Posted on 01/15/2005 4:19:58 AM PST by Clive
I have to admit it. U.S. President George Bush is beginning to grow on me.
In an interview with a Washington newspaper this past week, he made two statements that have landed him in a certain amount of trouble, but which are in fact supremely wise.
The first was that a political leader, particularly an American president, should be a person of faith. The second was that women should never have to fight on the ground, in the front line, in a military conflict.
As for the former, he is absolutely correct. People who believe in their own supremacy rather than that of a higher being are far more capable of acts of sadism and horror. Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot, among others, have taught us that.
Yes, I know that religious people have committed terrible crimes down the ages, but they have done so in spite of, and in contradiction to, their beliefs. Atheists have no such moral compass and may act according to will and whim.
Popular myth has it that religion has caused more wars and led to more suffering than anything else in history. Glib and gruesome. Death camps, genocide and world wars are almost exclusively the product of the hatred, not the love, of God.
As for the latter remark, Bush's view of women in combat may be unfashionable, but that does not make it any less ethical or accurate.
Equality does not mean the elimination of differences. Women can be prime ministers, women can be editors, women can be business leaders, women can be almost anything they want to be.
They have a fundamental right to equal pay, equal privileges and equal dignity. But the right to not be women is not a right at all but an abuse of nature. And women as killers is precisely that, a destruction of the quintessence of what it means to be a female.
Front-line soldiers exist to shoot, injure and kill. And sometimes to die. We can pretend that the combat death of a woman, a mother, is just the same as the loss of a man, a father, but lies of political convenience have never been particularly useful.
There are also issues of sheer practicality. No man worth the description would defend a male comrade in need before he defended a female soldier. Thus women in combat infantry roles would put other fighters in profound danger.
More than this, however, there is something sacred and unique about a woman's ability to give birth, to nurse, to be the epicentre of life. This is not an opinion but a bright, shining reality. One that, if we are honest, only an enemy of women would reject.
It's also worth remembering that a great many of the people who push gender equality in the armed forces and are angry at Bush care not a jot for the armed forces -- but care everything for gender equality. They follow an obsession, which at its logical conclusion will obliterate the differences between men and women.
Feminism was at one time a means to an end, a way of improving the lot of women. It has now too often become an end in itself, confused in its ideology and confusing in its intentions.
Feminists embraced peace and were opposed to war. Now they want women to drop bombs on the enemies of their government.
Countries such as Israel, with years of bloody war experience, experimented with using women in combat roles but quickly reversed the policy.
In the first Gulf war, the U.S. used a small number of women as pilots. Some performed well, some went to pieces -- one was captured and repeatedly raped by her captors.
Yet even if all of them had been heroes, we must question a society that increasingly marginalizes motherhood but desires its women to plunge bayonets and throw grenades. It's a sin to stay at home with the children and have a large family, but a modernist virtue to fire a flame-thrower.
It's really very simple. The day women as front-line soldiers die to defend any country is the day that country is no longer worth defending.
Bush understands this. Perhaps because he is precisely what he said in his interview -- a man of faith.
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That's worthy of a bump and a repeat.
A canuck that gets it.
They'll be deported, soon.
bttt
Looks like a canuck that would be welcome here in Dixie.
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Now if Bush will just state that he's going to seal our borders and deport the illegals.
Ping for later
bttt
"People who believe in their own supremacy rather than that of a higher being are far more capable of acts of sadism and horror...Yes, I know that religious people have committed terrible crimes down the ages, but they have done so in spite of, and in contradiction to, their beliefs."
What about Osama bin Laden? His actions have NOT been in contradiction to his beliefs. As unfashionable as it is to say, what he's doing is firmly rooted in Islamist law. He is not simply "misinterpreting" or "distorting" his religion. No one wants to admit that.
Now I agree that I want my president to be a Christian. But there are Democrats who believe in a higher power -- as in, almost everyone who attends my church. They're not just poseurs: they believe in Christ and they are Democrats. But I think they're utterly wrong.
At the same time, some Republicans who make a show of being Christian ARE poseurs. Not most, in my opinion, but some. And I admit I have a hard time knowing what's sincere and what isn't.
For these reasons, the real litmus test for me is whether I agree with the leader's policies. Is the person a true conservative?
People who believe in their own supremacy rather than that of a higher being are far more capable of acts of sadism and horrorRepeating.
Amen to that, however are you all missing the point of this article? The author of the article starts out by praising the President for his stand on God and Christianity and than suddenly takes a turn and talks about women in the armed services and feminism in general.
Indeed, some atheists have no moral compass. But it's grossly unfair to state that all atheists are without moral direction simply because they don't believe in a supreme being.
a pretty broad statement but like in the old west I can picture women picking up the old flintlock and wasting a few aggressors.
"Now I agree that I want my president to be a Christian. But there are Democrats who believe in a higher power -- as in, almost everyone who attends my church. They're not just poseurs: they believe in Christ and they are Democrats. But I think they're utterly wrong. "
If almost everyone who attends your church is still a democrat, I'm pretty sure you're going to the wrong church.
In my church there used to be a guy who had a demo bumper-sticker on his car -- But then he and his wife got divorced. She got a different car and he stopped coming.
Bump
Mr. Coren, what took you so long - what blinded you?
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. Are you suggesting that his views on women in the military are wrong?
As a former military officer, who served both before and after Clinton and the radical feminists changed the law, I can attest that women most definitely do NOT belong in combatant units.
"People who believe in their own supremacy rather than that of a higher being are far more capable of acts of sadism and horror. Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot, among others, have taught us that."
This is a quote for the centuries.
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