SANDALS ON THE OTHER FOOT

     Isis has attacked in America.  Why?  Because they should… just as we would.  Evidently ISIS decided it is better to fight us over here… than to fight us over there.  Sound familiar? 

     The terrorists. Terrorists.  A frequently used term these days.  The terrorists seem easily identifiable.  But before you can identify the terrorists you must identify the land you are standing on.  You must understand a terrorist is defined according to your perspective.  This is what America fails to understand.  Terrorism is a subjective term.

     From the outside looking in the Civil Rights era of 1960’s (specifically 1968) America looked like a time of mass rebellion and revolution.  Citizens were marching and rioting, our government was killing our citizens in our streets and on foreign soil and our leaders were being assassinated.  Clearly, from the outside, America was undergoing a revolution and its citizens and some of its leaders were being suppressed and killed.  Imagine for a moment a Middle Eastern county, Palestine, decided to intervene on the part of the civil rights and anti-war protesters.  They arrive on our shore in their uniforms with full armament.  They invade and systematically take down our president, Richard Nixon, while also destroying much of our infrastructure.  They also preach to our people their dominant religion, Islam.  If you lived in that time under such circumstances, how would you react?  I believe, for Americans, this is an easy answer.  We would all band together to fight the invading terrorist force.  We did not invite them to intervene in our struggle and potential civil war.  We would do anything possible to destroy these invading terrorists. 

     Imagine for a moment this invading Palestinian force was the greatest military power on earth.  Imagine for a moment they had nuclear capabilities, unlimited resources and viewed Americans as primitive.  Americans would not be happy.  We would most definitely launch terror attacks on this military power.  Some of our more radical Christians would definitely attack individuals and small groups of Muslims occupying our country (and many of us would cheer them on.)  Americans would attack the invaders at their core, in their homeland.  I am sure we would hang them from trees (we did this to our own citizens who worshipped the same God) if not decapitate them and televise it as a warning to all potential invaders.  Americans would kill indiscriminately…. women and children (as we did in Japan and with black families during the Civil Right era).   Americans would utilize their mastery of technology to recruit members.  We would wage a war within their country one sleeper cell and one terrorist attack at time.

     Why would these foreigners believe they have the right to invade, terrorize and intervene in our country’s internal conflict?  Now, for a moment, imagine this invading and terroristic force and their brown, Muslim allies had been controlling our country politically and economically for centuries.  Imagine they had been enslaving Americans and stealing American natural resources during those centuries.  (England, for centuries, and then the United States did exactly this) Imagine, for a moment, following WWII these victorious allies had divided up America arbitrarily.  They mixed the Baptist with the Jews.  The Mormons with the Lutherans.  The Catholics with the Atheists.  They rearranged the borders so northern Texans were now Oklahomans.  What would make these invading terroristic forces believe they had such rights?  (This is what happened with the Middle East following WWII)

     Imagine for a moment they took America’s sacred city, New York, and gave it to a special sect of Muslims.  Imagine this special sect immediately expanded beyond the agreed upon borders and took the cities of Philadelphia and Boston.  (This is what happened with the creation of Israel.  The US and its allies gave the holy land of Islam and Christianity to the Jewish people.  Complete disregard was given to its history or those people already occupying the land.  We did not give the Jewish people part of Germany who are the people who wronged them and we defeated and occupied… we did not give them our land… say… North and South Dakota… hardly anyone lived there…. We gave the Jewish people Islamic holy land)  We know exactly how Americans react.  Americans would fight to the death for their belief system.  And we would be righteous in our fight.

     This is why ISIS, Al-Qaeda and others attack.  This is exactly what America has done to the Middle East.  And they are justified in their attacks.  We can pretend we do not understand …. and maybe some of us do not understand.  Some of us are not students of history and politics.  The white, Christian man (first England and then America and its allies) has dominated and abused the Middle East for centuries.  Most recently the Christian, white man wearing America’s military uniform has invaded, terrorized and killed Middle Easterners.  Prior to this overt military intervention America intervened politically installing puppet leaders in their countries (refer to the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis following the removal of the American puppet, the Shah of Iran).  

     America, in conjunction with the UN, took Middle Eastern soil after WWII and made a Jewish state which immediately expanded its territory beyond the agreed upon borders.  This expansion was backed by American money and equipment.  The democratic world, led by America, had done everything in its power to insure Middle Eastern countries could not obtain nuclear weapons so they would be helpless to defend their self against invading and controlling nuclear-armed Western powers.

     The Middle Eastern countries have watched the white, Christian forces control their governments and invade their lands.  How would you feel about white, Christian men (people) if you had seen them, for generations, refer to your people as savages and enslave, rape and kill your people?  How would you feel about the peacefulness of Christianity if you had seen Christians abuse, enslave, rape and kill your women and children?  How would you feel about Christians if, in the last half century, every time you saw them it was at the end of a rifle and they were destroying your homeland and killing your neighbors?

     ISIS attack us because they should.  The Middle East has attempted, in vain, to stop American and western intervention in their country for centuries via political avenues but to no avail.  They have been unsuccessful because America and the west have wielded political, economic and military power over them.  This culminated in the American invasion of Iraq in 1990.  One must ask one’s self… how many Middle Eastern terror attacks occurred in America (and Europe) before the military invasion of Iraq by American forces and their allies in 1990?  How many? 

     Now ask yourself, Americans, if the Allah-worshipping, missile-wielding, terroristic forces invaded America during our civil unrest how would we have reacted?  We know…. There would not be two towers still standing in the entire Middle East.  The country would be a giant pile of rubble.  Americans would fight to the death to protect their country while proclaiming the righteousness of our Christian God and our American principles and law.

     This is why ISIS and other extremists attack America (and Europe).  It is the exact same reasons you would attack if the sandal was on the other foot.   So the question is…. What do we do now?  Do we continue with the tried and failed path?  Do we continue to be the aggressor?  And they continue to escalate their aggressions or….. do we learn our lesson? 

     Do we apologize for our mistakes, withdraw our troops and stay out of their affairs…. Or …… continue down this path?  There will be no winners in this terrorist war.  We will not eliminate terror because that is impossible.  We can learn to live like Israel where a terrorist attack a day is the norm or we can show the world we are a member of a world community.  Or we can pray, light candles and bury our children and loved ones.  It is only going to get worse.  It seems it is time we must admit the truth.

     The American family is dysfunctional.  Americans have been led, beaten and molested by a drunken Uncle Sam.  And now we watch him move to other countries and beat, rape and kill their families as we cheer him on.  We know exactly how the Middle Eastern countries feel about the trustworthiness of the United States government.  We don’t trust our own government either…. this is why we do not want to give up our guns… at some point we are certain we will have to defend our self against them.    We can continue in our denial as our home crumbles around us…. or we can admit we are dysfunctional and seek to right this wrong. 

     I wonder how American Christians dressed in our military uniforms might be viewed if we entered the Middle Eastern countries absent guns but with food, water, medicine, technology and solutions for their existence which improve the quality of their lives?   

     America must make amends…… or perish.  It is inevitable.  We are in a dysfunctional relationship with Uncle Sam.  It is time we let go of our dream and see reality.  Uncle Sam must seek rehab and build our trust and the trust of the world community.  We must ignore the advice of our enabling allies and the radicalized voices within our own country.  We must see the obvious or we all will perish.

 I hold this truth to be self evident.