The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/327705
OpiniOn C-2 Wednesday, June 11, 2014 The Press-Dispatch Points to ponder—by Rev. Ford Bond Observations by Thomas Sowell Think Big by Ben Carson The Post Office One nation is still possible Continued on page 3 Saving Sgt. Bergdahl A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen Tiananmen Square, 25 years later Speaking to graduates at West Point (New York), President Barack Obama tooted on his toy horn, "al- Qaida's leadership on the border region between Pak- istan and Afghanistan has been decimated." Even that slender boast—just on the border regions?—is now vi- tiated. The five Taliban ter- rorists released from Guan- tanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will step nimbly into any vacant posts. Khairullah Khairkhwa, one of the founders of the Taliban, served as governor of Herat province when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. He is known for eth- nic massacres, narcotics trafficking, close ties to Osama bin Laden, and supervising terrorist training camps within Herat. Khairkhwa is a "moderate" com- pared with Mohammad Fazl, who is a "known war criminal" according to the Institute for the Study of War. Mullah Omar's "top soldier," Fazl dis- placed hundreds of thousands of ci- vilians, destroyed homes and busi- nesses, and personally planned and carried out the executions of at least 175 civilians. Noorullah Noori had close ties to bin Laden and served as a messen- ger between Mullah Omar and the al- Qaida chief. The Taliban carried out several massacres in areas under his supervision, and he is wanted by the United Nations for war crimes. Abdul Haq Wasiq was the depu- ty chief of the Taliban secret police. They're always such nice fellows. Mohammad Nabi fought with an al- Qaida cell and served in lesser posts in the Taliban government (room for professional development). He may have been in- cluded on the list be- cause he's related to Bergdahl's captors. Perhaps these releas- es are just the down pay- ment on Obama's plan to free all of the detainees at Guantanamo. As he explained to the cadets, "And that's why I will continue to push to close Gitmo—because Ameri- can values and legal tra- ditions do not permit the indefinite detention of people beyond our borders." But that's not what the administration is claiming. They are touting the prisoner exchange as a proud example of the military ethic of "leave no man or woman behind," as the president expressed it. When this administration requires an official to tell lies in service of a bet- ter story, they offer Susan Rice. In this case, she deadpanned, "Sgt. Bergdahl wasn't simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war cap- tured on the battlefield." That's false. According to copious reporting on the matter, Bergdahl de- serted. Before he left his unit in the middle of the night, the New York Post reports, he sent his parents an email detailing his views of the COIN oper- ation: "I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid . . . I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools . . . The horror that is America is disgusting." His father emailed back, "OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE." Apparently, that's what he did. And he has paid a terrible price, no doubt. The Taliban are less than gracious hosts—even to self-hating Americans. Wishing no further suffering on Bergdahl or his family, isn't it legit- imate to make distinctions between soldiers who truly are "captured on the battlefield" and those who place their comrades in danger by desert- ing? At least six Americans were killed searching for Bergdahl. As a member of his battalion told The Daily Beast: "Bergdahl did not 'lag behind on a pa- trol,' as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard du- ty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted." Even if Bergdahl had been a Med- al of Honor winner, the exchange of five Taliban leaders for him would have been questionable. Such deals make kidnapping American soldiers more likely. The administration as- sures us that the Qatar government will enforce a travel ban on the five for a year. A year is nothing. And it's ex- tremely doubtful that the Wahhabi, ji- hadist-supporting government of Qa- tar will keep strict tabs on the group. The greatest offense here may not be to our security but to our intelli- gence. The White House has attempt- ed to present this trade as some sort of victory. The president held a Rose Gar- den ceremony to tout his accomplish- ment in bringing home an American fighting man. Rice claims that Bergda- hl served with "honor and distinction." Either they are lying and hoping few will learn the real story about Bergda- hl, or they really believe that such a misguided fool was honorable. Which, I wonder, is worse? You Cannot Serve God and Money One of the most misun- derstood passages of scrip- ture is found in Matthew 6:24 where Jesus warns of divided loyalties. We read, "No man can serve two mas- ters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the oth- er. You cannot serve God and mammon." Most readers interpret "mammon" to be man-serve, the desires of man. This is not the case. Mammon means money. Therefore, Jesus is saying "you cannot serve God and money." A similar passage is found in I Timothy 6:10, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wan- dered from the faith and pierced themselves with ma- ny griefs." Here is where humani- ty finds itself today: covet- ing money and wealth that the ancients could not have imagined. I suspect even the Robber Barons of the late 19th century would be envious. The ancient Greeks