The Dress Rehearsal For The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse

The book of Revelation is perhaps the most mysterious book in the Bible. And to many offers far-fetched images of doom, gloom and destruction. Yet the events in New Orleans clearly prove how quickly a great American city can be reduced to similar ruin, famine, pestilence, death and even war as gangs of armed thugs are roaming the wreckage. In a single day of storm damage, a great city has become entirely desolate, with most in the city homeless or displaced. It is much like a dress rehearsal for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse, or even like a Mad Max film of a post nuclear world of survival by any means necessary for some.

There are several lessons to be learned from the New Orleans disaster. One is that major projects such as levee systems should be strengthened wherever conditions exist that a natural disaster could create a similar flooding disaster. Another lesson to be learned is that a nuclear war or even a number of terrorist nuclear attacks in the U.S. could reduce American cities to similar destruction as New Orleans faced this week. This is a frightenening scenario. More Mad Maxlike scenes of armed thugs looting the wreckage of ruined cities with many refugees needing food, water and shelter could be multiiplied.

All efforts to prevent a similar levee disasters as well as a constant vigilance for world peace as well as efforts to constructively undermine terrorism must be undertaken. There were many past efforts to strengthen the levees that Congress failed to fund in the past. But fingerpointing does no good unless lessons are learned to try to prevent such future events and better disaster management planning is undertaken. Mr. Bush has tried his best today to be compassionate and attempt to offer as much Federal help as possible. And many cities and individuals have offered their best efforts as well. Certainly there were mistakes made in the past. But good efforts to right those wrongs are now very sincere.

Houses Of Worship Are The Frontline Of Disaster Relief

As in any major disaster, houses of worship are stepping up as the frontline in the Katrina disaster relief effort. Many organizations such as the Salvation Army and Feed The Children are well known for being the fastest to put boots on the ground when disaster strikes.

Other notable disaster responders include Catholic Charities USA, Samaritan's Purse, the organization run by Billy Graham's son, Franklin. Lutheran World Relief, United Jewish Communities, Nation Of Islam and other religious organizations. Lakewood Church, the single largest church in America are major partners with Feed The Children, and will raise significant food at upcoming events and from members.

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints has reported to be in process of providing relief to some of the hardest hit victims of the disaster. And a number of Baptist organizations can be counted on to provide relief efforts. Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing can be counted on for assistance to storm victims as well.

The Jehovah's Wittnesses find an unique way of providing disaster relief. From the 2004 hurricane that hit part of Florida, Jehovah's Witness volunteers pledged to rebuild 1,700 homes, and 700 have been completed so far. Many Jehovah's Witnesses are skilled at construction skills and are known to build their own houses of worship. Often they can assemble a major church building over two weekends.

There are many other Christian, Jewish and Islamic organizations that are also involved in disaster aid. New Orleans is 67% Black, and 28% live in poverty. Many are complete refugees who have no savings in the bank or ability to help themselves. Bodies are found floating in the streets of New Orleans. Some elderly persons died at the refugee center. One elderly woman in a wheelchair died, and her wheelchair was simply rolled towards a wall, and a sheet placed over her head. One reporter noted this poor woman was probably someone's mother or grandmother. The need is great, and houses of worship are responding.

China Issues New White Paper On Arms Control

Claiming that the role of the People's Liberation Army is meant to be for merely defensive purposes, China issued a new White Paper on arms control issues today. While the text seems to support the role or responsibility of nuclear weapons states not to provide nuclear technology to developing or other nations, and other goals that one would expect of a state with responsible rather than reckless military goals, still the Chinese definition of term "defensive" use of military power gives one pause.

In the postWarsaw Pact days of 2001, the Russian Federation sought to forge a new military alliance with other states to counter the military dominance of the U.S. and the growing membership of NATO states. China, along with the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed the Shanghai Coooperation Organization. Last week, two member states, China and the Russian Federation held joint naval war games.

The naval war games were interesting in that they appeared to be a dress rehearsal for a Chinese naval assault on Taiwan, in that the only probable navy or air force that could challenge the People's Liberation Army Navy would be the U.S. forces. In the naval exercises, "enemy" submarines were supposedly sunk by use of deck landing anti-submarine helicopters and depth bombs. Air to air missiles were launched to repell "enemy" aircraft. And infrared, photo electric and plantinic devices were used to block "enemy" missiles. While the claim is not to threaten any third party state, but rather military cooperation of the two nations, yet the U.S. is the only likely adversary if a conflict should ever come to pass.

