A Time To Stand

Thousands of years ago a young man chose to die a painful death to atone for the sins of many. It was an honorable death, albeit one which occured in the most dishonorable of circumstances. A betrayal, an unecessary uprising that amounted to little more than a witch hunt, a slanted court that allowed this man to be prosecuted by an angry mob and a conclusion that would have led many to openly breathe a sigh of relief. The man who would be the King of Kings was gone, and no longer a threat to those who would rule, perhaps not through the most legitimate of avenues.

Through history we have witnessed this scene play out a thousand and more times. In the majority of cases the reasoning behind that which makes them the threat has changed from one of religious belief to one of political standing.......Until now.

It is interesting to note how closely linked Religion and Politics are. In Australia some years ago there was a campaign by a number of Politicians to stamp out Abortion. We have all seen this, every country has their politicians who are anti abortion. The scene played out as it always has and will always do. The rights of a woman to make the decision about what happens with her own body against the rights of an unborn child to take that first breath. Interestingly all of these Politicians were male and therefore would not have a womans understanding of the need for that right to make often painstaking decisions about whether to terminate that life. The other point that was interesting to note was that all of these men held strong religious conviction. All were actively involved in their churches and making political decisions based on those religious convictions. Now, I am not here to make a judgement over whether they were right or wrong in their beliefs. Each of us is born with the inherent responsibility to make decisions for ourselves about our beliefs, our lives and how our actions will impact on those around us.

Personally, I believe your relationship with your God is a personal matter between you and them and is best kept that way. Yes, I am the first to admit I am rude to any person that stands on my doorstep offering me Salvation and to lead me on the path to eternal life. Quite simply, if I held a desire to attend church I would do so.

And this is where my issue with organised religion stems from. More often than not we are born into religion. The beliefs of our parents and family become our own, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. Those who follow organised religion will often be the first to persecute the religions of others because their beliefs differ from their own. Centuries have changed organised religion, pacified it to a small degree. Never again did we believe we would witness the bloody crusades or the enforced acceptance of one religion and it's beliefs. At one time I myself would have fallen victim to the religious beliefs of some due to my looks. Women with red hair, blue eyes and prominent birthmarks were routinely persecuted in the belief that they were witches attempting to lure righteous men from their homes and their wives and enslave them. We can look upon these beliefs now and laugh because the concept of terminating a person based on their looks and your religious beliefs is a now a crime.

And yet, we are now seeing a resurgence in religious fanaticism that has caught us effectively unaware. This is not a new war, simply the latest battle. Christians and Muslims have been at war since the beginning of time. While neither can realistically claim the title of the Religion Of Peace, both believe so strongly in what they stand for that they would die for it. The most prominent difference seems to be that one will die defending their religion while the other will die enforcing it. While one religion glorifies life, the other glorifies death.

Religion has never been the underlying factor with regard to war. That is predominantly greed that is simply masked by religion. If we look at this latest of battles we see the likes of Osama Bin Laden preach the word of Allah to the weak minded and glorify them as they take their own lives and those of innocent victims whilst he hides, amassing a fortune. And all in the name of the Religion of Peace.

Many with no understanding of religion at all will come together to protest against our elected officials and their decision to take a stand against the Middle East. They will further display their ignorance by comparing these elected officials to the likes of Adolf Hitler. These actions merely serve to demonstrate that they also lack any knowledge of history as well. Whether we are willing to accept it or not, religion and politics have become entertwined. All around us those with the courage and conviction to fight deploy to face the enemy on their own soil. Each has their own set of beliefs and convictions, their own reason to fight. These reasons are as individual and personal as the men and women themselves. And yet, they fight for our right to choose our own religion or indeed, our right not to choose religion at all. Their personal beliefs and convictions are so strong that they would die defending them. Their belief in the fundamental right to choose, overwhelms their fear of battle. Their belief in, and love of, their country and their way of life fuels their desire to win.

Each day, these brave warriors face an enemy who equally believe in their religion and their struggle. While the enemy destroys their own cities and murders their own countrymen and women, these warriors will lay down their lives to defend them. They will leave their families, their lives and everything they fight so hard to defend and travel across the world to fight for those persecuted by their own people. They will display on a daily basis, the belief, the hope and the possibility of self sacrifice that many attribute to the Chrisitan faith.

But to many, this is not a fight for religious conviction, merely a struggle for humanity. It is a war fought on many levels, from the battles in the streets of the Middle east, to the random acts of terrorism on our home soil, from the riots in the streets across the world from those who believe they are being persecuted based on their religion, to the enforced lessons on Islam in our childrens schools, from the so called 'Electronic Jihad' that has been threatened in recent months to the propaganda wars in our media. The stark reality here is that no one will escape this struggle. From the innocent victims of these random acts of terrorism and their families to those left behind when Soldiers deploy. To the grieving family and friends of fallen warriors to our children witnessing the war through the media.

