eatbees blog

Regardless of where the border may or may not be, let’s not forget it was the Iranians who decided to make a move they knew was provocative. I think the Iranians are much better chess players than their opponents, so they must have calculated their options and decided that whatever the possible countermove, they would hold the advantage.

At the age of 78, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt doesn’t want to die gracefully and let his countrymen take it from there. He’s preparing to hand power to his son. Just last week a compliant parliament rigged the Constitution to expand his dictatorial powers and eliminate any possibility of democratic opposition. Today there is a referendum to approve the changes, and “no” votes aren’t welcome.

Since President Bush first threatened to “seek out and destroy the networks” that are supposedly attacking U.S. forces in Iraq, I have read hundreds of articles and blog posts about the conflict with Iran. This crisis may be a largely manufactured one that interests only Americans, but there is still a lot to be learned about it, which I will summarize here in no particular order.

February 13, 2007: “Yes, I think Americans should be prepared to wake up one morning and find themselves at war with Iran.” March 10, 2007: “I think the Americans are unfortunately suffering from intelligence failure. They have made so many mistakes…because of the false information and intelligence they had at the beginning.”

I think most people see God as something that acts on the universe from outside. I see God as something that acts from within, “unfolding” in the universe and in organisms like a flower unfolds. In other words, God is like the DNA of the universe….

A few days ago while reading up on Iran, I stumbled across a profile of Tariq Ramadan by Deborah Orr in Britain’s Independent. Here are a few quotes to get you started….

February 2, 2007: “War with Iran would be a catastrophe that would make us look back fondly on the minor inconvenience of being bogged down in Iraq.” February 14, 2007: “Gen. Peter Pace said…that there is ‘zero chance’ of the United States going to war with Iran.”

Originally I was planning to write about everything that has taken place between the U.S. and Iran, or between the Bush administration and the American people concerning Iran, with the same level of detail I’ve used until now. The trouble is that with so much going on, I keep sliding deeper into a hole.

“Monopoly of force” means that the state should control the terrain through effective policing and be able to enforce its laws—which is clearly not the case in Palestine or Iraq today, but is the case in stable democracies or successful dictatorships.

The force that controls the universe and the human will and which is outside it is none other than God. But there is something that doesn’t fit: if God controls the course of events, why does He punish innocent people, we who do only what is ordained for us?