We are watching the world change before our eyes, at home and abroad. The question is still out on what the end results will be. We see two basic thought patterns in each of these debates, and in any political clash in the world. One believes in individual freedom, the other government power over individuals. Everything can be put into one of those categories.
George W. Bush believed, and I agree with him, that liberating Iraq and Afghanistan allowing the people to be free to determine their own destinies would cause freedom to spread across all of the Middle East as others saw it and wanted some for themselves. What we see with the people protesting like a wildfire there was a hope, but now we don't know who will be there to help them. Our government no longer believes in that dream of freedom, but embraces government solutions for all things. The Obama administration is no friend of anyone trying to gain individual liberty here or abroad.
Twenty years ago I was running with some highly successful international businessmen and women. As they continued to open businesses in the old Eastern bloc countries as freedom spread across them after Reagan's example opened the door for them, the conversation was about how eventually there would be no wars. The idea was that when the people and the countries had financial interest in the success of people all over the world, no one would be willing to allow the disruption of business to allow their governments to go to war. Wars most often happen with people who feel they have no positive ties.
About a decade ago when Indian and Pakistan governments were rattling war swords, and the world was watching to see if war would break out, I got a call from a good friend of mine in India. He is highly connected in the government there. He told me not to be concerned about a war, he explained that it wouldn't happen for financial reasons. What he explained was that India was enjoying the biggest boom to their economy had a brand new burgeoning middle class who were working for American, and European companies like Nokea, many banks, and engineering firms. When the swords were being rattled those companies called the two governments and explained that if they didn't stop right then they would pull out their companies from there.
So free market economies stopped a war. The more nations are tied together economically the less chance of war.
Once again it comes down to the two ideologies, one requires people to be dependent on government, the other needs to have people to have something to lose they want to protect. The first needs people weak, the second prosperous.
For me, I choose the second. The more nations who do, or for that matter American States who do, the more freedom, the more liberty, the more prosperity, and the less chance of war.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Are We In For A Long Hot Summer?
Everywhere you look today there is civil unrest. It is epidemic in the Middle East with governments falling leaving voids to be filled by who we know not. Protests are finding their way to the State Houses of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, with more coming soon. Will we be seeing a Watts Riot environment this year spreading all across the United States of America?
We are seeing the line drawn in the sand where Obama, the Union bought and paid for president, pushed his Socialist agenda too hard, and too fast on the American people creating a back lash with the people saying enough is enough.
So here we are, the American people elected a conservative majority not only in the U.S. House, but the Governor mansions, and State Houses and Senates all across America with the demand to get control on run away spending. The Unions, and their paid for pocket pet, Barack Obama are going to fight to the death to protect their ground. For the first time in American history, the President of The United States is recruiting protesters to go to fight against curtailing the unrestrained spending on unions. His Organizing for America political machine is using his website to recruit, and paying for advertising on Craigslist asking activists to go and Bloody the Tea Partiers there. Actually asking for violence to be done. Old time Union thug tactics.
The lines are drawn, it is all or nothing this year. It is, will America survive as a Constitutional Republic, or will the Unions and Obama succeed in destroying the rule of law and creating a Marxist State where only those in "The Party" have the rights, and the spoils.
I am very concerned that this will become bloody, that people will be hurt and or killed in this struggle. When the President is asking for his followers to bloody those who don't agree with him, we are seeing Stalinist, Castroish, Maoists behavior not American presidential leadership.
In 1965 Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles broke out in a six day riot, costing lives, and treasure. In 1992 Los Angeles broke out in another six day riot where 53 people died, thousands were injured, and with more than one billion dollars of damages.
My fear is that if this breaks out all across America spurred on by Obama and the SEIU, the mayhem, death, and destruction will be the worst we have ever seen. Could this be the plan Obama wants, to give him the ability to declare Martial Law and end all of our Bill of Rights and allow him to rule without any restrictions?
We are seeing the line drawn in the sand where Obama, the Union bought and paid for president, pushed his Socialist agenda too hard, and too fast on the American people creating a back lash with the people saying enough is enough.