and Romans frowned upon mak- ing money on money [charg- ing interest]; the Law of Moses and the Church [until the Renaissance] taught against usury and accumulating wealth from the exchange of money. Around the internet and blogosphere, one reads arti- cle after article about the top 1 percent con- tinuing to rake in the dough, while the mid- dle class disap- pears, and the bottom gets poorer. The latest writer to throw his two cents into the fray is Paul Buchheit. He writes in "Toward the Total Paralysis of an Un- equal Society" that the re- cent downturn of the econ- omy [since 2008] that the definition of lower class has lost any real meaning. The middle class has slowly been sliding into what was considered the lower class, while the lower class drops out of the bottom of the class structure. Buchheit notes a re- cent study concluded that the combined salaries of 350,000 pre-school teach- ers are less than that of five Hedge Fund Managers. He points out that this level of inequality cannot continue to exist. Yes, many writers and the mainstream media constantly regurgitate the statistics and highlights the disparities, but no political leader offers a solution. Buchheit also points out the top 1 percent made more from their invest- ments in 2013 than the en- tire cost of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, which is around 1.8 trillion dollars. To make this a more man- ageable comparison, the trend since the beginning of the last century shows that a dollar of labor has grown to $127 dollars, while a dollar of stocks has mushroomed to $1,247 dollars. To those of us unfamil- iar with finance, the re- turn on capital has outper- formed economic growth, and income derived from dividends/capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than in- come generated by labor. Analyzing what is ahead, Buchheit concludes a few will continue to amassing great wealth, while every- one else becomes, well, ev- eryone else. "Low-wage jobs ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour) will make up the majority of new jobs, with nine out of ten of the fastest-grow- ing occupations will not require a college degree." Obviously there must be an antidote, and Bu- chheit considers a global wealth tax to ease in- equality, but considers a "fi- nancial transaction tax (al- so called speculation tax or Robin Hood tax)" as the best solution. What Buchheit is champi- oning is social justice. Few would take up the cause for income inequality being the price of civilization. At the same time throughout histo- ry, there has always been an upper/wealthy class. What sets this era apart is the evolvement of financial speculation and government regulation that favors the ac- cumulation of wealth over the upkeep of labor. Greed and covetousness is a byproduct of humanness and sin. The Tenth Com- mandment is actually a net that encompasses all forms of lusts: "Thou shalt not cov- et thy neighbors..." We do not live in a Chris- tian world; therefore, the de- mands of just compensation for labor cannot be founded upon brotherhood of man through Christ. This mas- sive accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few is a symptom of spiritual decay. The demand for a redis- tribution of wealth is noth- ing new. Senator Huey Long formed the "Share the Wealth Club" and proposed to confiscate excess wealth and spread it among the populous. Critics of his plan demonstrated the outlay per person would not change the course of the depression. Again, coveting for "me and mine" is a spiritual con- dition and cannot be solved by government fiat, legisla- tion, or even revolution. It will come when the top re- alizes it is in their best long- term interest to be their brothers' keeper. Think about it! My wife and I currently are on a book tour by bus through sev- eral states, and I have been struck by the number of people who already have read "One Nation," but also by the large, enthusiastic crowds whose con- stituents include all political parties. People are concerned about our future as a nation and the poor prioritization of issues by our leaders, to put it mildly. We wrote "One Nation" to con- vince our fellow Americans that "we the people" are not enemies and that our strength is derived from unity and common sense, which should be ubiq- uitous. The real enemies are the forc- es that are constantly trying to divide and conquer. They create divisions based on race, gender, age, education and, especially, income. It is important that we discuss who the purveyors of division are and what drives them to seek a radical alteration of the Ameri- can way of life. We discuss the tools used to ma- nipulate the populace into feeling that they should be offended so easily by words, while diverting their attention away from the real issues that desper- ately cry out for a solution. One of the major keys to avoiding manipulation is knowledge. Our system of government was designed for people who could eas- ily understand the issues and vote in- telligently based on knowledge, rath- er than blindly following political lead- ers who are often enshrouded with less than honorable motives. One of the book's major themes is that knowledge is a formidable ene- my of falsehood and a formidable ally of truth. There are specific steps that each of us can take, such as reading about something new for a half-hour every day for a year. Such a simple move will profoundly change the life of the reader and will vastly increase their effectiveness as an involved and responsible citizen. In today's world of widely dissemi- nated information, a person rapidly can become knowledgeable in a variety of areas, regardless of his