In every country, despite religious or political conviction, every person will be touched in some way by this struggle.

Perhaps it is time for us to lay aside our misgivings about our countries Leaders, our reasons for being at war, our lack of faith in those around us. The time for ignorance and denial is long past. We can not allow the senseless bloodshed to continue and through our stubborn denial of the realities of this war, that is exactly what we are doing. If we can educate our children about Islam in our schools, surely we can educate them as to the reasons why people are fighting for them. It is time to show unslanted, fact only views and information. Now is the time for people to seek real answers.

The outcomes of this war need to become the responsibility of everybody.

AC

Just Makin the Point.....

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a great fan of the UN. I'm still at a loss as to what these people actually do, apart from mouthing off...Like this guy.

Diggers in Iraq symbolic: Blix John Lyons | November 07, 2007 FORMER chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has described the 500 Australian troops in Iraq, at the centre of the political debate between the two major parties, as being of "political and symbolic value". Hans Blix, who will receive the Sydney Peace Prize from Paul Keating, says Australian troops in Iraq are of "political and symbolic value". Picture: Alan Pryke The reference came yesterday when Mr Blix was asked whether there was any real difference between the policies on Iraq put forward by John Howard and Kevin Rudd. Asked whether 500 soldiers could make a crucial difference to the future of a country such as Iraq, the former Swedish diplomat said: "I don't think so. They (the US) have over 140,000 people in Iraq and then on top of that presumably a lot ofcontracted people, so I don't see quite that it has more than the political and symbolic value." Last night, Labor defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said he would never describe Australia's troops as symbolic but added: "I am not surprised by his comments." "I think Hans Blix has vindicated the Labor Party's position on Iraq," he said. "There is no doubt these resources could be better utilised elsewhere." Mr Blix was the UN weapons inspector who warned against an invasion of Iraq after his team was unable to find any weapons of mass destruction from about 700 searches at 500 different sites. He is in Sydney to receive the Sydney Peace Prize tomorrow. It will be presented by former Labor prime minister Paul Keating. The Opposition Leader has said Labor, if elected, would withdraw the 500 soldiers in the overwatch battle group based at Talil in southern Iraq and move them to neighbouring countries. The Prime Minister has said those troops would be kept in Iraq but dispersed to other parts of the country. "I would have thought the presence of foreign (non-American) troops in Iraq, the value of it is that it somewhat improves the appearance of a multilateral operation, rather than anything else," Mr Blix said. Read more here

And for that we're going to give the guy a medal??? Makes sense.

I am, of course, well aware that our contribution to the Middle Eastern conflicts seems unimportant and in numbers alone insignificant. But let's look at those numbers for a moment...

Australias entire population is approx 20,434,176 (as of July 2007)

The United States population is 301,139,947 (as of July 2007)

Our Military Force has 51,000 fulltime and 19,400 Reservists. Australias entire force is 70,400 Personnel. The United States deploys twice the amount of Personnel in one country at one time. There are currently approx 140,000 United States Service Personnel deployed to Iraq alone. The United States full force is somewhere closer to approx 1,426,713 personnel who are currently on active duty in the military with an additional 1,259,000 personnel in the seven Reserve Components.

It is beyond my comprehension that someone charged with the responsibilities that Mr Blix was, with the threat of war hanging over his head as he searched for WMDs, can not understand that Australia can simply not commit a force as large as that of the United States.

Current operations Current ADF deployments. Deployments of over 1000 personnel are coloured red, deployments of between 999 and 101 personnel are coloured orange and deployments of 100 or fewer personnel are coloured blue. In July 2007 around 3850 Australian Defence Force personnel were deployed on overseas operations. An additional 450 personnel were also deployed on domestic maritime security tasks.[23] While these deployments have placed pressure on some elements of the military, and particularly the Army, the ADF is not currently 'overstretched'.[24] The ADF currently has two-large scale deployments in the Middle East. The ADF's contribution to the rehabilitation of Iraq, Operation Catalyst, forms the largest ADF deployment. As of July 2007, 1575 ADF personnel were deployed to the Middle East as part of this operation. The other main ADF operation in the Middle East is Operation Slipper, Australia's contribution to the international coalition against terrorism. In July 2007 approximately 970 ADF personnel were also deployed as part of this operation.[25] The Australian force in Afghanistan will be expanded to more than 1000 personnel over 2007 and 2008.[26] The ADF also maintains three small contributions totalling 52 personnel to peacekeeping operations in the Middle East and Africa. Read more here

So Mr Blix, whatever the reason the Diggers are there as part of the Multi National Force. They're doing their jobs and they're doing them well. Australia is contributing what they can, where they can and their efforts are far from 'symbolic' for those of us waiting at home for their return. To us, be it 5 or 500, they are heroes. They have our respect and gratitude for any and all of their contributions to our countries future well being.

AC