So here we are, the American people elected a conservative majority not only in the U.S. House, but the Governor mansions, and State Houses and Senates all across America with the demand to get control on run away spending. The Unions, and their paid for pocket pet, Barack Obama are going to fight to the death to protect their ground. For the first time in American history, the President of The United States is recruiting protesters to go to fight against curtailing the unrestrained spending on unions. His Organizing for America political machine is using his website to recruit, and paying for advertising on Craigslist asking activists to go and Bloody the Tea Partiers there. Actually asking for violence to be done. Old time Union thug tactics.
The lines are drawn, it is all or nothing this year. It is, will America survive as a Constitutional Republic, or will the Unions and Obama succeed in destroying the rule of law and creating a Marxist State where only those in "The Party" have the rights, and the spoils.
I am very concerned that this will become bloody, that people will be hurt and or killed in this struggle. When the President is asking for his followers to bloody those who don't agree with him, we are seeing Stalinist, Castroish, Maoists behavior not American presidential leadership.
In 1965 Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles broke out in a six day riot, costing lives, and treasure. In 1992 Los Angeles broke out in another six day riot where 53 people died, thousands were injured, and with more than one billion dollars of damages.
My fear is that if this breaks out all across America spurred on by Obama and the SEIU, the mayhem, death, and destruction will be the worst we have ever seen. Could this be the plan Obama wants, to give him the ability to declare Martial Law and end all of our Bill of Rights and allow him to rule without any restrictions?
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Frank Bettgers's "How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling"
One of my favorite books on selling has long been "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling" by Frank Bettger. Frank was a professional baseball player who was fired from his first team because his manager thought he was lazy, when confronted Frank confessed he was hiding his own fear and anxiety by acting like the veterans who were less enthusiastic, without the credentials to do it. He resolved never to be called lazy again and did everything with enthusiasm rising all the way to the Big Leagues. After an injury he ended up selling insurance, and once again was letting fear overcome his enthusiasm and once again was failing. He had gone to the office to quit and clean out his desk when he got trapped into a sales meeting where he heard the company president say that anyone who will just get in front of 4-5 people every day cannot fail to succeed. Once again turning his career around to one of the most successful insurance men in America.
Anyone who is in the business of sales, or ever needs to help people make a decision, including parents trying to persuade their kids, this book will change your life.
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling
Frank Bettger
Enthusiasm:
• Force yourself to act enthusiastic, and you’ll become enthusiastic. “Make a high and holy resolve that you will double the amount of enthusiasm that you have been putting into your work and into your life. If you carry out that resolve, you will probably double your income, and double your happiness.”
• To become enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.
• Good Morning Lord instead of Good Lord it’s morning.
• Talk faster; stand up when talking on the phone.
• Fake it until you make it.
It’s a Numbers Game, See the People:
• “After all, this business of selling narrows down to one thing, just one thing, seeing the people. Show me anyone of ordinary ability who will go out and earnestly tell his or her story to four of five people every day, and I will show you someone who just can’t help making good!”
Overcome Your Greatest Fear:
• If you want to overcome fear and rapidly develop courage and self-confidence, join a good course in public speaking, not just a lecture course. Join only a course where you make a talk at every meeting. When you lose your fear of speaking to an audience, you lose your fear of talking to individuals, no matter how big and important they are.
Get Organized:
• One of the greatest satisfactions in life comes from getting things done and knowing you have done them to the best of your ability. If you are having trouble getting yourself organized, if you want to increase your ability to think, and do things in the order of their importance, remember there is only one way: Take more time to think and do things in order of their importance. Set aside one day as self-organization day, or a definite period each week. The whole secret to freedom from anxiety over not having enough time lies not in working more hours, but in proper planning of those hours.
• Big Rocks First.
Help Enough People Get What They Want and You Will Get What You Want:
• The most important secret of salesmanship is to find out what the other fellow wants, then help find the best way to get it.
• There is only one way under Heaven to get anybody to do anything. Did you ever think of that? Yes, just one way. And that is by making the other person want to do it. Remember, there is no other way.
• When you show a man what he WANTS, he will move Heaven and Earth to get it.
• Help the other person recognize what he wants, and then help him decide how to get it.
• See things from the other person’s point of view and talk in terms of his wants, needs, and desires.
Analysis of the Basic Principles Used in Making That Sale:
• When you call the purpose of the call is to make an appointment.
