Don't Start Anything Unless You Intend to Finish It

Sometimes a quote can be attributed to more than one person.  Credit for coining the phrase, “It is easier to start a war than it is to end it.” is most often given to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. [1]  Similar sayings have been attributed to Carl von Clausewitz, Nicolo Machiavelli, and many others.  Repetition is often regarded as predictive of reliability.  The opinions of informed persons may be considered to be information. 

Observing the efforts of the Trump Administration to negotiate a ceasefire, and ultimately to bring an end to our current military conflict, with Iran is an example of how difficult it is to end the hostilities through negotiations and get an acceptable conclusion.  Those in power in Iran are clearly trying to use the negotiations to give themselves an opportunity to rearm and to drag the process out in order to manipulate outcomes in our upcoming midterm elections in November. 

They know that resuming military operations would generate opposition in Congress.  They believe that public opinion in the US is becoming increasingly critical of President Trump’s handling of our struggle with Iran. 

It is also clear that the Iranian government has a pattern of violating agreements.  Past behavior is predictive of future conduct.  We can expect the radical religious clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to violate any agreement that is negotiated; if not immediately then after President Trump leaves office. 

Although the Trump Administration has repeatedly stated that regime change is not a goal of the conflict, it is as plain as day that no agreement with an Iran that is in the control of the IRGC and the Ayatollahs will last.  The only answer that will result in a long-term achievement of our goals is to remove the powers that be in Teheran and provide the Iranian people with a freely elected government that is responsive to the will of the Iranian people. 

Every kid who goes to elementary school quickly learns than you don’t start something unless you are willing and able to finish it.  The USA needs to finish the current fight by doing what is necessary to resolve the matter in our favor.  General Jack Keane has said that war is always a contest of the will.  The Iranian government still has the will to resist.  Although their ability to strike has been degraded, they can still deliver strikes on their neighbors. 

We need to finish this.  We need to destroy the will and ability of the hardliners in Iran to continue to resist.  It needs to get done, and soon. 

Iran was positioning itself to be able to produce and deliver nuclear weapons in a relatively short period of time.  It is right for the community of nations to oppose that.  The Ayatollahs and IRGC have turned Iran into a terrorist state that relies on outlawry to achieve its ends.  It was obvious that only the United States and Israel were willing to do what was necessary to put a stop to it.  Now let’s finish the job.

---

[1] https://quotefancy.com/quote/2065031/Gabriel-Garc-a-M-rquez-It-is-easier-to-start-a-war-than-to-end-it

 

Words of Encouragement

 

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:7-8,10 ESV) [1] 

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord … “                 (Jeremiah 29:11-14 ESV) [2] 

“The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.” (Psalm145:17-20 ESV) [3] 

“On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.” Psalm 138:3 ESV) [4] 

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37 ESV) [5]

---

[1] https://biblehub.com/esv/

[2] https://biblehub.com/esv/jeremiah/29.htm

[3] https://biblehub.com/esv/psalms/145.htm

[4] https://biblehub.com/esv/psalms/138.htm

[5] https://biblehub.com/esv/john/6.htm

 

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a defensive alliance of member nations in Europe and North America.  It was established in 1949 in response to the Soviet Union’s expansion of influence and control over nations in Eastern Europe.  Although it has always been intended to be a deterrent to aggression - first by the Soviet Union, and now by the Russian Federation - it applies to aggression by any nation against any NATO member. 

Most recently, concern about Russian aggression in Ukraine has motivated Sweden and Finland to become NATO member states.  In the recent past, the Baltic States and several countries in Eastern Europe (that were once under Soviet control) have joined NATO to try escape Russian domination.  Since they are located close Russia, their addition to NATO has been perceived to be threatening from the Russian point of view. 

During his terms as President, Donald J. Trump has been very critical of NATO.  He has rightly focused on the failure of NATO member states to provide for their fair share of the burden for our mutual defense.  He thinks that NATO is a “bad deal” for the United States, because the US has borne an unfair share of the load.  He is correct, and we should support his efforts to motivate all NATO member states to fulfill their treaty obligations in good faith. 

