- With this edition, this column celebrates
its fourth birthday, and my, how it has grown! Thanks to our devoted readers,
this small soapbox has grown into a podium from which to share observations
about the onward march of history. Thank you so much for your encouragement,
guidance and comments. We are celebrating with a double length edition.
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- When we began, I'll admit I was naive.
I thought Republicans and Democrats were opposites. I still had faith
in justice, politics, the electoral system, the integrity of the British
Royal Family and the sovereignty of nations. I believed that politicians
really intended to keep their promises. I no longer believe any of those
things. It isn't that I've become cynical: cynicism is skepticism without
knowledge. Rather, I now know how things work. I now understand almost
all politicians are actors, some more polished than others, who play different
roles in a worldwide repertory company owned and operated by a surprisingly
few multinational business leaders. And the leading actor, he who remains
in the White House despite all the odds, has ensured that we have not lacked
for stories. He has never disappointed us: he has gone from bad to worse,
from mischievous playboy to demonic tyrant.
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- Above all, these four years have confirmed
two trends: first, a considerable acceleration of the pace at which Western
nations are discarding the sanctity of national sovereignty in their unseemly
rush toward a global government for which there seems to be little popular
support; and secondly, the systematic hypnotization of the American people
into an Orwellian trance, never better illustrated than in the current
rash of propaganda about the bombing of Yugoslavia: "War brings Peace!
Killing is the way to save people. Ignorance is Strength! Freedom is
Slavery!" Ah yes, and at Clinton's Animal Farm, some animals are most
definitely more equal than others: indeed, some are still alive, but others
are not; some are wealthy, others are neglected; some are intimidated,
yet others tell the truth.
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- According to the governments participating
in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the justification for this military
operation is to stop the "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, never
mind that the West ignored it in Bosnia, Tibet, Rwanda and elsewhere.
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- It is said that Kosovo is seeking independence
from Yugoslavia, a sovereign nation which has not attacked or threatened
any of its neighbors. Maybe so, but what differentiates it from Chechnya,
Scotland or the Palestinians? Are we going to bomb Moscow, London and Jerusalem
too? Shall we bomb Istanbul and Athens in protest at the Cyprus problem?
Shall we bomb Ottawa to help the cause of Quebec? How about bombing China
to free Tibet?
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- Amnesty International's 1998 Report describes
one nation where torture and racial abuse and aggravated sexual abuse by
the police is common, as well as ill-treatment of immigrants, the use of
chemical sprays against non-violent demonstrators, cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment in prisons, including rape and sexual assault of female prisoners,
and racially motivated prosecutions. The same nation is described in the
1998 report of Human Rights Watch: they refused to ratify several human
rights treaties, obstructed the development of international human rights,
and used assault vehicles and chemical weapons against its civilian population,
including women and children.
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- Shall we bomb that nation too? And which
nation are the reports describing? You guessed it: it's the United States
of America. Are we going to bomb ourselves too?
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- This is a civil war, though the occupant
of the White House, whom other NATO nations seem reluctant to criticize,
has led the Western world into a ferocious assault on the pretext of a
humanitarian right and duty to intervene in that civil war. The excuse
is flimsy and the real truth lies elsewhere. If the bombing of Yugoslavia
has removed most other stories from the newspapers and electronic media,
who benefits? If the American people have been seduced into forgetting
about Chinese espionage, the serial rapist in the Oval Office, and more
scandals than anyone can mention, who benefits? Which American companies
are being hired to rebuild Yugoslavia's infrastructure? Who will benefit
financially from that?
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- Militarily, enormous miscalculations
were made. The White House erroneously believed that the Yugoslav military
would shy away from a confrontation, and that President Milosevic would
back down at the last moment. As a result of this incorrect assumption,
the NATO countries maintained their hyperbole, but failed to match it with
military preparations. They believed their own rhetoric, but Yugoslavia
did not.