• Be Prepared. If you were to speak in front of a huge audience how much would you prepare? Why not prepare before your appointment, today it is easier than ever. Look them up on Social Networking, learn about them. Know their business.
• What is the Key Issue? What is the major point of interest? Or what is their most vulnerable point? Where is their pain?
• Key Word Notes: Do not go into a phone call or meeting without notes or bullet points you want to cover, put them in a logical order, be brief and stay on point.
• Ask Questions: prepare a list of questions that will help you and your prospect to find their point of pain.
• Create Confidence: (A) Be an assistant buyer, in preparing for the interview, imagine yourself in their shoes; what would you want to hear. People do not like to be sold, they like to buy. (B) Praise your competition. Never knock a competitor or someone they are currently doing business.
How Asking Questions Increased the Effectiveness of Sales Interviews:
• They help you avoid arguments.
• Questions, rather than positive statements, can be the most effective means of making a sale, or winning people to your way of thinking.
• Inquire instead of attack.
• Helps you avoid talking too much.
• Enables you to help the other fellow recognizes what he wants. Then you can help him decide how to get it.
• Helps crystallize the other person’s thinking.
• Helps you find the most vulnerable point with to close the sale.
• Gives the other person a feeling of importance. When you show that you respect his opinion, he is more likely to respect yours.
• If you ask enough questions, your client will tell you how to close them.
Find the basic need, or the main point of interest. Then stick to it.
The Most Important Word In Selling:
• Why? Ask any of the greatest sales people on the planet, children.
How To Find The Hidden Objection:
• Biggest mistake most sales people make is to answer each objection. This just confirms you as a “slick, fast-talking” salesperson and causes them to hold on even tighter to their “real” reason.
• “A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing – one that sounds good, and a real one.”
• Two best things to draw them out is “Why?” and “In addition to that?”
• “Feel, Felt, Found” I know exactly how you feel; I felt the same way, let me tell you what I found.”
The Forgotten Art That Is Magic in Selling:
• Listening, be a good listener.
• Show the other person you are sincerely interested in what they are saying, give them all the eager attention and appreciation that everyone craves and is so hungry for, but seldom gets.
How to Create Confidence:
• Deserve Confidence.
• “The wisest and best salesman is always one who bluntly tells the truth. He looks his prospects in the eye and tells his story. That is always impressive. And if he does not sell the first time, he leaves a trail of trust behind. A customer, as a rule, cannot be fooled a second time by some shady or clever talk that does not square with the truth. Not the best talker wins the sale – but the most honest talker… there is something in the look of the eye, the arrangement of words, the spirit of a salesman that immediately compels trust or distrust… being bluntly honest is always safe and best. “ George Matthew Adams
• Know your business and keep on knowing your business.
• Praise Your Competitors.
• Never exaggerate what you can offer. It always comes back to bite you.
• Bring in your witnesses, third party testimonies are powerful.
How Can You Learn from Lincoln on how to Make Friends:
• “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.” Lincoln
• Encourage people getting started in their careers. Help them see how they can be a success in life.
• Try to get someone to tell you what is their greatest ambition in life, help them raise their sights.
• If anyone has inspired you, or helped you in any way, don’t keep it a secret. Tell him about it.
• Ask a man: “How did you happen to get started in this business?”; Then, be a good listener.
Be More Welcome Everywhere You Go:
• Smile.
The Biggest Reason Why Sale People Lose Business:
• Talk too much. Be brief, don’t waste their time. Get to the point.
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
How to Overcome Fear of Approaching the Big Hitter:
• When you are scared admit it.
The Sale Before the Sale:
• Don’t try to throw the “hawser” throw the “heaving line, or monkey paw.”
How to Make Appointments:
• Alternate of Choice Close.
• Never ask when they are available.
• Winning images, even if your calendar is empty, make it “feel” full.
How to Make the Major Leagues:
• The best time to prepare a speech is immediately after you’ve made one. Likewise a sales talk, all the things you should have said, and should not have said, are fresh in your mind. Write them down immediately.
• Write your script out word for word. Keep on improving it. Read it and reread it until you know it. But don’t memorize it. Try it out on family, or co-workers.
Don’t Be Afraid To Fail:
• Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs. He struck out 1,330 times. He batted a career average of .343. So he only hit the ball less than 4 times out of 10 at bat.
