Cheap Riverfront Property

1500 years behind in the world.

Hi everyone!

Ok I said I wouldn’t write again but I couldn’t help doing it. We are getting the new influx of people from the states and it fantastic. The staff is swelling . . . Hold on; I mean the work force is increasing. (less sexual innuendo in that wording) So I have a lot of teaching to do, which is nice. I like to teach. Probably has to do with my know-it-all nature; I have accepted that I just can’t help it. I’m too old to adjust the larger aspects of my personality.

So I have packed my bags, and have begun to say goodbye to Balad. I want to say I’ll miss this place but, Nah. I’ll be glad to get back to the USA. You just can’t imagine how good we have it in the US. Our poor are rich. I’m sure this will raise hackles with some but it is true. Our poorest have opportunities others in the world never will see.

This little part of Iraq that I have witnessed could be really nice if Americans populated it. We would begin to invest in the land and infrastructure. We would band together to improve our surroundings. Americans would build big houses on the Tigris. Our people would dam portions of it for electricity, (and for fishing). We’d make mud bricks into an aesthetically pleasing architectural feature. We would create vineyards and make fine wines. Americans would fool people into thinking the mud here was healthy for you and put up spas. We would also create tourism, luring the entire world with slogans like “Back to the Cradle” and “Where it All Began”. It would be so nice that we’d have to build a wall to keep the illegal Iranians out. We’d have them picking dates for less than minimum.

We believe in the future as Americans. We invest in the future. Americans are not fatalistic we are optimistic. We don’t care if Allah wills it, who cares if Allah wills it. We believe God tells us to prosper. Don’t take your talents and hide them, invest them. Use what God has given you. Work hard and you will be blessed. Despite the modern secular nature of our government we still embrace these Christian ideas. Iraqis could learn from us but they are hindered in that every faction of Islam believes that government should be from Allah. No separation of religion from government, Shari’a law for everyone. But every little faction believes they have the truth. That is why they teeter on the brink of chaos. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s”, with this quote Jesus freed all westerners from the tyranny of religion. Now those of you who know me know that I am devout. But imagine an America with a state religion. Now imagine it with one you don’t agree with. Take it further and imagine it with Old Testament laws enacted, ‘Eye for an Eye’ laws. Are you getting the picture? Now imagine it with those laws enforced by humans, only male humans, with all the inherent flaws we engender. This is what Mohammed preached and this is the possible reality of a world under Islamic control. Totalitarianism is bad, religious totalitarianism would be hell, as oft demonstrated through out this part of the world.

So as I leave here I can only pray for the salvation of the Middle East. Modest salvation delivered in the form of American SECULAR democracy with free market capitalism; and Profound Salvation from the deprivations of Islam. As a Christian I feel a degree of guilt that I’m not staying to teach the Iraqis, and for convenience sake I’ll hide behind my government’s orders to not proselytize (weak as I am). But if the Christian message cannot be spread, we should therefore not encourage any other faith. Let the American President and his staff say truly to the American people and to the people of the world that Islamic hegemony and Shari’a law are acceptable for no one to live under and that the world would better be rid of them. I fear that my government is too ‘diplomatic’ to speak that truth despite how strongly they might believe it, and Iraq and our armies suffer needlessly for that.

Every fifth round is a tracer. . .