adversaries just prior to non-covert raids designed to destroy terrorist bases of operation. Regimes that legitimize terror need to be on notice that their support opens their land not to invasion and occupation, but incursion and pinpoint destruction of forces arrayed against us. We should encourage democratic movements where they are found, but be very clear we are not colonizers.

There are other, more sinister forces at work in this war. Russia and other EU nations have vested interests in our instability and in the destruction of Israel. Russia’s imperial aims have not changed and European hubris and antisemitism makes working together problematic. The world enjoys the humiliation of the USA.

Instead of general “surges”, let’s strike with overwhelming force against the hot spots of terror – regardless of borders. Then let’s go home and let local leaders decide if they want to move toward a civil world or risk further attacks.

I am a Judeo-Christian, pro-life, moderately conservative, thoughtful person. I diligently look for a dynamic “third way” on divisive issues. Global warming is happening, but the panic is accelerating beyond the science. Developing World debt needs resolving, but part of the resolution includes liberation from tyrants who confiscate the resources that are donated. Medical care should be available to everyone, but not centrally administrated by an overbloated federal system. Israel desrves secure borders and full recognition and the Palestinians deserve better leadership as they move toward statehood. These are just some of the thoughtful positions I try to articulate. I have suppported our current president due to his unswerving pro-life position, including stem-cell research, and his desire to protect us from terrorism.

Sadly, I must now go on record in full opposition to the current administrations in the White House and on Capitol Hill. I will continue to pray for them, respect the offices and hope for change; however, as a historian and scholarly observer, I now view the current leaders as destructive for the American Future.

There are three issues no one is willing to tackle seriously that undermine our future as a free nation. The first is immigration. The agendas of the global capitalists and one-world government advocates (with a North American Union as an interim step) are converging. Legal immigrants from anywhere in the world but Mexico face a tortuous gauntlet of red tape, legal fees and petty tyranny at the hands of corrupt government officials and lawyers. One exception to this is the full-tuition-paying foreign student! Meanwhile, we imprison border guards, call any enforcement racist and declare that a sane policy will hurt the economy. The loss of any sense of the rule of law and what citizenship means will do more to destroy our nation than endless reruns of “reality” shows. The current leaders on both sides of the aisle are too busy cozying up to powerful constituencies. The result may well be the loss of national sovereignty. President Bush – you are a threat to our future with this policy. Speaker Pelosi – if you care for our children, you will want them to value our heritage, ideals and laws.

The second issue is fiscal restraint. Neither party seems to understand Economics 101. Revenues have never been higher, yet we are told that it is not enough and that the “rich” (variously defined) do not pay enough. Meanwhile, the Republican Party sells its birthright for a mess of pragmatic, symbolic pottage. There is no surplus in Social Security and foreign nations hostile to our long-term well-being hold us captive in trade and T-bills. The entire tax system is designed to coddle the canny and soak the unwary. “Atlas may shrug” one day and spendthrift Americans may well become the servants of the rest of the world. Mr. President and Ms. Speaker – you fail us by not delivering a balanced budget and curtailing the pork.

There is a third issue that goes way beyond presidential or congressional control. Unless our citizens experience a moral awakening and understand that real freedom depends upon virtue and genuine virtue rests upon permanent principles, all the policy changes will be for nought. As long as Americans are content with the 21st century equivalent of “bread and circuses” there is no hope for a better future. As long as we “amuse ourselves to death” (Neal Postman), there will not be the courage to confront the challenges. Here aagin, the bully pulpits of politicians can be helpful. Where is the call for sacrifice as we confront terrorism? When will we learn that we can not have all the guns and butter we want? What is the strategic policy for our military once we leave Iraq? Conservatives love to say “smaller government” until their pet projects are involved! Liberals want to slash military spending – unless their local base is being shut dowm (thank you, Ron Dellums!).

The years 1968 to 2008 will go down in history as the era of erosion and subversion of all that is dear to Americans – unless there is a broad awakening among our populace. The Bush Administration will be villified as the great “bait and switch” school of political manipulation. A few pro-life tidbits for social conservatives can not make up for terrible fiscal, immigration, and military policies. The Democratic Party continues to be haunted by the 1968-1974 leftist takeover. They are equal partners in the destruction of the American Experiment.

I hope that this “history ahead of time” is proven wrong.

The rhetoric of party politicians and world leaders in recent days causes me to wonder what planet these folks think they are on.

The State of Union Address by President Bush put me to sleep within minutes. Nothing new, nothing particularly hopeful.

The Democratic Response was even worse – let’s roll out our alternative stats on the economy, critique the Iraq policy (not hard to do), but offer no real solutions in foreign or domestic affairs.

CNN and Fox News battle over Barak Obama’s elemenatry education, as if there have been no intervening experiences in his life. It looks like CNN has it right. Obama is not a dangerous terrorist – I think he is another empty-suited politician, but that is for another column.