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- They also wrongly believed that Yugoslavia
would surrender after a few bombing raids. In fact, every bomb has strengthened
Slobodan Milosevic's position. He is now supported even by his political
enemies and those who had previously campaigned against him. Like Bill
Clinton, just 25% of Yugoslav people voted for him, but, thanks to the
Clintonesque blunder, he is now supported almost universally. And finally,
as the folks in the White House, The Pentagon and NATO headquarters were
issuing sinister threats to Yugoslavia, they were simultaneously reassuring
their own publics that the bombing raids would be limited and very specific.
They even named the targets they would hit. Apparently they forgot that
Milosevic watches CNN too.
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- The cost of Mr. Clinton's latest and
greatest folly is beyond calculation in every other way. In financial
terms, it is enormous, and has disposed of any US budget surplus there
may have been. In military terms, it has further depleted the United States'
stock of ordnance, especially Cruise missiles. In terms of the diminution
of America's national stature, Mr. Clinton has dragged his nation down
to his own sordid level: he is a self-confessed liar and deceiver and
now a murderer too. Most importantly, in human terms, it has been catastrophic.
America and its reluctant allies have brought death and destruction to
innocent people, the scars of which will take decades to heal. How many
have died as a result of Mr. Clinton's war? Shall we just add these few
thousand to the body count, or do they deserve a special category of their
own?
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- So let's get some perspective. The war
was started unilaterally by a discredited, impeached President, devoid
of any moral authority and of dubious sanity, a proven liar, held in contempt,
who has bombed a sovereign nation which has never remotely threatened the
United States or any of its allies or interests.
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- He is supported in this gross abuse of
International Law by his idiotic left-hand puppet and sidekick, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, who frankly, should know better. Mr. Clinton's
aggression was not authorized or recommended by the Constitution, by the
United Nations, by Congress or even by his own military advisers. He has
tried to justify the wholesale slaughter of innocent people as a "moral
imperative". What utter nonsense. Is he giving himself a pep talk?
All he has done is united a divided Yugoslavia behind President Milosevic
and ensured that US troops have sort out the mess he has created.
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- Mr. Clinton's war is costing $40 million
a day, so we won't expect to hear any more blather about the cost of Kenneth
Starr's investigation. And maybe it will continue until the threat of
exposure of Chinese espionage inside the White House is deemed to have
passed.
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- No matter what the results on the ground,
at the very moment when Mr. Clinton's business allies and masters decide
they have all the rebuilding contracts they can handle for a while, and
presumably when his Swiss bank account has been sufficiently replenished,
he will suddenly order the bombing stopped, declare victory and hail himself
as a hero, ordering the ludicrous US media to join in the sycophantic applause.
Perhaps he'll arrange a tickertape parade for himself down Fifth Avenue.
As the rest of the world already knows, he is, of course, quite insane.
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- One of our most reliable sources in Yugoslavia
reports that John Heard, formerly a major in the US Army, who now serves
as the Macedonia country manager for the U.S. energy, services and construction
group, Brown & Root Services company, said that "the U.S. Army
had instructed him to build a military infrastructure in Macedonia that
can operate for three to five years." Brown & Root is a subsidiary
of the Dallas-based Halliburton Company, which has a five-year, almost
$1 billion "life cycle management" contract to support the US
Army in the region.
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- Is it possible that all the death and
destruction has been created simply to divert attention from other scandals,
to make Mr. Clinton look like the presidential timber he has never been?
Is it to line the pockets of the American companies which will rebuild
the devastated bridges and buildings? It is all the above and much more:
it is an effort to impose an international 'new world order' on even those
who prefer not to participate. It was actually Tony Blair who, writing
in Newsweek this week, spelled out the real agenda. He called for a "new
internationalism" in which the world never again tolerates the repression
of an ethnic group by a dictator struggling to remain in power. Sovereignty
becomes irrelevant.
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- So the concept of the nation state is
superseded by the New World Order. If they can't get their way by persuasion,
they will use bombs. Sorry about the "collateral damage". Mr.
Blair goes on to suggest that NATO's action in Yugoslavia could be a model
for future international relations: "This is a conflict we are fighting
not for territory but for values, for a new internationalism where the
brutal repression of whole ethnic groups will no longer be tolerated, for
a world where those responsible for such crimes have nowhere to hide.
We are fighting for a world where dictators are no longer able to visit
horrific punishments on their own peoples in order to stay in power."
