As we were celebrating our Christmas and New Year's holidays, Christians in other lands were being massacred. The Iraqis continue their campaign of murder and harassment of Christians. They invade their homes, drag them out and kill them. They also bomb churches in their quest to rid their country of infidels.

My question to these Muslims who feel the need to obliterate Christianity in Iraq is this: have you forgotten that Christians restored your country? It was the armies of the United States of America, a Christian country, and the consortium of other Christian countries that sent their soldiers to stop the reign of terror and bring Saddam Hussein to justice. Through our actions, peace and the rule of law were restored to this dictator-ravaged country.Since the war approximately 800,000 Christians have emigrated from Iraq. They were driven out by the crimes committed against them by Muslims intent expelling members of all opposing religions. Christian's have been told by Al Qaeda to leave Iraq or have their throats slit. These are not my words, but the words of the terrorists themselves. (http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=30651).This is a clear indication of the jihad mentality that exists in the Middle East. Iraq is not alone in their mission to eradicate Christianity. A few days ago a suicide bomber in Egypt killed 21 Christians outside of church and wounded many more. In the mainstream press, I often hear that Islam is a religion of peace. Nothing can be further from the truth. The imams and their faithful followers are implementing the instructions in the Quran, Surah 9:5, to kill all of the non-believers."Massacres are taking place for no reason and without any justification against Christians. It is only because they are Christians," said Amin Gemayel, the former President of Lebanon. "What is happening to Christians is a genocide," he said. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/03/world/main7208414.shtml).In our world of political correctness there is no outrage when Muslims kill Christians. When Christians are the target of genocide, many people accept it and remain silent as they are shot, hung or blown up. At least this is an improvement from the early days when the Romans cheered as Christians were thrown to the lions, burned at the stake or crucified. The perpetrators of the recent murders of Christians have not been arrested. Could it be that they are considered heroes in their country?If the tables were reversed and a Christian killed a group of Muslims, you can bet your bottom dollar that there would be a mighty uproar and the demand for swift justice. The perpetrator would be caught and executed. He or she might actually get a trial in a Kangaroo Court before being dragged out to be tortured and slaughtered in public.As I write this, 4,432 American soldiers have been killed in the second Iraq war. Two were killed in the opening days of this year. I did not find out about these recent deaths in the American press. Instead, I found it on an Asian Web Site. (http://www.asianage.com/international/two-us-soldiers-die-iraq-first-casualties-2011-543). Apparently, the mainstream press and news outlets no longer care about our soldiers killed in Iraq. After all, the war is over, at least that is what the President said. Our troops continue to die to enable the Iraqis to have the freedom we cherish. Only now, their sacrifice is withheld from the public.Our intent when we rescued Iraq was not to install Christianity as their religion. Rather it was to ensure religious and political freedoms exist in Iraq as they do in the United States. Our soldiers gave their lives valiantly for people they did not know, in a far off land, because we Americans cherish freedom for ourselves and every human being. We still have 50,000 troops remaining in Iraq. They are scheduled to return home at the end of this year. Seeing the violence in that nation and Iraq's inability to protect their minorities, we can expect that our troops will remain for the foreseeable future.Let's bring these troops home now. We can no longer fight and protect a country that does not permit freedom of religion and rewards the pious with a painful death.We are also fighting and dying in another Muslim country for no reason.Afghanistan is not a strategic location from a military perspective, nor do we have American interests in that country. There's no oil that we need; there is no manufacturing we require; and their major crop is poppies that is used in the manufacturing of heroin. Much of this heroin makes its way to the United States where it poisons our youth. The war in Afghanistan is expanding into Pakistan, a Muslim country that offers sanctuary to Al Qaeda members retreating from our troops in Afghanistan. Bring our troops home from this godforsaken place and do it now.Our national debt is now over $14 trillion. As I write this, the 112th Congress is considering increasing our debt limit to pay for these wars and the massive spending excesses here at home. We have 550 military bases around the world.Instead of increasing the debt limit so that we can spend hundreds of billions of dollars in other parts of the world where they opening disrespect Americans, let's withdraw our troops. What better way to cut our deficit than to bring our troops home. On the subject of cutting the deficit, let's also cut our foreign aid and our contributions to the United Nations. I have traveled the world in my professional career and found that overall Americans are disliked. We are considered to be arrogant, demanding and uncultured. However people in these countries love our money. They also want to immigrate to the United States legally or illegally as they flee their own repressed nation. While they are living in their own countries they tend to be anti-American. I have seen this firsthand in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and even in Canada, our northern neighbor. Yet as soon as they arrive here, they realize the American dream and learn to love America and Americans.The Saudi's claim to be our friends when they are selling us oil at exorbitant prices, yet they fund terrorists intent on the destruction of America. Oil prices have increased significantly in the last few months and the Saudis expect the price of oil to average $105 a barrel in 2011. This means it can range from $90 to $120 a barrel resulting in gasoline prices of $4 to $6 a gallon. These prices will have a devastating effect on our economy and could trigger another round of massive layoffs and prolonged unemployment. Our President has responded by suspending new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Florida and other southern states. Is he in the pocket of the Saudi's? Based on his actions, I believe that he is! Do Middle Eastern oil interests fund our congressmen? Have our politicians forgotten the American people? I believe they have. Let's see how the new batch of Tea Party politicians perform in the coming weeks and months. If they do as they promised, there really is hope that the Constitution will be preserved.The countries funding our national debt still pull the strings in Washington. We kowtow to the oil barons in the Middle East by fighting their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We close our factories in the United States, forcing us to buy products from the Chinese. The Chinese will fund our debt as long as we do as they say. Meanwhile our politicians spend at an alarming rate. My message this week is that we should bring our troops home as a first step in cutting our deficit and we should drill here and drill right now for oil so that we can become energy independent. We should spend our money here in the United States, focusing on job creation and transitioning those on welfare to the workforce. Let's stop fighting wars for other nations and stop buying oil from those who support military and terrorist actions against the United States of America. America must befiscally responsible and energy self-sufficient.© 2011 Gordon Smith - All Rights Reserved