This is part 3 in a series of posts about foreign policy.
- Wrong Assumption #1 Giving Foreign Aid Promotes US Regional Interests
- Wrong Assumption #2 Limited Number of Terrorists
Many conservatives have religions motivations behind their foreign policy. They look at the violence advocated in the Koran and realize that, when interpreted literally, Islam is a violent religion. They then propose as a solution that we kill the Islamic Extremists before they can kill us. This kind of thinking is amplified by those who think we should “just nuke the whole desert and be done with the danger.”
This thinking lowers us to their level. It is also based on wrong assumptions, since bullets don’t stop ideas or religions.
The only way to stop ideas is with other ideas.
History teaches us that when you persecute something you legitimize and promote it. The tighter we squeeze the middle east, the more countries will slip through our fingers. If it didn’t work for Darth Vader it won’t work for us.
We would have done much better to send an army of missionaries to share the hope of the Gospel than to send an army of troops to shoot at their ideas. We will content to struggle to have moral legitimacy to share the Gospel of Peace when we are shooting at our mission field.
Trying to stop a religion with bullets is like trying to put out a fire out with gasoline. I didn’t work for Caesar, it won’t work for us.
Not to mention the fact that things have been much harder in Iraq after we went in than before. There has been a mass exodus of Christians and missionaries from Iraq since our presence there. Look it up, you’ll find this new government we’ve installed is very anti christian.