China has long considered Taiwan to be a "breakaway republic". An asault to retake this area by force could unfortunately be considered under this Chinese view of "defense" that the U.S. would consider to be a more of "offensive" effort.

China has recently added six new naval destroyers to the People's Liberation Army Navy, including two Russian purchased ones with Sunburn nuclear tipped antiship missiles. These antiship cruise missiles could kill American aircraft carriers with a 100% crew mortality.

While the People's Liberation Army has been in the process of downsizing manpower since 1987, still the goal of cutting an additional 200,000 in manpower still leaves China with a very formidable force of 2.3 in manpower. But in this age of push button warfare, where less and less manpower is needed on the ground, replaced with weapons launch crews and technicians.

There are many positive values dedicated to the goals of nuclear nonproliferation and other admirable goals in the new Chinese White Paper. But as always the devil is in the details. The Chinese definition of "defense" cannot accept an offensive military role against Taiwan. The entire range of this conflict should be between peaceful negotiations between China and Taiwan to meet a peaceful resolution of this conflict. And the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) which is responsible for both the civilian use if nuclear power as well as military use of nuclear weapons technology cannot use this agency to sell technology to states like Iran in exchange for the huge natural gas deal recently struck, or other fuel source arrangements. The two main world fuel consuming nations are the U.S. and China, and China cannot let the fuel appetite to support their booming economy lead to military transfer technology compromises that allow for more world nuclear arms. The Chinese government CNNC has long been implicated in nuclear weapons related technology trade with Iran, despite the claimed goals of nonproliferation by China in their new White Paper.

All superpowers should commit themselves to sincere nonproliferation of both nuclear as well as conventional weapons curbs and military arms sales sanity. Massive arms sales to Iran, Africa or other states do not support the goals of world peace, and all superpowers including the U.S., Russia and China should support the goals of concern about the spread of weapons throughout the developing world. The new Chinese White Paper is a positive document it the reading of it's text. But actions will speak louder than the printed words. Agencies of the Chinese government such as the CNNC deserve close scrutiny whether they will live up to the claimed nonproliferation goals stated in the White Paper, or whether it will be nuclear related technology transfer to states like Iran business as usual. If so, then this new White Paper was hardly worth the effort.

Please Join In Prayer For The Victims Of The Natural Disaster Today

Prayer is very powerful, and today is a good day for it. And there is so much death and destruction for our brothers and sisters in the Southern U.S., in what looks like a scene after a nuclear war. Parts of our nation look like a poor Third World nation right now. And tales of suffering and scenes of destruction are heartbreaking.

Today is a very good day to pray for help with the human suffering of our fellow Americans. Many very nice people have lost everything, including the lives of family members. All good people need to appeal to God to spare more deaths, to offer quick healing to the hearts broken and property lost. Many poor people with no insurance are now homeless and are now refugees. This will be a major problem to solve. God's help for the entire situation is greatly needed. Please take some time to pray today. This is very important.

The Islamic Jihad Few Remember

History is usually not the strongest point with many Americans. And few know that WWI was actually the largest organized crusade for Islamic Jihad against Christian Europe during the last century. During the Middle Ages many know of the Islamic control of Europe, especially in Europe, but Americans know far less about the conflict between the Islamic and Christian world. This last organized crusade against Christian Europe was by the Ottoman Empire, comprising Turkey during WWI. Brtish and French soldiers suffered one of the worst military defeats by this military from Turkey at Gallipoli, in which more than 200,000 British, and more than 47,000 French solduers lost their lives. Had Turkey and the Ottoman Empire won WWI, Germany would have controlled upper parts of Europe, and Turkey would have spread Islam to many areas in Europe, Italy, Spain, and possibly even France.

The relevance of this conflict with Islam during WWI is important in understanding the current ethnic problems in Iraq.

After WWI, Britain invaded and held ethnic areas of the defeated Ottoman Empire, including three areas in the MidEast, that it was rumored that Winston Churchill drew together on a bit of paper in a hotel room as a new nation under British control, "Iraq". For more than 40 years Britain fought fierce nationalist violence in Iraq, siding more with the ethnic interests of the Sunni community, and more opposed to Shiite and Kurdish interests. Britain even used mustard gas attacks on entire villages fgured to be hotbeds of nationalist violence. In 1958, an Arab nationalist uprising swept Britain out of power in Iraq. Britain was losing contol in the conquered MidEast areas. Earlier the first successful Arab nationalist uprisng was from Gamel Nasser in Egypt, which only served to inspire similar uprisings and violence. Many such as a young Saddam Hussein were greatly inspired by Gamel Nasser as was the Iraqi Baath Arab Socialist party. Arab socialism was on the move in the MidEast, and British control had the rug pulled out from their control of conquered areas of the old Ottoman Empire.

