It's Personal

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Nov 25, 2014 at 11:23

Hi, Donevan

I don't think these wars are about religion. My Bible says,

Jas. 4:
[1] From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
[2] Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
[3] Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

This world is full of people who continually are looking to take more to themselves from others, and are willing to fight and kill for it. Sometimes, this amounts to dometsic altercations, or bar room brawls. When more powerful individuals are concerned, the result is war.

Even on the world political scene, it's not too hard to see this selfish, personal motive. In South Sudan, for instance, there is a civil war that has quickly led to a humanitarian disaster, and which already involves Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and other countries; yet it is obvious to just about everyone that the root of the problem is a personal struggle for power between President Ki'ir and former Vice President Machar: The country is awash with oil reserves, and both men want to get a major share of the profit. Ki'ir is a Dinka, a predominantly Christian tribe; and Machar is a Nuer, a mixed Christian-Pagan tribe.

The Ugandans are predominantly Christian as well, and they coincidentally back Ki'ir. I say "coincidentally", because Uganda's main interest is also to get a share of the oil proceeds, in the form of trade. Ki'ir has accused the Sunni Islamist Sudanese of supporting Machar, though he has denied this; and Machar's people, with considerable justification, accuse the atheist Chinese of supporting Ki'ir. Another country accused of supporting Machar is Orthodox Christian Eritrea, which has had a border conflict for years with Orthodox Christian Ethiopia -- and the latter has also been accused of being impartial, supporting Machar.

Now, isn't THAT a tangled web of countries and religions! I didn't even mention that the Indian and Nepali peacekeepers are Hindus, and the Bangladeshis are Muslims. But the heart of the matter is that Riek Machar wants a piece of Salva Ki'ir's pie; and Salva is reluctant to give it to him, possibly with good reason.

We're not at war with Islam OR with terror. We're fighting with other actors, for a piece of the action: sometimes directly, as with Abu Du'a aka ‎Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi aka Caliph Ibrahim, the leader of the "Islamic State"; but also indirectly, against the Iranian, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, etc. interests working offstage. Everyone involved, essentially, wants a piece of the American "pie", and is trying the best he can to cut out that piece.

Sometimes terrorism is used, sometimes diplomacy, sometimes another means. We might accomplish much more, in fact, if we declared a "War on Bullsh_t" against all the lies coming out of Pallywood and their European useful idiots, than we have in fighting the etherial "Terror".

Religion is also used as a lever, where this is convenient. The US would do well, though, to take its eyes off these things and focus on guarding the pie.

Shalom shalom :-)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".