• Just keep swinging.
Ben Franklin Secret of Success:
• Ben Franklin’s Autobiography.
• While Ben Franklin was still a small printer in Philadelphia and badly in debt he thought of himself as a simple man of ordinary ability. However, he believed that he could acquire the essential principles of successful living, if only he could find the right method. He developed a method so simple, yet so practical, anyone can use it.
• Franklin chose 13 subjects which he felt were necessary or desirable for him to acquire and try to master, and he gave a week’s strict attention to each subject successively. In this way, he was able to go through the entire list in 13 weeks, and repeat the process four times per year.
His list:
1. Temperance – Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence – Speak not but what may benefit others of yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order- Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution – Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality- Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. Industry- Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity- Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice- Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation- Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness – Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. Tranquility- Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity- Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. Humility- Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Make your own, maybe:
1. Enthusiasm
2. Self-Organization
3. Think in terms of other’s interests.
4. Questions
5. Key Issues
6. Listening
7. Sincerity
8. Knowledge of my business
9. Appreciation and Praise
10. Smile and Happiness
11. Service and prospecting
12. Closing the sale
13. Remembering names and faces.
Anyone who is in the business of sales, or ever needs to help people make a decision, including parents trying to persuade their kids, this book will change your life.
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling
Frank Bettger
Enthusiasm:
• Force yourself to act enthusiastic, and you’ll become enthusiastic. “Make a high and holy resolve that you will double the amount of enthusiasm that you have been putting into your work and into your life. If you carry out that resolve, you will probably double your income, and double your happiness.”
• To become enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.
• Good Morning Lord instead of Good Lord it’s morning.
• Talk faster; stand up when talking on the phone.
• Fake it until you make it.
It’s a Numbers Game, See the People:
• “After all, this business of selling narrows down to one thing, just one thing, seeing the people. Show me anyone of ordinary ability who will go out and earnestly tell his or her story to four of five people every day, and I will show you someone who just can’t help making good!”
Overcome Your Greatest Fear:
• If you want to overcome fear and rapidly develop courage and self-confidence, join a good course in public speaking, not just a lecture course. Join only a course where you make a talk at every meeting. When you lose your fear of speaking to an audience, you lose your fear of talking to individuals, no matter how big and important they are.
Get Organized:
• One of the greatest satisfactions in life comes from getting things done and knowing you have done them to the best of your ability. If you are having trouble getting yourself organized, if you want to increase your ability to think, and do things in the order of their importance, remember there is only one way: Take more time to think and do things in order of their importance. Set aside one day as self-organization day, or a definite period each week. The whole secret to freedom from anxiety over not having enough time lies not in working more hours, but in proper planning of those hours.
• Big Rocks First.
Help Enough People Get What They Want and You Will Get What You Want:
• The most important secret of salesmanship is to find out what the other fellow wants, then help find the best way to get it.
• There is only one way under Heaven to get anybody to do anything. Did you ever think of that? Yes, just one way. And that is by making the other person want to do it. Remember, there is no other way.
• When you show a man what he WANTS, he will move Heaven and Earth to get it.
• Help the other person recognize what he wants, and then help him decide how to get it.
• See things from the other person’s point of view and talk in terms of his wants, needs, and desires.
Analysis of the Basic Principles Used in Making That Sale:
• When you call the purpose of the call is to make an appointment.
• Be Prepared. If you were to speak in front of a huge audience how much would you prepare? Why not prepare before your appointment, today it is easier than ever. Look them up on Social Networking, learn about them. Know their business.
• What is the Key Issue? What is the major point of interest? Or what is their most vulnerable point? Where is their pain?
• Key Word Notes: Do not go into a phone call or meeting without notes or bullet points you want to cover, put them in a logical order, be brief and stay on point.
• Ask Questions: prepare a list of questions that will help you and your prospect to find their point of pain.
• Create Confidence: (A) Be an assistant buyer, in preparing for the interview, imagine yourself in their shoes; what would you want to hear. People do not like to be sold, they like to buy. (B) Praise your competition. Never knock a competitor or someone they are currently doing business.
How Asking Questions Increased the Effectiveness of Sales Interviews:
• They help you avoid arguments.
