A Case For Israel

Over the last few weeks we've seen the pressure mount on Israel to move their borders back to pre-1967 boundaries. President Obama has stated that it's the starting point for negotiations and nations are lining up at the U.N. against Israel once again. Glad to see Prime Minister Harper take a stand in defense of Israel. Canada may be one of the few friends Israel has in the world. Watch the video below. I think they make a pretty good case for keeping secure borders.



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Pakistan and Osama Bin Laden

It will be interesting watching the fallout from the death of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan after a ten year search. Of particular interest will be the ongoing relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan has consistently denied that
Bin Laden was hiding out in their country or that they knew where he was. Yet he was found in Abbottabad, near Islamabad, in a compound with re-enforced structures surrounded by barbed wire. This was obviously suspicious, particularly for a country naturally wary of foreigners. Even more telling, his hideout was almost across the road from a Pakistani military training base.

So, here's the question: were the Pakistanis lying or are they completely incompetent? My bet is that they are lying. The truth is that the U.S. has never trusted the Pakistani government and, even now, is only playing nice to help them save face. They didn't inform them until the operation, apparently by Navy seals, was complete precisely because they were afraid that someone would tip off Bin Laden and he would disappear again.

There are some elements within the Pakistani government who are pro-Western, but there are many who also would favour the Taliban and even Al Qaida. Many areas of Pakistan are beyond government control, but this was "civilization." Someone knew, but who, and how does the U.S. government proceed from here?

It seems, to this point, that the Americans approach is to play nice and pretend that all is well. The Pakistanis are doing the only thing they can - claiming that this was a good thing and that they're okay with the fact an American president ordered his soldiers to launch a military operation on their soil without informing them. We must assume there are some very animated conversations going on behind closed doors in Pakistan. It is this instability that is particularly unsettling, especially since Pakistan has nuclear capability.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Pakistan over the next few months and years. If they "officially" become an enemy it will make the war in Afghanistan even more complicated than it is already. At minimum it adds to the instability of an increasingly volatile Muslim world. Nothing is easy in this day and age of massive change and cultural clashes, but President Obama did what he had to do when he had the opportunity. Let's hope the short-term elation doesn't give way to more long-term problems. Time will tell.

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Restoring Sanity - It's A Start!

The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the "partial-birth" abortion ban, making the procedure illegal in the United States. The real question is, why did it take so long? During the procedure, the cervix is dilated, the fetus is partially extracted, the skull is punctured and the brain tissue removed before the fetus is fully removed from the birth canal. It is typically done late in the second trimester or in some cases during the last three months. It is now known that the fetus at this stage of development feels excruciating pain.

The response from the usual suspects has been typical. Hilary Clinton was disappointed because it inhibited a woman's right to choose. Barrack Obama "strongly disagreed" with the ruling, fearing that it would erode the rights of women. There are many other voices being raised in support of partial birth abortion in the name of "women's rights" but the arguments don't hold water.

The universal fear seems to be that somehow a woman's life might be at risk if this procedure is not allowed, yet, in the time that it has been allowed, in not one situation that I've heard of has it been considered medically necessary. Yet in each case someone died - the child! There have been approximately 2,200 partial birth abortions done yearly, according to R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Exactly where are we as a society when it is considered reasonable to debate that somehow this "procedure" is acceptable? It is merely a short step from this to infanticide - and merely a matter of degree. Yet some of those vying for the top office in the U.S. would actually speak out in favour. Scary.

North of the border the situation is even more obscene. There is absolutely no law governing abortion in Canada and a child is not considered human in law until he or she emerges fully from the birth canal. The politicians who are even concerned about this are few and far between. More than 100,000 abortions take place in Canada each year - paid for by the taxpayers!

I believe that history will look back on our time and consider the abortion mills in the same light as the gas chambers of World War II. With what we now know about the unborn child, and with the ability of doctors to do surgery on younger and younger fetuses, how is it possible to justify abortion? It seems to me to be schizophrenic that we can do surgery on a fetus (using pain medication) in one part of a hospital, while aborting a fetus of the same age in another part of the same hospital. Please someone - explain to me the rationale.

My prayer is that I live to see the end of legalized abortion.