Rising Rudeness

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof - Amendment I to the Constitution of the United States of America

I wont indulge in a lot of hyperventilation about three loud protesters yesterday in the United States Senate gallery who attempted to disrupt an opening invocation by a Hindu priest. Their behavior was rude to the extreme and they were arrested for it. I'll just point out the words of the Constitution of the United States. I take those words seriously. A growing number of others do not. Whether it is a self-proclaimed, putative Christian behaving boorishly to someone of the Hindu religion or the screeching from the atheists about Christians in general, it is becoming increasingly common. It is wrong.

I was raised in the no longer existent Lutheran Church in America. There was no Lutheran church in the town I spent my early years in, so we worshiped with the Presbyterian Church there. Growing up, my best friend was Roman Catholic. I have friends in most major Christian religions. I know and respect a number of Mormons. I also have friends who are atheists. I have worked with a number of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists in my professional life. None of us had problems based on religion between us. That, I think, I what the founders intended.

And I believe that is how it should be. It saddens me that so many feel otherwise lately.

Note: I started writing this last night but put it aside to make sure it was phrased right. In the interim, Dan Riehl discovered that the Times of India has a better grasp of the Iraq issue than the New York Times or the screeching left in general. The op-ed he links to is obviously written by someone who firmly believes America was wrong to have gone to war. But is also honest enough to point out that we are in it and cannot pull out without destabilizing the region and possibly the world.

Abandoning Iraq at this stage is not a sign of democratic leadership. Such a retreat from Iraq is not only shirking responsibility but is also shortsighted and harmful to US long-term interests.

Surely, US withdrawal from Iraq at this stage would be against their national interests. It would not only intensify the Shia-Sunni conflict in Iraq but is also likely to enlarge that conflict over the rest of West Asian-Persian Gulf region. It would increase Iranian influence over Shia regions of Iraq. While US legislators lecture India against dealing with Iran, by advocating a US withdrawal from Iraq they would enhance the stature of Iran. Such contradictions in the US policy towards Iran raise serious problems of credibility.

This is exactly what the left will not acknowledge. The world will view the abandonment of Iraq as an American failure, not the failure of a political party.