There's a Muslim term for the sort of "Grand Assembly" that Afghanistan factional leaders are attending in the German capitol today up in Europe. A previous grand assembly was held back in '90 after the Russians had pulled out and the U.S. stayed out. We didn't want to get embroiled in such a sticky situation then, and so they were left to fight it out with each other. Now the United Nations is trying to mediate so that a government can be created that is based on more than merely the strongest tribe. Of course that would be the Pashtun, out of which the Taliban emerged to cause so much trouble with it's fundamentalist version of Islam. Taliban means "religious students" and their militant interpretation of the Koran is the Wahabbi sect. Because they gave hospitality to ObL and refused to hand him over after 9/11, they are excluded from future plans for Afghanistan and not welcome at the Bonn meeting. And their last stronghold, the spiritual headquarters of Mullah Omar, is Kandahar in the south. Now it appears the U.S. Marines are going to capture it. That should allow things to shift from a military to a political arena. The offer of massive reconstruction aid through a widely based new government is the incentive to settle enough of their factional disputes so that things can get better. If any place on earth needs a new day it's surely in that landlocked Texas sized place up above Pakistan and the Arabian Sea on the map and way up in the mountains too. We've heard that it still has more land mines than any country. But the ambitions of it's war lords may be even more explosive. At best, the future looks bleak; much like the prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Those two U.S. envoys who just arrived there have a daunting agenda as I see it. If they could find a way to end terrorism there in the Middle East, we might have prospects of ending it elsewhere since that's the focal point of global tension just as Scripture says it will be in the last days. Hatred of Israel has spread from the Arabs to all of Islam it now appears. So Israel vs Islam has become the global divide (the church being an "Israel of GOD"). Still, our fine president is making it clear that this War on Terrorism is not against the Muslim world. He has gone to great lengths to demonstrate his conviction; even having that evening meal with some Mullahs in Washington to mark the first day of Ramadan on Nov.17 (since the days are for fasting, it had to be after sun down). Bush wants to be for both Israel and Islam. Maybe you heard that Billy Graham's son Franklin said the Muslims worship a different God and that our president was embarassed. Well, Bush has world politics ahead of theology on his plate, though Graham may be nearer the truth. Yahweh is the GOD of Scripture; Allah the God of the Koran. And as Kipling said so poetically over a century ago, "East is east and west is west and never the twin shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at GOD's great judgement seat." That hour has come and the issue is no longer God vs atheism, as in the Cold War. Now it's the GOD who woos and wins (through the mighty love of Christ) or the God that wins (with jihad) by killing the opposition when necessary. We even see many killing themselves just to take some of the enemy with them. That's not love of Yahweh but of Allah, presumably. Yet what of families left behind? Who will care for their women, children and relatives? Oh, they're to remember the martyr's death as something holy?? "We have his picture and he was so brave, noble and heroic."
Now what about clones? It seemed to me that those sixty some lines of stem cells that were left for research should be enough. They were the embryo sources for future studies. Why did this company have to go ahead to artificially create another "cellular entity" that is "less than an embryo"? As I see it, the beginning of human life has been shifted from conception to the point when an individual is forming from the cells. That restarts the pro-life/pro-choice debate anew. Maybe it's what this company really intended instead of more stem cells for treatment of incurable diseases as they claim, and not for reproduction. Using cloning for human reproduction seems utterly arrogant i.e. "I'm so perfect that I want my offspring to be identically like me." And nature was never designed that way, thank GOD. So I expect Congress to allow it for stem cell production but ban the reproductive use of cloning. Americans who insist will have to go to England where I understand it's allowed. But how would you keep that a secret? I wouldn't want my grandchild to be known as a clone. Would you? Or how would such children feel about themselves? Talk about reincarnation... Save us Lord from such a future! Come soon Jesus.
When Sharon met with president Bush a day early yesterday so that he could hurry back to Israel, reporters said that Bush made no suggestions of moderation. He just left it up to the Israeli PM to do what he had to do. And so the helicopter attack on Arafat's home in Gaza City this morning was about as expected. Fortunately for Arafat, he was up in Ramala when the nine missiles hit around his residence so he was safe though a number of Palestinians died. Now that we've suffered our first loss in the Afganistan War on Terror, maybe we'll feel some of the pain of both sides there in the Middle East. Of the three great monotheistic faiths, I think ours is the only one with a Gospel prohibiting vengance on our enemies. Thus our military action in Afghanistan isn't as much retaliation as police action to prohibit future terrorists attacks. I there had been sufficient international force to do the job, we'd have been willing to rely on it the same as we depend on law enforcement for each level of government. But lacking any such global agency, we had to rally as much support as possible to aid us in doing the job. We must leave revenge in the hands of the Almighty while we apply as much execution as need be to preserve law and order. It's more like a surgical matter than one of vengance. Though in the Muslim tribes of that Northern Alliance we've seen plenty of the latter. As I've heard it said, "There's no sin in wanting revenge, just in taking it." So often as we wait upon the Lord, we see Him bring it to pass. I'm thinking of a book Glen Simonsen told be about "Unit 731" in which the many and terrible aurocities of Japan against neighboring peoples before WW II are disclosed, especially experiments in biological warfare. It sort of made me feel a justice in the two atomic bombs we finally dropped on them to end the war. Glen said it told of such abuse of humans that it went beyond any ability to imagine. I said "Well they thought they were sons of the rising sun, so that justified whatever they did." Glen agreec that it was the same as Germans thinking they were the master race under the Nazis as they showed such cruelty and brutality to "lesser breeds." Now we're seeing Muslims who think they're so true to Allah, that He'll reward them in Paradise for taking unbelievers out of this world as they go out of it themselves. We can't even accept their surrender lest they have hidden explosives to destroy us along with themselves.