WAR WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US

A couple blogs back, I started to sift through some favorite places I visited in our 16,000 mile trip. Cruising down memory lane I came to one place that stood out without any great pictures, and that was Fredericksburg, Texas where we visited the Pacific War Museum. Its coverage of World War Two was an experience in understanding, putting the war together in one place from battle to battle; much of it from the mouths of people who served. I don't approve of war as a way to solve problems, but it makes sense to understand war.

 World societies cannot be content to let others live their lives as they choose. There is always a leader who is a power monger, or greedy. Or, like as not, a religious zealot who knows best how the rest of us should live our lives.
I received an article from my friend Randy Vining that presented the view of Dr. Emanuel Tamay, an eminent psychiatrist. The article-shortened- follows with his tangent points:

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'          Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.  China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.  The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.  And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?  History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts--the fanatics who threaten our way of life.  The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.    Emanuel Tanay, M.D. 2980 Provincial St. Ann Arbor , MI 48104  Food for thought. Randy Vining blogs at: mobilecodgers.blogspot.com

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