It may be an idealistic and even well-intentioned notion. The only obstacle
is the concept of the sovereign nation state. If the principle is established
that nations may intervene in the business of other sovereign states to
halt conduct they dislike, we have arrived at a world government, where
nations conduct their affairs only at the behest and sufferance of socialist
do-gooders who will bomb them if they digress from their arbitrary standards.
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- Perhaps the real point is the utter duplicity
of the world community as represented by the leaders of the "new world
order", i.e. Bill Clinton and those who pull his strings. The atrocities
committed in China, just to mention one of many nations, are far worse
than anything seen in Yugoslavia. Yet they have been given unlimited access
to America's top military secrets, freedom to roam the White House and
various government departments, and even encouraged to build an air base
less than 50 miles from Washington!
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- The most difficult dilemma confronts
us when we try to see the current Balkan War in Christian terms. On one
hand, how can killing people ever be right? On the other hand, if we see
people being hurt and killed, have we not a moral duty to try to stop it?
Alas, we have the worst of both worlds. The killings have not been stopped,
and we have killed thousands more by trying to do so. Does it matter that
we are killing people in order to save them? It not only matters greatly,
it is insane, criminal and absolutely tyrannical.
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- The China story hides many well-known
personalities who press China's case like George Bush, Henry Kissinger
and, interestingly Sandy Berger, who currently serves as National Security
Adviser. As "Heads Up" reports, prior to joining the Clinton
Administration, Berger practiced law with the Washington law firm of Hogan
& Hartson, where he was a partner and director of the firm's international
trade group, specifically dealing with the trade office of the Chinese
Government.
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- We know the White House is desperately
trying to keep the lid on the Cox Report into Chinese espionage at the
highest levels of the US Government. We know that the National Security
Adviser has recently been a paid lobbyist for the Chinese Government, that
he authorized the sale to China of America's most sophisticated satellite
and missile technology, that Chinese spies were allowed to steal the United
States' most sensitive secrets, and that the Chinese donated millions to
keep Mr. Clinton in office. Might those be the reasons why they wish to
conceal the report? And not for the first time, we are left to wonder exactly
whose interests Mr. Clinton and his cronies are representing, and where
this will all lead.
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- To nobody's surprise, Mr. Clinton was
held in Contempt of Court this week. The word suits him: he has contempt
for the law, for the Constitution he swore to protect and for human life.
He has been ruthless and profane. He is a charlatan without a conscience
who dismisses hundreds of civilian deaths as "regrettable but inevitable",
without a second thought. There are already so many descriptions attached
to Mr. Clinton. Only two need now be added: ruthless war criminal and
mass murderer.
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- Hundreds of innocent people are dying,
losing limbs, loved ones, homes and livelihoods as a result. In one sense,
it indeed creates a diversion and secures contracts for American companies.
But in a greater sense, it is part of the great scenario of the End Times
described in Matthew 24: "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,
but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the
end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom." (Matthew 24: 6-7). Note the phrase: "such things must
happen". And if you think that's bad, look and see what happens next!
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- As I look back over four years of writing
this column, I realize the enormous privilege it has been and continues
to be, as we observe history in the making, try to see it in the perspective
of Biblical predictions and prophecies, and offer what help and encouragement
we can in order to sustain ourselves through this nightmare of an era when
the devil himself seems to be running the affairs of this world. Thank
you for these first four years. If you enjoy Exegesis, please tell your
friends and support us with a subscription and by using one or more of
our telephone services. Thanks!
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- The most encouraging thoughts I can share
with you this week are these. God will ultimately triumph. What we see
before us seem to be the "birth pangs" of the End Times. Therefore,
we must always be ready: we do not know at what moment the Lord will intervene.
We must be prepared for the unexpected, and keep our lives simple and
devoted to God. We must pray constantly and remain faithful.
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- May God bring peace where there is trouble,
light where there is darkness, truth where there are lies and deceptions,
justice where there is injury, deliverance where there is evil, and comfort
for all who suffer in body, mind and spirit. May God bless you, and God
bless America. Steve Myers Editor _________________________________________________
We welcome your letters to the editor. Please write to editor@sm.org
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