Well, despite the endless fretting, hand-wringing and worrying by some people, North Korea's Kim Jong-Un did not send us a nice present, Christmas or otherwise, as he promised. No beautiful vase, no nuclear-tipped missile. Nothing. War of words - that's the only kind of war Kim Jong-Un can wage.
The U.S. killed Iran's General Qassem Soleimani, whom we have been told was one of the top terrorists in the world. Prior presidents have considered "taking him out" but did not. President Trump did. This caused one of my liberal friends to exclaim, "It's like if Iran killed Mike Pence!" Uhhhh, no it wasn't, not even remotely. Mike Pence has never facilitated the murder of any other person or group (that we know of!). But hey, everybody's got their own reality, even me.
The planet was not launched into WWIII over this Iran thing, again, despite what many feared and predicted. Iran did shoot down a Ukrainian airliner - for what reason (ineptness? deliberately?) we do not know. Either way, it's a huge embarrassment for Iran. Not that the gentle Canadians would ever do anything about it other than issue a strongly-worded letter to Iran. Oh yeah, that'll show 'em.
And so we are back where we were, more or less... Except, for better or for worse, the world now understands that we have a legit "crazy person" in charge of the U.S. who's not afraid to take decisive, controversial action - unlike some former presidents who relied more on diplomacy and appeasement.
Speaking of which... Thanks to President Obama, Iran got back all the money the U.S. has owed them since 1979...with interest! (See THIS article for an explanation.) Now, thanks to President Trump, Iran knows that if one more dime of it gets spent to kill Americans, there will be hell to pay.
I am dismayed by the level of negativity we see so often all around us. The mainstream media continually bombards us with ONLY views about the bad things that are going to happen because of this or that. They assume that the result of everything will be bad, and then they bring on "experts" to reinforce that viewpoint. The media's everything is bad! negative attitude filters down and infects their viewers, turning them into confirmed, registered pessimists. That's a horrible, dangerous mindset.
I hate to bring this up, but my faith tells me that things can get better. This gives me hope that they will be. As I've always said: Without faith, hope is just wishful thinking. And if you don't have faith or hope, you're living in a dark, dark place. I prefer to look on the bright side...to be an optimist.
Who Am I?
- Bob Barbanes:
- A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?
3 comments:
Ed's last post discussed news bias. I've decided you're the most UNbiased source I can find! You tell it like it is, whether left or right. I plan to come here to find out what's going on in the world from now on. ;)
Yeah the Pence analogy doesn't hold water. A better analogy would be like Mexico sending a missile to take out Patrick Crusius who killed 22 mostly Hispanics as an El Paso Walmart not to far back.
It wasn't too long ago that another U.S. President took out a terrorist who killed lots of U.S. citizens and I don't remember any discussion about him having to ask permission from Congress first.
Thank you, Kelly. But I am far from unbiased - I am mostly a Constitutional Conservative. I was raised in NYC by liberal, well-meaning Democrat parents. But I "switched sides" when I moved to the south and realized how delusional Democrats are when it comes to thinking that government can solve our problems. Heh.
Every issue has more than one side. Nothing is ever completely black or white...most things are pretty complicated. All I try to do is look at both sides objectively and try to think a little bit before shooting off my mouth with some half-baked opinion. My buddy Matt and I go 'round and 'round. I'm a "less-government" kind of guy, but Matt counters with "So then you believe that it's a good thing when Trump guts the EPA?" Well....aahhhhh...errr… Yikes!
Ed, people will debate from now until forever whether President Trump's attack on General Soleimani was righteous or bogus. Me, I think it was a little of both. It certainly did take our national mind off of Trump's impeachment. And whether Soleimani actually was planning "imminent" attacks on Americans...well...we'll probably never know the intelligence on that. Nor should we.
On Facebook, I posted about Teddy Roosevelt who said, "Walk softly, but carry a big stick." Simplistic, yes, but probably a pretty good philosophy in general. The problem is, when dealing with evil (i.e. nations that sponsor terrorism) sometimes you actually have to use that big stick. Otherwise, people will think you're afraid to use it or are just not going to. President Trump has proven to the world that he is not afraid to use it.
And it was arguably either an incredibly stupid or absolutely brilliant move. I say "brilliant" because not only did it take care of Soleimani, but it put Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un (and everyone else on the planet)) on notice that the U.S. is not to be messed-with anymore. The days of diplomacy and appeasement are over, as they probably should be. Good thing? Bad thing? History will have to decide. I'm inclined to believe that a little show of force every now and then is not necessarily a bad thing. But we'll see, eh?
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