Osama bin Laden Dead? Don't Dance in the Streets and Celebrate Just Yet!

Osama bin Laden Killed by U. S. Forces --- one of many headlines flooding the media outlets on Monday, May 2, 2011

It's a day that many longed for with great anticipation -- the death of one considered by huge numbers of people, including some government leaders, to be the Number 1 enemy in the world, Osama bin Laden.

Interesting quotes from various sources:

Al-Qaida leader killed in operation led by Navy SEALs, CIA forces

President Barack Obama declared Monday that the U.S. had "kept its commitment to justice," saying the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was "a good day for America."

Obama: Bin Laden's death means world is a safer place

DNA evidence: 100 percent certain it was bin Laden

A word of caution here though very few have considered the possibilities of what can happen in the future so far as the United States is concerned. It is no time to dance in the streets and celebrate in the same spirit as you would if your favorite team has just won the Super Bowl!

Consider why we should refrain from expressing a spirit of joy and gladness in the death of Osama bin Laden:

First, this is just one man with a lot of connections who is a hero and a noble example to those who engage in terrorists' activities, with the United States prominently on the list of targeted nations. What do you suppose is going to be the reaction of highly trained terrorist groups as leaders in the United States strut about boasting of this great "accomplishment?" At least a few of us take the position that these people will not sit down and twiddle their thumbs for months or years before they begin to embark on a campaign of revenge! The best approach would have been to keep the whole operation a secret and not let it be known that the man had been killed, but our deceptive pride would never permit that to take place!

Second, the blessing of God is no longer upon us as in times long since past. We are a nation steeped in defiance and stubbornness when it comes to taking God and His holy standards seriously for establishing a sane, sensible, serene, sober, secure, and stable republic. Leading the way as a special "invitation" for God to pour out His wrath on us is the fact that we intentionally destroy 25,000 unborn children every week. And this is done with the express approval of our president and a large number of the members of the U.S. Congress! Other issues that also place us in the precarious position of being harshly judged by Almighty God are discussed at "Driving the Final Nails". So it is not wise to celebrate the death of one considered to be a great enemy to our nation and to the world at large! We have a heap of work to do in getting our own house in order ethically, morally, and spiritually.

Third, God's standard in regard to the defeat and/or death of those considered to be enemies is quite different than the usual human approach. In His Word God reveals this:

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him. --- Proverbs 24:17,18

But of course, to make reference to such a statement as the preceding from God's Word, is to simply confirm the fact that we as a nation do not want God meddling in our affairs, especially when we are so used to living in a proud and self-serving fashion. Who in the world wants to listen to God -- He's too unreasonable in His demands, so we'll just do things our way!

The day will come when the celebration in the streets will be turned into intense mourning and maybe, just maybe, someone will say, "We need to pray and call on God!" And His response may well be a repeat of what He said a long time ago when a people turned to Him in a crisis. I will not quote that here, but if you dare, turn to Jeremiah 2 in the Old Testament of the Bible and see the details. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

In spite of the growing intensity of calamities striking our republic as time goes on, there is no real serious call that we need to repent and turn to God as a nation. Those in elected leadership refuse to seriously take God at His Word and those in church leadership don't seem all that concerned either as to the fact that we may well have crossed over the line of God's offer of grace and mercy on condition of repentance and now it is a matter of time until He brings judgment!!

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. "Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. --- Romans 12:19-21

What About the Those Other Victims Who Died on September 11, 2001?

U.S. marks anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks. Presidential candidates join in events; new memorial to be unveiled in D.C. --- Internet headlines September 11, 2008

September 11, 2008 – a date which has attracted a lot of attention due to its being the 7th anniversary of what has come to be known as 9-11, when nearly 3,000 lives were lost due to terrorist attacks involving the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and an aircraft crash in south central Pennsylvania. The latter resulted when passengers revolted against the terrorist hijackers. It is clear that the plane was headed for DC with either the Capitol or the White House as possible targets.

There will be much by way of observance in remembering that horrible time. It has also resulted in a kind of political “football” with politicians trying to make a little bit of “hay” out of this thing about what is necessary to insure that we are truly secure as a nation and the tragedy will never be repeated within our borders.

What has never made the news nor has it drawn even a minuscule of attention is the fact that on that same day and every week day of the year at least an equal number or more lives were and are violently snuffed out in these United States!

Is there any outrage expressed as was the case on September 11, 2001? Were any special observances held for these victims who were violently assaulted and murdered? Did the mass media which at times repeatedly showed us the fiery impact of the aircraft hitting one of the towers and the collapse of the towers shortly thereafter take any time to inform us of details involving the other 3,000 or more victims who died on September 11, 2001?

If one allows oneself to think about this a bit, one is forced to face the fact that there is more than tad of hypocrisy taking place – much attention focused on one solitary event happening on September 11, 2001 but nothing about the millions of victims prior to or since that date!

And so we continue our very narrow focus on terrorism and the victims of certain terrorist acts – it’s like we have deliberately placed on the sides of our faces a pair of those “blinders” such as horses wear, limiting our vision to that one solitary happening and living in a state of denial, pretending that millions of unborn children never really existed, nor were they ever mutilated and murdered in the womb! There are people around today who deny that the Holocaust never happened in Nazi Germany!

