Quran Burning

The proposed Quran burning by the Florida church leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings. It is a complicated issue for me, because I view it from several different angles: as a Christian, as a nationalist, as an American ideologue, and both from an individual perspective and a civilizational perspective. With a few other tangential, emotional issues, too.

As a Christian I feel it is my obligation to reach out in love to all unbelievers with the good news about Jesus Christ. I Peter 3:15 urges us to engage the unbelieving world with gentleness and respect and a clear conscience. Burning someone's holy book is hardly respectful and gentle. It is provocative and mean-spirited...thus a violation of God's command.

I'm also a nationalist. I love my country--its history, its successes, its unique place in the world. I tend to be chauvinistic about America (please look the word up--it has nothing to do with the feminist debate...). From this perspective, I don't like Islam. I've never respected Islamic culture, since long before 9/11, but since then I'm very angry and suspicious toward Muslims. I think their religion is nonsense, and that it leads to violence wherever it is prominent. And I think that one of the most dangerous things you can do as a country is pussyfoot with Muslims. It only encourages them toward violence. Since 9/11 Muslims have flocked to this country to enjoy and abuse our hard-won freedoms, and they expect to be coddled as they hide behind our Bill of Rights. From this perspective, I feel it is important to burn those Qurans, because Muslims must be taught (collectively, as a culture) that freedom doesn't mean special treatment. It means freedom--to live, to speak, to work, to enjoy the fruits of your labor, AND to be subjected to criticism. Muslims in this country tend to wear their cultural snobbery on their sleeves, daring anyone to criticize them, their beliefs, or their bearded holy men. As of today, they have even gone so far as to threaten attack if we don't let them build their victory mosque in NYC. When someone threatens us like this, it is urgent that we IMMEDIATELY strike back and cross the line they draw in the sand. We MUST show them that they can and will suffer insult when appropriate. Burn those Qurans!

From the perspective of an American ideologue, I don't favor burning the Qurans. The Bill of Rights protects both freedom of religion and freedom of expression, and so it is technically okay to burn the books. But the cultural ideology behind the Bill of Rights is one of peace and respect. The point of the Bill of Rights is to create a violence-free society of free men and women. Burning each others' holy books is at cross-purposes with that cultural ideal, and it is certain that if we burn the Qurans, the "Islam and Christianity are Equivalent" Myth will kick in, and people will start burning Bibles. When we have a choice, as we do here, it is most often the better choice to opt for peace, respect, and gentleness.

When I think of Muslims as individuals, I can see them with sympathy and kindness. When I think of them collectively as a culture, I loathe them. Islam, for most of its existence, has been a cancer in human history. I find little of redeeming value in its constantly shifting morals. I hate the way they bump their heads. I despise the elevation of Mohammed into some sort of holy man. In reality he was a violent idol-worshipper who chose his favorite idol (named Allah), and decided to promote it to the "only true god." I hate the way the culture abuses women. And I don't want to ally with any culture that is anti-Semitic, because that's a violation of the Abrahamic covenant. Collectively, I feel that Islam needs to be subdued and exposed for all its many crimes.

Other thoughts about the proposed Quran-burning. I don't like stupidity--especially public stupidity--in Christianity, because it makes us all look bad. The pastor comes across like a moronic bigot, which I don't like. On the other hand, the public reaction against him and his little flock also makes me mad. My own president has surrendered completely to the Muslims and is the captain of Mohammed's cheerleading team. This is in keeping with his dismissive view of American sovereignty. Rather than defending our borders--one of his most basic constitutional duties--he spends his time and my tax money suing Arizona. He got elected by assuring us all that his middle name is as American as Chevrolet, but it seems that Hussein spends most of his time promoting Islamo-fascism at every opportunity. That makes me want to burn a Quran.

One final thought on all this. We should burn the Quran because it's the most boring, tedious book ever written. Have you ever read it? Drink coffee first.

So my conclusion? Don't burn the Qurans. The Scriptures assure us that God will take care of that at the end of the millennial reign of Christ. Whenever we can, we should restrain our own violent tendencies (I have plenty of them) and opt for peace. I don't like it, but there it is.

Borodino

Been studying the Battle of Borodino, 5-7 September, 1812 between Napoleon's Grande Armee and Kutuzov's Russians. Played the battle out using VPG's Napoleon 20 system. During the first two days, the French beat their heads against the wall, eventually taking Shevardino and pushing on to the Russian main defenses around the Fleches and the Great Redoubt. Lots of back and forth, and French morale kept going down while the Russians went up.

Finally on the last day of the fight, things started to happen for Napoleon. After two key Russian units routed from the vicinity of Semenovskaya, the French committed the Imperial Guard and smashed the Russian line, gaining attack frontage against the Redoubt. Late in the day the French V Corps occupied the Redoubt and the Russians fell back to Gorki. By nightfall, the French were on the outskirts of the town, but it was too late. As the battle ended, French morale was still low, and the Russians were doing fine.

In retrospect, I think I wasted the first two days on ineffective French attacks that contributed to the low morale. A better approach would be to maneuver, use the lulls to rest the troops, and begin a strong push late on the 6th with the coup de grace the next morning.