The EU thinks it can bring peace to the Middle East and help run a Palestinian State – but Abbas and Co. are still unwilling to give real guarantees to Israel. Meanwhile, an aging Jimmy Carter continues to mix shoe polish and toothpaste when speaking on world affairs. Carter is not a Holocaust denier, but he is anti-Israeli and in his dotage he is moving dangerously to the extreme on this issue. If only he could have been content building houses…

Global warming is a fact – but the amount of human contribution remains a legitimate subject for debate. Now we have Weather Channel celebs calling for the decertification of anyone who departs from the party line. The U.N. is about to publish a major report “with the most evidence yet” of human contributions to climate change. Why the hysteria? It is simple – money for research and the hope of globalists to coercively direct the USA’s economy. By the way, serious ecological issues in Europe, Russia, China and India go almost unreported. There is a dirty little fact about the EU – they already have all the nuclear power they need!

Two Border Patrol officers are in prison for shooting a drug dealer, who, even after being given immunity, kept on smuggling drugs into the USA. Democrats shout “justice” (cheap votes eventually) and Republicans “opportunity” (cheap non-union labor) – but no one has a plan to secure our borders. WalMart wants a port in Kansas and the Left is still singing “Imagine.”

After listening to all the rhetoric, I conclude that most of our leaders are marooned on Fantasy Island. We have horrible deficits and trade imbalances, illegal immigration out of control, war-on-terror strategies in shambles and find the headlines dominated by the content of a movie no distributor will purchase.

The Republicans moved to Fantasy Island in the 1980s as they cut taxes (a good thing) but have not curtailed the growth of spending. The Democrats moved to the Island in the late 90s when Clinton claimed that the “surplus” (it does not exist) in Social Security could eliminate the deficit and pay down the national debt.

The UN is the caretaker of this Island. The UN honors Palestinian martrys and shows maps without an Israeli state, all the while claiming to be an honest broker. The billions embezelled by UN officials in the oil-for-food scandal under Saddam Hussein remain in the Caymans.

The EU, especially France, in in charge of the blueprints for the Island’s buildings. French politicians suffer collectively from Multiple Personality Disorder (Yes, my therapist friends, I know that MPD is now called Associateve Disorder – AD) – they rule a state run by elite technocrats, yet their international language is leftist and always anti-American. They claim to be cultural leaders, yet they are about to be conquered by foreign Muslims who refuse to assimilate.

Finally, our Fantasy Island needs a host. Who better for this than Hugo Chavez? His Marxist, nationalist and racialist language is straight from Che and Fidel’s playbooks of the 1960s, backed by street mobs and oil money.

Ricardo Montalban, where are you in our hour of need?

The coming weeks will feature numerous predictions of the future – especially for 2007. We will be deluged and disgusted or inspired and informed as we sift through all the pundits’ prognostications.

As we face this onslaught of information, there is the danger of slipping into one of two equally self-defeating mentalities. The first is resignation and retreat. “The world is going to do what it is going to do, so I’ll find my bunker-oasis-escape pod and hope for the best.” The second mode is hyper-activism: “If we do not face these issues head-on right now, Armaggedon will arrive by St. Patrick’s Day.” How do we navigate between the Scylla of fatalism and the Charybdis of frenetic, unfocused activity?

Often we think we have no control over “big” things and only limited control over our own daily lives. As people of faith and integrity, however, we have more opportunities to impact the world than we may at first realize!

We can not control the weather – but our personal and community habits can change local ecosystems and perhaps give our children a better world! After all, we are swimming in lakes and rivers that were cesspools in the 1950s and 1960s.

We can not control our politicians – but we elected them and we can unelect them. We can communicate clearly on issues that matter. Most of all, we can take repsonsibility for our neighborhoods and cities and help create a climate free from fear.

We can not control the decisions of enemies bent on our destruction. But we can pray for peace, work for solutions, speak the truth in love and refuse to give in to despair.

We do not pull the world’s economic strings – neither do the politicians in Washington. (They only think they do!) But we can give, save, spend wisely, and work with others to allieviate suffering and create alternative (legal) economies high on compassion, sacrifice and joy.

We do not (and should not) control the thoughts and actions of others. (Here I am not referring to appropriate parenting or project management.) We can however, speak persuasively, and by our actions compel others to consider their ways and perhaps join us in transforming our world.

In the end, we must learn the twin skills of self-discipline and releasing others from untoward expectations.

For 2007 – what can we expect? And what should we do? Consider the following:

We can expect in 2007:

More international tension – are our homes places of peace?

More economic changes – are we giving and managing well?

More crazy, immoral actions from celebrities – are we keeping our thoughts and actions (and computer screens) clean?

More egocentric politicians spinning the truth – are we telling ourselves the truth about the issues that concern us?

