A time to grow in strength

One of the things I like to do is read sacred texts like the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhakti Sutras and others. They put me in instant connection with intuition, otherwise known as the Inner Self, the Atman, the Tao, and the Divine. Chapter 30 of the Tao Te Ching has particular relevance to present day "America:"

He who knows how to guide a ruler in the path of Tao
Does not try to override the world with force of arms
It is in the nature of a military weapon to turn against its wielder

Wherever armies are stationed
thorny bushes grow
After a great war
bad years invariably follow

What you want is to protect efficiently your own state
But not to aim at self-aggrandisement

After you have attained your purpose
You must not parade your success
You must not boast of your ability
You must not feel proud
You must rather regret that you had not
been able to prevent the war
You must never think of conquering others by force

For to be over-developed is to hasten decay
And this is against Tao
And what is against Tao will soon cease to be
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Chapter 29 is equally relevant:

Does anyone want to take the world and do what he wants with it?
I do not see how he can succeed

The world is a sacred vessel
which must not be tampered with or grabbed after
To tamper with it is to spoil it
and to grasp it is to lose it

In fact, for all things
there is a time for going ahead
and a time for following behind
A time for slow-breathing
and a time for fast-breathing
A time to grow in strength
and a time to decay
A time to be up
and a time to be down

Therefore, the Sage avoids all extremes,
excesses and extravagances
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I believe it is safe to say that the "leaders" of "America" are not following the Tao (pronounced "Dow"). To save themselves from responsibility for their current fiasco, they are now trying to drum up hysteria for a new war, against "Iran" this time.

When George W. Bush lied the nation into invading "Iraq," he had the backing of 90 percent of the "American" people. Flush with triumphalism and a bully mentality, we, as a people, were feverish about "bombing Iraq back to the Stone Age," just as we were feverish about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age."

Now we are not so feverish. Our jobs are going to China, our climate is going to Hell, our votes are going to Diebold, and our treasury is going to Halliburton. We are bogged down in an inevitable defeat in "Iraq," and we will be there as long as it serves to protect the Bush criminal regime from being held responsible for its invasion, as well as numerous other crimes. That is, if the Bush criminal regime has its way.

We would do well to look at the words from the Tao Te Ching above. If your inclination is otherwise, you can read the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, Pope John Paul, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, or Mark Twain.

This is not a time for sitting back and letting pretenders to power destroy our planet. We will pay a dear price for their criminality, but we can at least put an end to their criminal spree, and maybe allow for a future for life on this fragile sphere.