what's in a name?
Reader comment on item: Saddam's Damn Dam [i.e., The Mosul Dam]

Submitted by Drew (Canada), Nov 8, 2007 at 08:46

Lemme get this straight ... In English, it's called the Saddam Dam. In Arabic, it's called Sadd Saddam. Why not put the two together and call it the Sadd Dam?

It's interesting the Dr Pipes would invoke the image of Noah's flood in this, because there are Biblical analogues for this entire Iraq operation. I still believe that the mission to seek out Saddam once and for all was a mission from God: a madman had to be brought down, and too many people remember the likes of Hitler and Idi Amin and how long they were allowed to continue their reigns of terror.

Whatever the stated motivation -- alleged connection to 9/11, claims of weapons of mass destruction, 45 minute deployment, etc. etc. -- one thing seems clear in my mind: God was prepared to deliver Saddam into the hands of the US. But where this has fallen off the rails is that US policy-makers -- like King Saul with the Amalekites -- weren't prepared to stop at the assignment from God: they had to keep going and do what they thought God wanted: "stabilize" Iraq, bring democracy and oversee total reconciliation of the various factions.

Those are all noble-sounding objectives, but apparently, not what God was willing to bless. ("If it ain't got the blessing, don't bother messing!") Now the question is, what action to get out of there will God bless? Maybe it's time for someone -- like a God-fearing Christian in the White House, as a grand exit from his term in office -- to actually go before the Lord, or ask a modern-day prophet to do so -- and ask that question.

Right now, I keep getting an image of an SUV stuck in mud. The driver tries to get out by tromping on the accelerator, but that only makes the wheels spin more and dig deeper into the mud, when the proper course of action is to ease the clutch in and let the torque pull the vehicle out gently. When Saddam was arrested, at least one of the wheels was still on solid ground. That's when the vehicle should have been pulled out gradually and gracefully. Now, there doesn't seem to be any solid ground for traction.

Back to the Bible for this one: if US policy-makers were to turn to God and ask Him to show a way out, He would. The Israelites at the shore of the Red Sea had to take it on faith that God had made a path for them, even though all they could see was water. The mud surrounding the SUV seems endless, but if we turn to God to make the way, He will.

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