War, the Bible and Ted Cruz

Submitted by Michael S (United States), May 23, 2016 at 12:34

Hi, Anne. It looks as though we're discussing religion again. It seems that neither Israel nor politics can be discussed nowadays, without reference to it. You said,

"It's now little wonder to me that "Christians" like yourself have repudiated Cruz.' That's a moot point, now that Cruz is no longer running. He was on my "possibles" list, until he became nothing but a tool of the Establishment to disrupt the GOP Convention. I've used a Presidential candidate's religion as a criteria for voting for him. Local candidates? Maybe, sometimes. You went on to say,

"I think he takes Matthew 5:44 seriously"

It seems odd, for you to be preaching the Bible to me. The next thing you know, Daniel Pipes will be urging me to repent and believe in Jesus! OK, let's see what Matthew said:

Matthew 5:

[43] Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
[44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
[45] That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Frankly, I doubt that you believe that scripture yourself, the way you're trying to apply it. Ted Cruz certainly doesn't think that way. Jesus was teaching about love, not politics. I know that I haven't brought up the subject of "loving" or "hating" anyone.

You brought up the subject of whom we ought to bomb in wartime. I responded that I was in the US Army, a Vietnam Era veteran. I enlisted after the My Lai massacre had already happened. In case you never heard of it, it was an instance where US troops were ordered to massacre an entire village, on the ground, using rifles. There was a big uproar about it in the press (after several months); but all the officers and men involved were exonerated. I knew what was expected of me as a GI: I was to obey orders, if I knew what was good for me. I chose to get out of the Army, rather than have to make that decision in combat. Love and hate had nothing to do with it.

How does Ted Cruz fit into all this? He said,

"We need a Commander-in-Chief who will prioritize U.S. national security interests. That starts by calling the enemy - radical Islamic terrorism - by its name, defeating ISIS, rebuilding the military, and securing the border."

He talked about fighting and killing our enemies. If Cruz hadn't been quoted as saying this, I would have believed it if you had attributed it to Donald Trump. Cruz didn't talk about "fighting nice". He talked about "fighting and killing our enemies" -- and our "enemies" have always included men, women and children. Unlike me, Ted never served in the military; and he was too young to serve during the Vietnam War. Donald Trump was physically exempted, but at least he knows what was going on then. You went on,

"I read somewhere that even Trump retracted his "take out the families" statement."

Maybe he did. I was never interested in the issue, so I don't know. You went on,

"I don't believe that the Allies during WW2 ever adopted a policy of "taking out the families" of Germans or Japanese."

You're wrong. Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo -- read up on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_of_strategic_bombing
http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=55
http://apjjf.org/-Mark-Selden/2414/article.html

That's all I have to say on the matter.

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