The current problems in Iraq that make a breakup of Iraq likely are brewing in the problems over writing a viable constitution for Iraq. The ethnic divide from the artificial nation that Britain threw together after the WWI defeat of the Ottoman Empire are becoming very apparent. Both the Shiites and their Kurdish allies are not really writing a document for the establishment of a long term state of Iraq, but are writing a document that is a division of assets more like a divorce paper, where oil assets are being divided to the Shiite and Kurdish ethnic groups, and Sunnis are simply being given the sand of Iraq. And it is entirely likely, due to the recent Kurdish violence within Turkey, that the Kurdish ethnic group may well intend to create a new MidEast nation of Kurdistan, which could involve Turkey in future warfare.

It is amazing how the Bush Administration took an artificial nation with this history of violence against foreign interests such as the British control from post WWI, past WWII, on until 1958, and decided this is where to make a stand for Arab "democracy". Of all MidEast states, Iraq had to be the most likely state to have insurgent conflict, and to break apart into three seperate ethnic states, and to create the possibility of conflict with Turkey with a push by the Kurdish community to command their own state of Kurdistan.

All of those who wave the flag, or attack Cindy Sheehan, really miss the point in Iraq. The possibility of Iraq ever becoming a peaceful democratic state was always highly unlikely. The three ethnic groups that Britain threw together and created in the artificial state of "Iraq" would most likely never become a single peaceful Arab democratic state. The constitutional process in Iraq is closer to divorce papers and the breakup of Iraq is more likely than not. How the Bush Administration will deal with this will be fascinating .

China Ratifies World Health Organization Tobacco Control Framework

The leadership of China, concerned about the devastating impact of tobacco on their nation which has become the world's largest consumer of tobacco, has ratified the WHO(World Health Organization) framework to control tobacco use. This is an important step towards stemming the 1.2 million tobacco deaths each year as well as harm, injury and death to nonusers including children from secondhand smoke.

China announced that sales of cigarettes via vending machines would be immediately banned. And with a full 36% of China's population smoking, which is far worse than the 19-21% of Amercans that smoke, the costs to society in lost productivity, unneccessary medical costs and injuries is immense. The costs of smoking to a society can even rival the cost of a small war in increased medical costs and lost productivity.

Here are some important facts related to the devastating impact of tobacco:

In Tennessee, a smoking parent is enough grounds to deny child custody in the case of a divorce to that parent according to child welfare guidelines followed by judges in that state.

In Istanbul, Turkey a medical center found that 74% of children aged 3-8 who required ear tube surgery due to inner ear infection had the presense of a chemical that indicated nicotine in the child's urine. This means that secondhand smoke was the most likely factor to create inner ear infections in most young children.

In the U.S., Philip Morris USA issued an Email that accepted responsibility for secondhand cigarette smoke as a cause of SIDS(Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Perhaps the smaller immune system of infants cannot tolerate the 4,000 poisons contained in cigarettes and death is caused by cigarette smoke poisoning.

In Britain, children as young as 12 who have become nicotine drug addicts by smoking are now being given nicotine patches to control their addiction.

In the U.S. while 5.4 million children yearly survive injuries from secondhand cigarette smoke such as asthma and inner ear infections, costing $4.6 billion a year to treat, another 6,200 children die from injuries from secondhand cigarette smoke.

A Japanese study linked parents smoking to discolored gums in children as well as cavities and gum disease. Secondhand smoke destroys the oral health of children whose immune systems cannot defend against these poisons which include heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium. A full 70% of children in the study who had a smoking parent at least suffered gum discoloration.

The U.S. Department of Human Services blames secondhand smoke for lung and sinus cancers as well as respiratory infections.

The U.S. Surgeon General blames the asthma epidemic on secondhand smoke. The rate of asthma is greatly increasing in the U.S. , and public smoking is a likely cause.

In Oregon, discarded cigarettes accounted for 95 fires in the last three weeks. This included a school fire that destroyed the school, an apartment building fire, and 93 grass or wooded areas fires. These fires are expensive in property and environmental damage, as well could involve the injury or loss of lives of firefighters or other persons.

