Tipped Over
If I was a tea pot, like the red one sitting on my kitchen stove, there would be a long, tall stream of steam shooting skyward out of my head – or at least sideways out of my ears.
The time that our current president has been in office has been the equivalent of turning up the burner under the pot a notch at a time. Each year he has turned the dial, cranked up the heat, and slowly but surely caused my emotions to boil.
The whistle from the kettle hit full pitch when I heard from Sec. of State John Kerry that our sailors were released by the Iranians as a result of “negotiations,” which are meant to make us “safe” and “strong.”
Bovine excrement!
Whatever happened to the America I love? Whatever happened to projecting power and authority? Whatever happened to “peace through strength”? All we have now is capitulation through cowardice. It’s time this little teapot pour out what’s inside before I explode!
Pax vs. Pax
Long ago, from around 27 B.C. till around 180 A.D., when Rome was the world power, they managed to maintain a “miraculous” amount of peace. This long and unprecedented time was called the Pax Romana, or “Roman Peace.” Among other things, it ensured its citizens of safe travel, safe access to trade, and just treatment under the law. But what brought about this peace, and what maintained it?
The peace of Rome was maintained with fear, pure and simple. However, the kind of fear that kept the peace was not the kind ISIS is famous for. No, the fear that kept this peace was the understanding that breaking the law had consequences. No matter who you were, or how powerful you were, the rule of law was supreme. Pax Romana epitomized the concept of “rule of law.”
For example, in two different cases the Apostle Paul was treated unjustly by local officials, but then used fear of Roman law to make his persecutors tremble. In Acts 16:35-40 we read of where Paul had been beaten and jailed. When the magistrates of Philippi sent word through a jailer that Paul and his team could be released, Paul would have none of it.
“But Paul said to them, ‘They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to smuggle us out secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out! ‘ “ – Acts 16:37 HCSB
When the magistrates got the word, they were greatly afraid and did exactly what the Apostle Paul asked. Why? Because what they had done could have cost them their lives. You just didn’t treat a Roman citizen that way!
The peace of Obama is maintained by bowing, cowering, capitulating, appeasing, and selling our people down the river. Seeing pictures of our sailors on their knees, hands over their heads, and surrendering their weapons to an enemy that shouldn’t have been able to get within a thousand yards of them is supposed to make me thankful for a nuclear agreement with Iran…but it only makes me steam!
This frame grab from Tuesday, January 12, 2016 video by the Iranian state-run IRIB News Agency, shows detention of American Navy sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf, Iran. (IRIB News Agency via AP)
Had it been Roman sailors (with satellite, air, and naval support), negotiations would have never been necessary. Iran would have rather back-stroked scratched and naked in a pool of Great White sharks than humiliate the most powerful military in the world.
But we have Obama, not “Romana.” So let us drink tea.
The Recovering Legalist 