Prov.26:17 He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
Prov.24:21-22 My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?
There's a reason Solomon is regarded as the wisest man that lived... these verses were quoted by a friend of mine in response to the question "What are we to make of the situations in Cairo and Benghazi?" The lesson (that I fear nobody, left or right of the Congressional aisle, save perhaps a very tiny minority who side - as I do - with Ron Paul and George Washington on Foreign Policy) is that trouble follows when stupid decisions are made like meddling in other people's conflicts. One only need to have examined
1) The US debacle in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
2) The Soviet debacle in Afghanistan
3) The US debacle in Iraq and now, continuing, in Afghanistan
to have predicted recent events in Libya, Egypt, and the to predict another debacle to come in Syria and, God help us, Iran.
I don't often go into the political arena on my blog, but these recent events are too big to avoid talking about to some degree - especially as people everywhere seem so mystified about what has happened. We have taken to messing with foreign governments and the internal affairs of sovereign nations far too much of late - and we are paying for it with the lives of individuals like Ambassador Stevens and his fellow fallen foreign service workers... not to mention countless American military personnel who are dying to support our meddling ways.
We have managed in the Middle East to do little more than replace one set of hostile leaders with another... and our doing so has clearly raised the ire of some (naturally!) and what comes as a natural consequence is trouble for everyone. I cannot believe, really, that anyone is actually surprised by what has come about in the past weeks, given what is going on in each of Egypt, Libya and Syria.
Solomon lays out the message plainly... don't insinuate yourself into other people's strife. This principle is wise for individuals and nations alike - but we are too busy trying to work our will in the world to take notice of what ought to be common sense. We are reaping the harvest of too much poking of our nose into others' business, and, sadly, many Americans have lost and will continue to lose life and limb because of our arrogant delusions of grandeur. But - as Solomon also said - there is nothing new under the sun. All this has happened before, and will continue to happen, til the Lord should return. I pray, though, that somewhere along the line we learn our lesson as a nation and stop trying to have our way in nation-building elsewhere.
I could go on - but I won't. I am sickened by what is being ignored by the media in all of this - the very governments we have supported, are giving foreign aid to, and continue to side with, are at best turning a blind eye to, and at worst (and closer to reality) participating in reprehensible persecutions of Christians and other unwanted groups in their nations. The Coptic Christians in Egypt are the chief example, though those in Syria are equally under fire. We sit idly by, though, pretending that the people we are supporting are 'peace-loving' and worthy of our support. Our government issues official apologies for hurting people's feelings (well, WE didn't hurt people's feelings, but some dingbat movie maker did), while at the same time those people we are apologizing to are guilty of horrible crimes against whole communities because of religious differences.
This makes sense how?
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