The tobacco industry which is mainly located in the U.S. has long profitted from promoting a drug addiction that causes persons with no will power to practice their addiction in public places and spread death and injury to children and nonsmokers. At least the government of China is accepting the challenge to follow the WHO guidelines to protect the health of it's massive population. In the U.S., the lobby efforts of big tobacco still roadblock most legislation, but with China and other states taking the lead, more American politicians may respond with proper actions to ban public smoking and greatly limit this immoral and evil industry which injures and kills children and nonsmokng adults.

Misinformation A Key Asset In War Support

Sunday, the Fox News Sunday program featured two mothers who lost their sons in Iraq. This was deeply sad and I feel terribly for both. The mother who opposed the war was quite articulate in her views. But I was greatly concerned about some some of the misinformation that the mother who supported war believed. And on Sunday, on a religious program, John Hagee also presented some information about Iraq, unfortunately much of it was greatly confused and also contradictory.

Americans certainly have the right to their own opinions, or even bad opinions. But in the case of John Hagee, bad information acts as a recruiting tool for his personal politics. This is not intentional, but the net effect.

The mother who supported the war did so because of a mistaken belief that Saddam Hussein had some connection to Al Qaeda, 9/11 or even Osama Bin Laden, wrong, wrong wrong, on all three counts. And John Hagee presented a greatly confused sermon in which the 12,000 members of the Badr Brigade where presented as terrorists to fight America by Iran. This is not quite accurate. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has trained, supplied and paid the salary for these elite militia fighters to work behind the lines of Iraq to battle Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard during the Iran-Iraq War. The Badr Brigade is a militia that supports the goals of Iran, but is not exactly the same as a terrorist army meant to fight Americans in Iraq, as Badr members are elected officials in Iraq, and opponents of the Sunni minority and the mainly Sunni insurgents. The Badr Brigade is not a desirable organization, armed members recently replaced the secular Mayor of Bagdad in an armed coup. This type of violence is hardly democracy.

And John Hagee presented some claims that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring terrorism. There are problems with this as well. The government of Saudi Arabia has sponsored some religious schools in which some teachers have promoted Islamic extremism, but that is the agenda of individual teachers, and not the intent of the government of Saudi Arabia. And of course most the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, yet that is where this cell of Al Qaeda fighters were based, and not some project of the Saudi government. The Saudi government has in fact battled terrorists, which is a true fact that John Hagess did identify.

It is highly unfortunate that many supporters of the war seem to share a variety of misinformation about Iraq, and the Iraq war, and misinformation about terrorism. While the Bush Administration never actively promoted this particular misinformation, it has found this to be a key bedrock of much of the support for the war policy of Bush. And it takes support where it can find it, which is unfortunate, as little effort to educate the public about true facts and information have been undertaken.

But the Administration was hardly better informed about Iraq in many ways. The history of three ethnic groups with no connection forced together by Britain after WWI's victory over the Ottoman Empire was ignored. But now these ethnic tensions manifest itself in the Sunni insurency and strong Sunni objections to the constitution will also likely lead to either civil war or the breakup of Iraq. And the 40 year history of British combat against nationalist insurgent fighters was ignored and the illadvised invasion of Iraq by the U.S. began in 2003.

The father of the current president rejected an invasion of Iraq in one of his books because he knew the difficulty of this effort. But overly optimistic estimates by Donald Rumsfeld and others promoted this war with the wrong equipment, and not expecting the long insurgent conflict of which the Humvees have become a major war liability for the troops. Waging a war in a nation with three dissimilar ethnic groups, and a long history of violence from WWI to the present was absolute insanity. It was unfortunate, but the brutality of Saddam Hussein actually kept the ethnic tensions in check. Now this problem is daily present in the insurgency attacks, violence, carbombings, roadside bombs, hostage taking and other acts.

Misinformation about Iraq got America into this war, and misinformation maintains some public support for the war. And nonsense from the President that we're fighting terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here is merely absurd. Iraq has become a magnet for insurgents from nearly all Islamic states, and a majority in many Islamic states are very antiAmerican in their sentiments. With so much antiAmericanism the likelyhood of another 9/11 attack because of the Iraq War is more likely, not less likely. While Al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11, the attacks in Britain were caused by anti war Pakistani radicals who opposed the British role in Iraq. This alone proves that Islamic terrorism related to the war as well as the old threat from Al Qaeda are now both present. This hardly supports the absurd premise that fighting terrorists in Iraq will prevent more terrorism in the U.S. There is no guarantee from terrorists if, when or where they will strike. They are unpredictable.

America knew little about the history of Iraq, yet blindly trusted a policy from the Bush Administration that was hardly knew much more about Iraq's history. And here we are with all the problems. To paraphrase a famous quote: Those that know very little of history are merely doomed to repeat it.