More information about just about everything – are we trying to be wise and not just “smart”?

Next week we will add detail to this list as we look at Iran, Israel and the USA at this moment in history. For now, let’s be empowered and know that what we do DOES make a big difference!

This Season is special. Christians around the world celebrate the birth of their Savior. Jewish families remember the miracle of the Menora as worship is restored in the Jerusalem Temple in 164 BC. Even a nation like Japan, with few Christian and Jewish adherents, allows time for festivities and gift exchanges, all because of events 2000 years ago.

The winter of 1938 was an auspicious time for the world and posits lessons for us as we reflect upon our current challenges. 1938 was the turning point in Hitler’s march toward domination in Europe and the destruction of the Jews. In 1938 the forcible union of Germany and Austria occured without a shot fired or any strong protest by other powers. The infamous Munich Conference in the Fall dismembered Czechoslovakia while its architects declared “peace in our time.”

These diplo-militaristic triumphs reiforced Hitler’s hubris and opened the door for the campaigns that would plunge a world into war by September 1939. Hitler was emboldened to remove the last of the independent-thinking generals on his staff and make immediate preparations for consuming the rest of Czechoslovakia (March 1939) and destroying Poland (September 1, 1939). The failure of the West to intervene, in spite of superior manpower, opened the door for the temporary pact with the Soviet Union (August 22, 1939) that would ultimately enslave the eastern half of Europe during and after WWII.

But there is one more event that moved civilization toward the Abyss. That event was the Nazi-orchestrated, “spontaneous” destruction of Germany’s Jewish people and property on November 8, 1939. This infamous Kristillnacht (“Night of the Broken Glass”) resulted in hundreds of deaths, thousands of beatings and arrests and the final economic collapse of Jewish assets. The excuse was the execution of a military attache in Paris by a lone Jewish gunman. The real policy was a mix of greed and hatred and a testing of the national and international political waters. There were protests from around the world, but no significant action.

Kristillnacht was a critical step toward the “Final Solution” that would be implemented from 1941 to 1945 and result in the death of six million Jews and millons of other “undesirables.”

Why is this moment in 1938 relevant for 2007? We are watching the same demonic opposition toward the Jews and serious Christians by Islamofacist radicals. Like Hitler, they begin with propoganda to marginalize. For the past several years, Israel has been blamed for most of the unrest in the Middle East in various international and Islamic circles. Hitler blamed the Jews for everything from Germany’s defeat in WWI to her economic and social ills. Today’s mullahs do the same and they are joined by millions of willing accomplices who hate Jews and the State of Israel.

After marginalization and persecution comes terror and violence just short of open warfare. Kristillnacht has been reborn in the terror of Hamas and Hezbollah and the numerous spineless politicians who are willing to sacrifice the existence of Israel on the altar of oil profits. It is also the name of a neo-Nazi band and a code word for post-modern hatred of the Jews!

On January 30, 1939 Hitler warned the world of a coming war in Europe, stating that if war did come (and Hitler had all the Polish plans ready), it would be the Jews fault and result in their “destruction.”

Today as we read Iranian prophecies of Israel’s destruction and observe the growth of anti-Semistism throughout the world, the response of most people seems to be to ignore it and get to the next mall for “Holiday” shopping.

We must stay alert and not allow our fear or self-hatred to blind us to the current threats to Israel, Europe and the USA. Radical muslims are already demanding separate legal systems and some foolish Western intellectuals are proposing a “plurality” of norms to accomodate them, thus destroying 2,500 years of moral and legal progress. Well-meaning leaders must get free of the delusion that Iran, Syria and other parties will ever negotiate in good faith. The destruction of Israel and demise of the West is still the agenda for Damascus, Tehran and every Islamic group, including the terrorist front in the USA called CAIR.

We do not have to repeat the same mistakes of apathy and delusion of our predecessors.

Israel is not perfect. She must be held accountable for her mistakes. She has been and is willing to negotiate land for peace – as long as that peace includes recognition of her legitimacy to exist as a sovereign nation in secure borders. So far, unambiguous guarantees are not forthcoming from any party in the current conflict. The immanent nuclear threat of Iran and the overt hatred of so many nations justifies her vigilance.

The USA must not give in to Arab and Iranian demands; in fact, we should be demanding more accountability from nations whose wealth could ameliorate the poverty of the “Arab Street” overnight!

Poverty can incite violence – witness the bread riots throughout the Medieval times in England. Poverty, however, is not the cause of the animus toward Israel. Unrelenting hate-filled propoganda against the Jews and the USA fills the minds of the very people who could bring peace.

As we celebrate this special Season, perhaps we can pledge ourselves to peaceful and powerful activism for peace in the Name of the Prince of Peace. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” The peace we promote begins with humility toward God, grows as we are honest with one another and ends in real justice and shalom for all parties currently at war. There can be peace – if we learn from the past and create a different future.