Beheading Hydra

One of the most fearsome creatures of ancient mythology was named Hydra. It was shaped like a dog and even smelling its tracks was thought to be both foolhardy and fatal. What made the grotesque foe so difficult to fight was its seven heads, one of which was considered to be immortal. When the Greek hero, Hercules, severed one of the creature’s many heads, two more took its place.

The battle Americans are currently fighting is also an epic struggle…and so unlike the "good guys wear white hats" battle we grew up with in all the TV westerns.

When Muslim terrorists hijacked four American passenger planes and smashed three of them into our symbols of power in New York and Washington, a new and threatening Hydra head bared its teeth. For the first time, we were forced to carefully examine a belief system that rewarded hatred with honor and martyrdom with eternal reward. Every American citizen became a target and a front-line combatant, whether we wanted to sign up for a hitch in this campaign or not.

Our leaders have apparently decided to deal with this threat by lobbing some bombs Osama’s way, taking out the Taliban and, probably, simply declaring victory. In order to accomplish this, however, we had to pour 600 million dollars in money picked from the pockets of U.S. taxpayers and deposited into the hands of a corrupt Pakistani general with a price.

Another menacing head arises. The U.S. economy is teetering on the brink. Not only have we spent down that expected ten-year tax surplus on domestic preparedness and for our national recovery in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, we’ve also been pouring billions into military operations and useless foreign aid projects around the world.

About two months ago, our government announced it would be cutting all non-military foreign aid to Israel. At least publicly, Jerusalem did not object to that decision and, in fact, welcomed it. There are those within conservative U.S. circles who have rationally suggested we discontinue all aid to both sides and let the Muslims and Israelis settle their own disputes without our meddling.

In exchange for the billions of dollars in weapons given to Israel, we demand the right to call the shots when it comes to their internal decisions. They resent us for it. But we also continue to spend additional billions of dollars propping up so-called moderate Muslim governments in places like Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Kosovo and the like. All the while, the people there hate us, not only for our support of Israel but also because they believe we are "the Great Satan" corrupting the world with our decadent culture and values.

You would have thought we’d have learned our lesson by now. You can’t buy real friendship. You can’t even rent it.

If instead, we brought our checkbooks home and used that cash to stimulate the American economy with bigger tax rebates, perhaps it could provide the boost we need to get things rolling again. The truth George W. Bush and many beltway insiders don’t want you to consider or remember was that our economy was none too good before the September terrorist attacks. The employment picture has gone from bad to worse, since then. The stock market has only recovered through the massive influx of cash infusions and lending rate discounts from the Fed. And with all that money being poured into the works, economists are starting to worry about another potential Hydra-head…

Inflation.

You can only run the printing presses so long before people begin to recognize the decreasing value of the dollar. It hasn’t happened, yet. People are largely asleep. But if we keep wasting our cash on foreign aid boondoggles and trying to keep the status quo going at home, all I can say is…"Beware."

It’s impossible to consider the many threats we face, today, without facing another monstrous visage, head on…

Energy dependence.

Saudi Arabia has threatened to turn its back on America and back the Arabs if we undertake any future campaign against Muslim terrorism. Should the more militant members of the Bush team persuade the President it’s in our best interests to strike at Saddam Hussein, we could see another oil embargo.

Guess what that would do to our economy?

There may still be time to act, if we respond quickly. We urge President Bush to upgrade our mothballed fleet of nuclear reactors and get them online as quickly as possible. America needs the kilowatts and we need them, yesterday. Nuclear power is one of the safest, cleanest sources of electricity known to man. By shutting down fossil fuel reactors and replacing them with the proven power of the atom, we can significantly reduce our petroleum imports from the nations of the Middle East, allowing our foreign policy decisions to be made without the threat of retaliation.

Now, let’s deal with one of Hydra’s hidden agendas…the threat of bio-terrorism. While an outbreak of serious proportions through such communicable diseases as smallpox remains a possibility, what happens when we can cut through the media hype? We conclude that the limited number of Anthrax cases reported so far is insignificant when compared with the 20-thousand or so Americans who die each year from the flu.

So, why would the media rush to make hay out of this relatively minor threat? Of course, they themselves were targeted. But there may be another reason and it speaks directly to the question, "Who do you trust?" Could this be another step toward conditioning Americans to rely solely on their government for our survival? Is it wrong to even ask this question?

Why then would those within Congress be attempting to relieve law-abiding gun owners from using legally purchased or acquired military surplus weapons? Is the renewed attack on the Second Amendment still another Hydra Head for us to battle? Middle Eastern terrorists didn’t use .45 caliber automatics or M-1 rifles to stage their assaults. But a Senate defense department appropriations bill authorizes the Secretary of Defense to "demilitarize" all military surplus weapons being held in private hands. That means they can order that your weapon be permanently disabled or turned over to the government for scrap.

Once America is disarmed and our armed forces are overseas fighting terrorism, who is left here to defend us? Why…NATO, of course! Just last week, Representative Ron Paul of Texas sounded the alarm bells, alerting our nation to the presence of European crews now patrolling our coasts against enemy attack under terms of the NATO treaty. We had been victimized. Now, they were here to help us.

Has anyone noticed that Russia is being discussed for membership in NATO? Would we want Russian planes protecting us from foreign attack? Or would we be dragging the Trojan horse into our heartland?

If Americans who love our land protest such possibilities, will we then be considered terrorists? Could be. The media went on a feeding frenzy this week, blaming right-wing religious zealots for sending out envelopes containing fake Anthrax samples to 130 Planned Parenthood centers. We do not condone these actions. But we feel Americans are being conditioned to accept the notion that there is no significant difference between "fundamentalist Muslims" and "fundamentalist Christians."

At least not until you take the time to read what is contained within the Koran and the Bible. But most of us will never bother to do that. We prefer to have our opinions spoon-fed to us every night in neatly pre-packed 30-minute TV news bites.

As you can see, it’s impossible to take on all of Hydra’s heads in any one opinion piece. They say the pen is mightier than the sword but all we’ve managed to do is draw a rather unflattering picture of the end-time beast foreseen two thousand years ago in a vision granted to the apostle John.

No Herculean effort will save American from the deadly intent of this militant monster. Only one sword is capable of slaughtering the beast and it emerges from the mouth of the soon-returning King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.

Thank God, His return is near…even at the door.

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