The threat of war.....

We need to pray for Israel and for peace. We are told in the bible to bless and pray for Israel.

"PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM"PSALM 122:6

Middle EastScholar Believes Israel Will Strike Iran Nuclear Site
Lefteris Pitarakis
Israeli Benny Morris in 2001. He is a historian and a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. AP


All Things Considered, July 23, 2008 · Israeli historian Benny Morris says Israel is likely to pre-empt diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from going nuclear and launch a strike on its nuclear facilities.
"Israel will almost surely attack Iran's nuclear sites in the next four to seven months" Morris wrote in a July 18 op-ed in The New York Times.
Morris, who is also a professor of Middle Eastern history at Ben-Gurion University, tells NPR's Robert Siegel that "diplomacy has been going on for the past five years, as well as some economic sanctions, and they don't seem to be working. And there is no reason to expect them to work in the future.
"I think Iran is bound for nuclear weaponry, I think they are resolved to get it, and I think that if they get it, there is every chance they will use it against Israel. And that's why Israel feels threatened," Morris says.
His timeline of four to seven months for an Israeli attack is based on advances in Iran's nuclear program. "The closer it gets to a point of no return, the more Israel must consider the military option," Morris says. Iran is installing anti-aircraft defenses from Russia, and he believes Israel would want to strike Iran before these missiles are operational.
"Israel is also reliant on American cooperation — maybe support politically, in some ways military — and they will get that from [President] Bush, who is a very true and trusted friend. And they, perhaps in Israel, don't know what to expect from the next American president," Morris says.
Israel's nuclear arsenal has existed for 40 years. In that time, Morris says, Israel has never threatened to launch its missiles at another country. But, he points out, Iran has directed such threats at Israel for several years, even before it has the technology to carry them out.
So Morris believes that Tehran "may not be deterred like rational people have been by the threat of mutual destruction."
The responsible course of action for Israel's leaders is one that does not rely on deterrence, he says.
"The Iranian regime is driven by a religious orthodoxy which believes in messianic redemption, which believes that Allah will guard them, so I wouldn't rely on deterrence working because these people are not rational by our light," Morris says.
"I am sure an element of self-defense enters into the Iranian nuclear project as one of its driving forces," Morris says. "They want to be a powerful state in the neighborhood, and powerful in a deterrent way vis-a-vis various countries around them."

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Cabin Nite Fun!

Last night we went to Cabin Nite at one of our sister properties. It is a dinner theatre that puts on a show about Fannie Quigley. She is a local legend. She pretty much forged a life in this rugged area on her own. She is actually one of my favorite historical figures. They serve you an amazing family style dinner of Ribs, Salmon, Corn on the cob, beans, potatoes and biscuits. For dessert you get a homemade bluberry cobbler. Then they put on this really great show about Fannie Quigley, Charles McGonnegal (He was on the Sourdough expedition that first tried to climb Denali.) and Harry Carstons (The first superintendant of Denali National Park.). It really makes you appreciate Alaska more. I always get sentimental and imagine staying here permanently. Then I remember it gets to 50 below in the winter and I snap out of it! Here are some pics from the show.

Happy Independence Day!!!

I know I am a day late, but I had no internet yesterday....Happy 4th of July!!!!! I will leave you with this quote from my favorite president, John Adams:

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. "

I also want to share the Declaration of Independence. It is such an amazing document if you really read the words and think about what the really meant for these men writing it. Just by signing the document they risked treason charges and death. On this 4th of July I really tried to remember this as I ate my hot dog and potato salad.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The most beautiful day so far...

Today it was warm and sunny! I was totally happy all day and just enjoyed God's gift!!