• Questions, rather than positive statements, can be the most effective means of making a sale, or winning people to your way of thinking.
• Inquire instead of attack.
• Helps you avoid talking too much.
• Enables you to help the other fellow recognizes what he wants. Then you can help him decide how to get it.
• Helps crystallize the other person’s thinking.
• Helps you find the most vulnerable point with to close the sale.
• Gives the other person a feeling of importance. When you show that you respect his opinion, he is more likely to respect yours.
• If you ask enough questions, your client will tell you how to close them.
Find the basic need, or the main point of interest. Then stick to it.
The Most Important Word In Selling:
• Why? Ask any of the greatest sales people on the planet, children.
How To Find The Hidden Objection:
• Biggest mistake most sales people make is to answer each objection. This just confirms you as a “slick, fast-talking” salesperson and causes them to hold on even tighter to their “real” reason.
• “A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing – one that sounds good, and a real one.”
• Two best things to draw them out is “Why?” and “In addition to that?”
• “Feel, Felt, Found” I know exactly how you feel; I felt the same way, let me tell you what I found.”
The Forgotten Art That Is Magic in Selling:
• Listening, be a good listener.
• Show the other person you are sincerely interested in what they are saying, give them all the eager attention and appreciation that everyone craves and is so hungry for, but seldom gets.
How to Create Confidence:
• Deserve Confidence.
• “The wisest and best salesman is always one who bluntly tells the truth. He looks his prospects in the eye and tells his story. That is always impressive. And if he does not sell the first time, he leaves a trail of trust behind. A customer, as a rule, cannot be fooled a second time by some shady or clever talk that does not square with the truth. Not the best talker wins the sale – but the most honest talker… there is something in the look of the eye, the arrangement of words, the spirit of a salesman that immediately compels trust or distrust… being bluntly honest is always safe and best. “ George Matthew Adams
• Know your business and keep on knowing your business.
• Praise Your Competitors.
• Never exaggerate what you can offer. It always comes back to bite you.
• Bring in your witnesses, third party testimonies are powerful.
How Can You Learn from Lincoln on how to Make Friends:
• “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.” Lincoln
• Encourage people getting started in their careers. Help them see how they can be a success in life.
• Try to get someone to tell you what is their greatest ambition in life, help them raise their sights.
• If anyone has inspired you, or helped you in any way, don’t keep it a secret. Tell him about it.
• Ask a man: “How did you happen to get started in this business?”; Then, be a good listener.
Be More Welcome Everywhere You Go:
• Smile.
The Biggest Reason Why Sale People Lose Business:
• Talk too much. Be brief, don’t waste their time. Get to the point.
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
How to Overcome Fear of Approaching the Big Hitter:
• When you are scared admit it.
The Sale Before the Sale:
• Don’t try to throw the “hawser” throw the “heaving line, or monkey paw.”
How to Make Appointments:
• Alternate of Choice Close.
• Never ask when they are available.
• Winning images, even if your calendar is empty, make it “feel” full.
How to Make the Major Leagues:
• The best time to prepare a speech is immediately after you’ve made one. Likewise a sales talk, all the things you should have said, and should not have said, are fresh in your mind. Write them down immediately.
• Write your script out word for word. Keep on improving it. Read it and reread it until you know it. But don’t memorize it. Try it out on family, or co-workers.
Don’t Be Afraid To Fail:
• Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs. He struck out 1,330 times. He batted a career average of .343. So he only hit the ball less than 4 times out of 10 at bat.
• Just keep swinging.
Ben Franklin Secret of Success:
• Ben Franklin’s Autobiography.
• While Ben Franklin was still a small printer in Philadelphia and badly in debt he thought of himself as a simple man of ordinary ability. However, he believed that he could acquire the essential principles of successful living, if only he could find the right method. He developed a method so simple, yet so practical, anyone can use it.
• Franklin chose 13 subjects which he felt were necessary or desirable for him to acquire and try to master, and he gave a week’s strict attention to each subject successively. In this way, he was able to go through the entire list in 13 weeks, and repeat the process four times per year.