And if we do admit that such atrocities are taking place in our republic, we dismiss it as though it doesn’t really matter because it’s our “constitutional right” to engage in such practices – that is, until the Creator of this universe says, “Enough is enough!” None of us will want to be within the boundaries of this republic when Almighty God responds to this massive shedding of innocent blood!

If you are one who considers yourself to be an individual always willing to face reality, see By the Way, Did You Know? It provides a challenging experience of doing some shocking comparisons! A link at the bottom of that area will bring you back to this place. Or do you choose, as do most, to keep the blinders in place because you don't honestly want to face reality and what might happen in the future so far as this republic is concerned?

"Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. So you shall say to them, 'This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.'" --- Jeremiah 7:27, 28

Torture the Terrorist Suspects Because It Saves Lives, But in the Long Run...!

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and includes the interrogation requirement. It passed the House in December and the Senate last month.. --- snippet of news release on Saturday, March 8, 2008

President Bush is insistent that we torture terrorist suspects in order to obtain "information" because in his mind and those of his supporters, it saves lives and prevents future terrorist attacks. Yes, it is debated whether waterboarding is torture or not -- you know, that gentle process of placing a cloth over the victim's face, then wetting it down while the victim is resrtrained and it duplicates the experience of drowning!

As suggested in an earlier post on this subject, if it is not torture as the president insists, then let him and his loyal supporters go through the experience themselves for a few days in a row and see what their conclusions are -- if it is not torture as he vehemently insists, then he should have no problem undergoing the "procedure" himself so he can be in a better position to convince diehard skeptics such as I that it is totally harmless!

The above quoted news release also mentioned the following:

"The Bush administration continues to insist that CIA and other nonmilitary interrogators are not bound by the military rules and has reportedly given CIA interrogators the green light to use a range of so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, and exposure to extreme cold," Daskal said. "Although waterboarding is not currently approved for use by the CIA, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to take it off the table for the future."

But really, what can we expect -- if we have regressed to a barbaric state and have engaged in terrorist activities of a unique kind for decades within our own boundaries, why feel any sense of guilt or be concerned about the humane treatment of those whom we might regard as "enemies?" After all, if we sanction the intentional invasion of the sanctuary of the human womb and carry out a brutal act of dismemberment and murder of the person residing there thousands of times each week, why be the least concerned about torturing some people to get information on the pretense that this will "save" lives in the future?

You can take a little side trip on this subject -- it won't cost you even an extra cent! Go to President Bush's "Selective" War Against Terrorism! -- this will give a few details on certain "terrorists" who operate legally in this country and get paid for doing so! A link at the bottom of the area will bring you back here or use the reverse feature on your web browser.

The tragedy in this whole scenario? Simply this -- the president gives his approval to highly questionable "methods" of interrogation with the claim that it will save American lives in the future, but has such short sighted vision that he cannot see that the republic over which he presides at the present time is at the ripened stage for a very unpleasant visitation from Almighty God -- it's called JUDGMENT!

Bush's (or whoever has the unfortunate destiny to occupy the Oval Office from Jan. 20, 2009 onward) experts in government will not be able to run their computers fast enough to keep a tally of the calamities initiated by the Creator of this universe as He demonstrates once again the truth of an eternal law which spells out in no uncertain terms that He is not mocked and whatever one sows, one reaps accordingly -- a law that applies to individuals and also to whole nations. The ruins of the once mighty Babylonian empire and many others testify that no one mocks God and gets away with it!

Or to put it in words that were common in farming communities a few generations in the past -- "The chickens are coming home to roost!"

Forget about a few people presently incarcerated and trying to pry information out of them by highly questionable means -- it is time for our elected officials, church leaders and we citizens to be giving attention to the making of decisions and taking actions that will not just save lives, but our whole republic!

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.' Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward."..... What will you say when He punishes you? For you have taught them to be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, like a woman in labor? And if you say in your heart, "Why have these things come upon me?" For the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil. "Therefore I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me," says the LORD, "Because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face, that your shame may appear....I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, 'I will not hear.' This has been your manner from your youth, that you did not obey My voice." --- Jeremiah 7:23, 24; 13:21-26; 22:21

Even the Marines Have to Be Impressed with the Navy's Approach to Terrorism!

President Bush some years ago declared war on terrorists. The phrase, "war on terrorism," has become a household word in the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

The United States Navy initiated what it defined as a "Catch and Release Program" in support of the president's new war. With a bit of fanfare the following announcement was made and a photograph attached which reveals the efficiency of the new program:

"The U. S. Navy today announced that it has released a senior Al Qaeda terrorist after questioning him extensively for 27 days while he was held prisoner aboard a U. S. aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. In a humanitarian gesture the terrorist was given $50 US and a white Ford Fairlane automobile upon being released from custody. The attached photo shows the terrorist on his way home just after being released by the Navy."

Being an ex Marine, I have to admit -- will the Corps ever be able to top this one?

Source: Circuit Rider's Humor Hut