occupation. The greatest concerns of the people we are encountering on the road re- volve around the future of their chil- dren and grandchildren as we con- tinue along the path of government growth and escalating expenditure of taxpayer money, essentially ensur- ing that future generations have lives characterized by significantly reduced economic freedom. The lessons are abundant in Amer- ica and throughout the world regard- ing the consequences of prolonged fis- cal irresponsibility. Also, historical re- cords are replete with accounts of the self-destruction of nations, driven by national debt. Many of our leaders are complacent about our precarious finan- cial state because people seem more interested in reality television and sporting events than in our imminent financial collapse. Once again, histo- ry informs us that national leaders sel- dom recognize and act upon economic warnings before disaster occurs. I think the majority of the American people know we are rapidly approach- ing the fiscal cliff, and they are con- cerned but not panicked. It is not too late for people of all political stripes to put partisan bickering aside and join forces to combat the unsustainable debt that threatens our future. It also is not too late for responsible voters to By Ed Feulner It's one of the most icon- ic images of the 20th centu- ry: a man standing perfect- ly still, facing a large tank as it bears down on him. He's unarmed and alone. Defenseless—except for an unshakeable conviction that freedom is so important, it's worth risking your life for. That is just what the man was doing when, on June 4, 1989, he joined thousands of other fellow citizens in Chi- na to protest what became known as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The tank, which was moving down Beijing's Chang'an Boule- vard and could have plowed over him easily, stopped di- rectly in front of him. He stood his ground. The tank turned right to try and maneuver around him. He immediately stepped to his left and con- tinued to block its path. The tank went left; he moved right back in front of it. Right again, then left. It was no use. His message was plain: You want to move? You want to continue to oppress us? You'll have to do it, quite lit- erally, over my dead body. How many of us would have had the courage to stand there in the face of what seemed like certain death? How far would we have to be pushed before we said, "Enough"? The people of China had certainly been pushed quite a bit by that point. The scene described above was the cli- max of a series of events that began almost two months earlier when former Com- munist Party General Sec- retary Hu Yaobang died of a heart attack. Yaobang had supported reforms that helped bring economic opportunity and some political reforms to China, but hard-line par- ty members forced him from office because he ap- peared to tolerate student protests that pushed for fur- ther freedoms. Now he was truly gone, and many peo- ple throughout China were in mourning. Wang Dan, the main stu- dent leader of the Tianan- men Square protests, was among those who encour- aged tens of thousands of students, workers and civil- ians to fill the streets of Bei- jing in the wake of Yaobang's death. On May 13, they be- gan a hunger strike. "After the hunger strike, the student movement trans- formed into a country of po- litical protest with a lot of other groups like workers and especially intellectu- als," Mr. Wang reflected 20 years later. "That made our government very scared." So it was not surpris- ing when martial law was declared on May 20. "Un- til martial law, I didn't say it was very serious," Mr. Wang said. "We had such a tradition of student pro- test. But when the govern- ment issued the martial law, I started thinking 'Wow, this is kind of big and very seri- ous.' This martial law made student and government become enemies. Before that, we still had hope for the government." Matters came to a head on June 3, when armed troops and the government's tanks rolled in and cleared the protesters from Tiananmen Square. Bloodshed followed the next day. Hundreds had been killed by the time the lone protester some later dubbed "Tank Man" made his unforgettable stand. Unforgettable, that is, as long as we strive to keep the Continued on page 3 Continued on page 3 At one time, people in India had to get on a waiting list to buy Hindustan Motors' Am- bassador automobile, even though it was an obvious copy of Britain's Morris Oxford of some decades earlier. The reason was sim- ple: the Indian government would not al- low cars to be imported to compete with it. The fact that the Ambassador was a copy is hardly an automatic reason for condemna- tion. The first Nikon camera was an obvious copy of a German camera called the Contax, and the first Canon was an obvious copy of the Leica. The difference is that, over the years, Nikons and Canons rose to become state of the art, during both the era of film and in the new digital age. Not so the Ambassador car. It was no- torious for poor finish and poor handling. But, since it was the only game in town— and "town" was all of India, people were on waiting lists for it for months, and sometimes even years. By contrast, Nikon and Canons were good cameras from day one and they just got better as the compa- nies that produced them gained more ex- perience. With a highly competitive inter- national market for cameras, they had no choice if they wanted to survive. But the Hindustan Ambassador had no such problem. Only those who bought them had problems. Toward the end of the 20th century, In- dia began to loosen up some of its jungle of rules and regulations that were strangling