His list:
1. Temperance – Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence – Speak not but what may benefit others of yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order- Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution – Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality- Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. Industry- Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity- Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice- Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation- Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness – Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. Tranquility- Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity- Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. Humility- Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Make your own, maybe:
1. Enthusiasm
2. Self-Organization
3. Think in terms of other’s interests.
4. Questions
5. Key Issues
6. Listening
7. Sincerity
8. Knowledge of my business
9. Appreciation and Praise
10. Smile and Happiness
11. Service and prospecting
12. Closing the sale
13. Remembering names and faces.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Which Door Will Be Opened?
Watching the domino effect in the Middle East playing out in Egypt, and now all across the Middle East. We are seeing people going to the streets demanding change in nation after nation all throughout the Middle East. Egypt, Jordan, Yemen,Tunisia, and others are in turmoil. No matter what the outcome, we are going to see a sea change in the most volatile area of the world. What emerges is yet to be seen.
The irony is that what we are seeing is part of the goal that we hoped for to result from the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once freedom and free elections for self-determination was allowed to sprout in the middle of an Arab Muslim nation. the hope was that the people of surrounding nations would want that freedom for themselves. With the youth of the region, and their use of social networking and seeing the outside world with the Internet it was assured to build that dream in their hearts.
We first saw it in Iran, and unfortunately the Obama Administration came down on the wrong side. They chose to stay with the Totalitarian Theocratic Dictators over the freedom fighters. Now we see Egypt and others rise up to throw off their own Dictators and Monarchies. This could be the dream come true for a free and self-determining Middle East making the world safer for everyone. However, it could also become much worse depending on who comes out on top.
If those young people who want freedom for themselves and families come out in power, the entire world wins. However, if the Communist Party groups that are organized and trying to usurp this movement for themselves the world is worse off, and those who fought in the streets are out of the frying pan into the fire. Worse yet, if the Muslim Brotherhood takes power we now have more Iran's to deal with. That would probably lead to World War III starting with Israel and eventually the world as a whole.
Frankly the most upsetting part of this story is that when the goal was put in place George W. Bush was president, and with him in leadership, there was a high level of confidence that these nations would move to freedom. Today we have Obama, and he has shown us repeatedly that he always comes down on the wrong side of any issue. Never in America's best interest, or in the best interest of freedom or liberty.
The question that remains to be answered is who is driving this revolt. Is it those who dream of freedom who were inspired by seeing the freedom and liberty planted and growing next door to them, or the radicals who see an opportunity with a weak American president? We shall soon see.
We are standing looking at three doors, one opens to freedom and light, one to a gray and cold uncaring place, and the last to a hungry lion who wants to devour you if you open that door. We will soon see which door is opened.
The irony is that what we are seeing is part of the goal that we hoped for to result from the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once freedom and free elections for self-determination was allowed to sprout in the middle of an Arab Muslim nation. the hope was that the people of surrounding nations would want that freedom for themselves. With the youth of the region, and their use of social networking and seeing the outside world with the Internet it was assured to build that dream in their hearts.
We first saw it in Iran, and unfortunately the Obama Administration came down on the wrong side. They chose to stay with the Totalitarian Theocratic Dictators over the freedom fighters. Now we see Egypt and others rise up to throw off their own Dictators and Monarchies. This could be the dream come true for a free and self-determining Middle East making the world safer for everyone. However, it could also become much worse depending on who comes out on top.
If those young people who want freedom for themselves and families come out in power, the entire world wins. However, if the Communist Party groups that are organized and trying to usurp this movement for themselves the world is worse off, and those who fought in the streets are out of the frying pan into the fire. Worse yet, if the Muslim Brotherhood takes power we now have more Iran's to deal with. That would probably lead to World War III starting with Israel and eventually the world as a whole.
Frankly the most upsetting part of this story is that when the goal was put in place George W. Bush was president, and with him in leadership, there was a high level of confidence that these nations would move to freedom. Today we have Obama, and he has shown us repeatedly that he always comes down on the wrong side of any issue. Never in America's best interest, or in the best interest of freedom or liberty.
The question that remains to be answered is who is driving this revolt. Is it those who dream of freedom who were inspired by seeing the freedom and liberty planted and growing next door to them, or the radicals who see an opportunity with a weak American president? We shall soon see.
We are standing looking at three doors, one opens to freedom and light, one to a gray and cold uncaring place, and the last to a hungry lion who wants to devour you if you open that door. We will soon see which door is opened.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
