Posted on 11/28/2005 5:08:30 PM PST by Esther Ruth
Right on! PING
Based on what we get for what we give, the Saudis have been a better ally than Israel.
******
What the nations that do not bless Israel are going to get is cursed!
"Would you have us give Georgia back to the Five Civilized Tribes?"
The treaties were broken and the Cherokee were brutally killed, intentionally, by the Federal government.
I would assess the land that belonged to them, had the treaty been respected, look at the value of it were it to be condemned by eminent domain, and pay that amount over to the living remnants of those tribes today, not in a general trust fund which does not go to the actual individuals, but in direct individual payments. Having paid the fair market value of the land, under the appropriate law, I would consider the land claim to have been extinguished. If the modern descendants of the Five Civilized Tribes today want to go back to Georgia and buy up great swaths of it, and then seek to apply for reservation status in order to self-govern under their own laws, they would have the means to do so in that money, and I would certainly grant their request for tribal recognition.
Obviously anything that involves the American Indians and the US government is a separate case. THOSE debts are owed by THIS government, for which WE are responsible. Every penny should be paid, with no subterfuge. Other tribes, whether here on in Europe or the Middle East, who suffered wrongs under different governments in other times: this is not our responsibility. The Cherokee and Chippewa ARE, because THIS government, the government which made and broke the contracts, still exists and we are responsible for it.
A different case.
Government can take land in America. That includes Indian land. Simply retroceding Georgia to the Five Civilized Tribes would massively disrupt things. But when government takes property, it must pay fair value for it. It has not paid the Five Civilized Tribes for what was taken, wrongly (indeed, the President of the US and the Army defied the Supreme Court itself). Those treaties that were broken are nevertheless binding still on the government that made them. The tribes should be paid full value, and that is, economically and legally, giving Georgia back to the Five Civilized Tribes - at least if you let them buy up as much of it as they want and grant them tribal recognition there if they move back.
Tibikak ishkwata.
(And mgwetch for asking)
If the Saudis are the best example of a "good ally" in the Middle East you can mention, we are indeed in trouble.
The Saudis bankroll terrorists all over the world, not just in Israel. Bin Laddin mae his money in Saudi Arabia and used it to attack us.
They imposed the most radical form of Islam on an entire penninsula of Asia (Wahhabism) and they take their marching orders from the Wahhabi clerics who spew out anti-Jewish and anti-American rhetoric all over the world.
Sure, they sell us oil. They would sell us their daughters if it gave them enough money to help undermine western civlization - which is exactly what they do with our petrodollars.
The Israelis have been a source of underdercover information and a standing intimiation to the Wahhabists and their pals. Israel singlehandledly beat the entire Arab world in a war and can do it again - which is one of the reasons they want to destroy Israel. Another is because they kept whining about the territory the Israelis justly took from them when Israel was attacked, until the current and previous administrations did all they could to pander to the Phillistinians as though they were conversing with trustworthy reliable people instead of sneaking, lying , murderous, homicidal swine.
American troops who served in "Desert Storm" under Bush I and were in Arabia to protect to oil sheiks from Saddam weren't even allowed to wear crosses or stars of David.
If Saudi Arabia sunk into the ocean tomorrow, the world would be better off.
"What the nations that do not bless Israel are going to get is cursed!"
There is a difference between blessing them and kissing their rear ends.
That biblical instruction to bless them does not mean Israel is always right.
But how can you bring Major Ridge back to life?
Or give that beautiful home back to Joseph Vann?
I don't hate myself often but.........
I never hate myself for what other people did, only for what I have myself done.
And then I realize that if I am going to ask God to forgive me, and believe that He really does, that I am under the obligation to forgive myself also. Otherwise it would be pride on my part, to believe that I am better than God, such that He can forgive but I can't because my standards are higher.
Before Constantine's reign, the cross wasn't used as a symbol of Christianity. It was a Roman torture device. If a loved one were killed by hanging, we wouldn't wear a replica of the noose around our necks.
"If a loved one were killed by hanging, we wouldn't wear a replica of the noose around our necks."
No, but it's a reminder of what Messiah did for us.
The bible sure mentions it more than once.
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