Brutally Honest: Dispatches from Baghdad - a soldier's view on IraqDispatches from Baghdad - a soldier's view on Iraq
Hope filled words from a Brit in Iraq:
Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb CMG DSO OBE is the Deputy Commanding General for the Multi-National Force-Iraq. He is also the UK’s Senior Military Officer in the country. Based in Baghdad, he frequently operates around the country. Here he gives his thoughts and an honest appraisal of Iraq's unfolding story:
"This is my fourth deployment. So I have, if nothing else, a reasonable (albeit soldier’s) perspective on Iraq and its people. I have, as you would expect, in these four tours got around a great deal and in the process I have drunk more tea (it’s very good, but not at all English) and broken more bread than I would care to recall.
But I have enjoyed an honest engagement with Iraqis from all persuasions whose hospitality is humbling, and on each occasion that I return to this country have seen progress being made that rarely gets reported.
...
In July, a poll by the nonprofit International Republican Institute found that 94% of Iraqis said they support a “unity” government. Nearly 80% opposed Iraq being segregated by religion or ethnicity, and even in Baghdad where sectarian violence is heightened, 76% opposed ethnic separation.
Similarly, according to a September WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, 97% of Iraqis said they “strongly disapprove” of attacks against Iraqi civilians, and 96% of Iraqis disapproved of attacks on Iraqi security forces.
These are the voices of that huge, so often forgotten, and silent majority of Iraqis who deserve a better life. They are good people who struggle and fall, but pick themselves up every day and continue to move on. These are people who deserve a chance. Their hopes and their dreams are, I believe as they do, worth fighting for. And it is this that this coalition does every day.
...
Iraq will not be completely free of violence - no country ever is. But as the Iraqis begin to learn to trust their security forces and actively work to rid the country of extremists, violence can be reduced to acceptable levels. Iraqis are making progress, and the Coalition Force remains steadfast in its support of Iraq through its transition to a more unified, secure, and prosperous country.
Can this still fail to meet our expectations? Of course it can. I personally do not believe that it will, and I am inclined to believe that greatness will eventually return to a country long overdue its sovereignty. But it would be a shame to fail simply because we all grew tired of trying."
The whole thing's worthy so go now and read it all and thank Instapundit for the find.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Amazing Facts: Daily Bread
Amazing Facts: Daily Bread
Some are motivated to step out fearlessly and identify with the despised “remnant” who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (cf. Rev. 15:2, 3; 12:17). The gospel commission will not be finished with a whimper but with a blaze of glory.
Isaiah 49 is a wonderful treatise on these glorious days as finally the pure truth of the gospel is understood and proclaimed. The Lord says, “‘I will say to the prisoners, Go free!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come out to the light!’ ... I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for My people to travel. ... Look around you and see what is happening! Kings will be like fathers to you; queens will be like mothers. They will bow low before you and honor you. ... I will fight against whoever fights you, and I will rescue your children” (vss. 9, 11, 18, 23, 25, GNB).
Under that proclamation of “the everlasting gospel,” agencies that have held people back are powerless to keep them from stepping out for the Lord—like employment that threatens dismissal because of the holy Sabbath, or friends or family; truth is more precious than all besides. Honorable people honor the Lord. Some in the very highest levels of the Roman Curia will respond, according to the Revelation 15:2 prophecy.
Abraham was a wealthy, distinguished man in his day. If God Himself preached the “gospel” to him (Gal. 3:8), it must have been “Christ and Him crucified,” for that alone is the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Jesus said that “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 9:56). It was not craven fear of hell that motivated him to leave his comfortable home in the great city of Ur and live in tents the rest of his life; it was a glimpse of the abounding grace of the Lord. Yes, in the story of the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham saw the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) of Christ; that’s what nerved and moved him to shine as “the father of all them who believe” (Rom. 4:11).
The same vision will move you and me today, and also many in time to come! Agape is a far more effective motivation than any kind of fear the old covenant can generate.
Some are motivated to step out fearlessly and identify with the despised “remnant” who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (cf. Rev. 15:2, 3; 12:17). The gospel commission will not be finished with a whimper but with a blaze of glory.
Isaiah 49 is a wonderful treatise on these glorious days as finally the pure truth of the gospel is understood and proclaimed. The Lord says, “‘I will say to the prisoners, Go free!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come out to the light!’ ... I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for My people to travel. ... Look around you and see what is happening! Kings will be like fathers to you; queens will be like mothers. They will bow low before you and honor you. ... I will fight against whoever fights you, and I will rescue your children” (vss. 9, 11, 18, 23, 25, GNB).
Under that proclamation of “the everlasting gospel,” agencies that have held people back are powerless to keep them from stepping out for the Lord—like employment that threatens dismissal because of the holy Sabbath, or friends or family; truth is more precious than all besides. Honorable people honor the Lord. Some in the very highest levels of the Roman Curia will respond, according to the Revelation 15:2 prophecy.
Abraham was a wealthy, distinguished man in his day. If God Himself preached the “gospel” to him (Gal. 3:8), it must have been “Christ and Him crucified,” for that alone is the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Jesus said that “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 9:56). It was not craven fear of hell that motivated him to leave his comfortable home in the great city of Ur and live in tents the rest of his life; it was a glimpse of the abounding grace of the Lord. Yes, in the story of the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham saw the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) of Christ; that’s what nerved and moved him to shine as “the father of all them who believe” (Rom. 4:11).
The same vision will move you and me today, and also many in time to come! Agape is a far more effective motivation than any kind of fear the old covenant can generate.
Dumb Looks Still Free: The Oncoming Storm
Dumb Looks Still Free: The Oncoming StormExcellent discussion of America. Now and to come!
Friday, January 12, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
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