However, President Trump has made some rather rash statements about NATO.  He has threatened to “pull out” of NATO, or not to help defend NATO member states who have not spent the required amount of their GDP on defense, which they are obligated to by the NATO Treaty.  He may have said those things because he felt that milder requests made in the past were disregarded.  To put it directly, when people don’t pay attention, he slaps them around a bit.  It is debatable whether this tactic produces good results … or just causes hard feelings.  Currently, most NATO members have increased their defense spending, but that may be a response to the threat posed by recent Russian aggression in Ukraine; as much as a response to the President’s threats. 

For clarity, we should understand that NATO is a treaty.  A treaty has the effect of law.  The President does not have the authority to withdraw the United States from a treaty without the approval of Congress. It is not an agreement like the Iran Nuclear Agreement.  The NATO treaty obligates the United States to help defend any other member state if they are attacked.  As Commander in Chief, President Trump must, by treaty requirement, commit US military forces to fulfill our treaty obligation.  He can, however, decide the level of our military response. 

Recently, our NATO allies have not supported the military actions of the United States, during Operation Epic Fury.  Their governments have concluded the Article 5 provisions of the NATO Treaty do not apply because the United States has not been directly attacked by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and because our military actions are illegal under international law.  They have cited Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits member nations from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another nation state, unless it is in response to an attack. [1] The Trump Administration has held that the USA and other countries have been repeatedly attacked by Iran and its proxy terrorist groups for years, and that Operation Epic Fury has been conducted in accordance with all applicable law. [2] 

The Trump Administration has also argued that our NATO allies are morally obligated to support our military and diplomatic efforts to change the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran because we have carried the lion’s share of the defense of Europe since the end of WW II.  Although the legal arguments of some of our NATO allies may be a smoke screen to hide their reluctance to get their hands dirty, our support of their defense does not obligate them to act in violation of their conscience.  Furthermore, we have also benefited from the deterrent against Russian aggression provided by NATO. 

The bottom line is that the NATO Treaty, and our support of the defense of Europe, do not obligate member states to assist in what they believe are acts of aggression by other members.  That is fair, and we all should accept it. 

To advance the discussion a little further, however, regardless of any other legal or moral arguments - the actions of the radical, terrorist clerics and the IRGC who rule Iran have turned Iran into an international outlaw.  They have made it necessary for the community of nations to take preemptive and preventive action to defend the peace and safety of their people.  Once again, the United States of America has stepped forward, in equal partnership with Israel, to do the heavy lifting to get it done.  Once again, we are being condemned for doing it.  When you are a pioneer, you must take a lot of arrows in the back. 

We still need the deterrent that NATO provides against Russian aggression.  Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

God bless President Trump for his vision and courage.  God bless Israel.  God bless the USA.

---

[1] https://www.justia.com/international-law/use-of-force-under-international-law/

 [2] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-legal-adviser/2026/04/operation-epic-fury-and-international-law

 

Mother's Day 2026

I love you, Mom.

  

"In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town"

Doris Day Lyrics

(from "Lullaby Of Broadway" soundtrack)

I'm up in the world,
but I'd give the world to be where I used to be,
A heavenly nest,
where I rest the best,
means more than the world to me.

It's only a shanty
in old Shanty Town
the roof is so slanty it touches the ground.
But my tumbled down shack by an old railroad track,
like a millionaire's mansion is calling me back.

I'd give up a palace if I were a king.
It's more than a palace, it's my everything.
There's a queen waiting there with a silvery crown
in a shanty in old Shanty Town. [1]

 

 

---

[1] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dorisday/inashantyinoldshantytown.html

 

Which do You Choose - Death or Eternal Life?

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for the one who has died is freed from sin. 

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God.  For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace. 

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace?  Far from it!  Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?  But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.  I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness.  Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.  But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:1-23 NASB) [1]

---

[1] https://biblehub.com/nasb_/romans/6.htm

 

Friends of God

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. 

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.  For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (Romans 5:1-11 NLT) [1]

---

[1] https://biblehub.com/nlt/romans/5.htm

 

Made Right with God Through Faith in Christ

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26 ESV) [1]

---

[1] https://biblehub.com/esv/romans/3.htm