America's Greatest Enemy?

Whether America looks to the north, west, south or east of her boarders she finds herself constantly surrounded by an ever-increasing hoard of enemies, both from within and from without, but which of these enemies is the biggest and the greatess threat to America?

If America is to defeat its foes history shows that it must first recognize who they are before it can ever hope to begin to deal with them. But just who or what is America's greatest enemy?

Could it be that America’s number one enemy is now what appears to be the never-ending, non-stoppable army of illegal immigrants, pouring in by the millions through the Mexican border and taxing every inch of its society?

How about the threats posed from every form of crime, be it domestic, personal, business, social and, of course, organized crime, including those associate with the illicit drug trade. Could this possibly be America's greatest enemy?

Or could America’s greatest enemy be an economic one, like that of its national debt, or that of it’s astronomical trade deficit, a monster that no matter how hard the government tries to tame, just keeps growing like a cancer until it now stands at a mind-boggling 64,091.6 billion dollars for 2006!

Maybe America’s greatest enemy is the ever present threat of terrorists attacks presented by groups like Al Qeida, who’s biggest desire is to bring down the great Satan and whose stated goals include even that of acquiring and using nuclear bombs or materials?

Or could the greatest enemy be any number of radically based governments such as Iran, Syria, or even Venezuela who daily rant and rage and thumb their nose's at the United States, denouncing it at every possible opportunity?

Another possibility for America's greatest enemy, incredibly, seems to be nature itself, which almost seems to have emerged with a destructive mind of it's own, a mind determined to inflict the greatest destruction upon America as she can and did with Katrina. Be it global warming or what, one can’t help but ask, if this too is also a candidate for the role America’s greatest enemy?

Actually, even though all of the contenders above are truly enemies which America must consider seriously, I firmly believe that America’s greatest enemy comes from within. Put another way: the greatest enemy of AMERICA, IS AMERICA ITSELF and the values it has abandoned and the flawed ones that it has replaced them with!

These fundamental beliefs, which made America great, included its beliefs in: hard-work; self-sacrifice; honesty, selflessness, thoughtfulness, determination, love of country, neighbor and the love and the worship of Almighty God, which have been sadly replaced with basically the very opposite values.

These new values include: laziness and the desire to get paid more for less work; unwillingness to sacrifice; rampant lying; self-center ness; inconsideration and rudeness, lack of motivation and a replacing of love of country, neighbor and the love and worship of Almighty God with the love and worship of the almighty dollar, which by the way, is becoming less almighty with the help of America's enemies on a daily basis!!

With America's adoption of the latter ideals, principles and values, America has lowered it ability to do those things that have to be done, those things that require determination and self-sacrifice to endure through-thick-and-thin.

This has further resulted in America becoming weak and ineffective in achieving its goals and objectives and America's traditional enemies are well aware of this and thus have no fear of saying or doing anything to attack this country.

Because of these new values, America not finds itself not only fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a also war in its own backyard, with its own citizens, as they fight one against the other, on this issue or that. Politicians fight against politicians, who seem to be more concern in scoring popular support for its party then the good of the country; anti-abortionists against the right to choose; straights against gays, blacks against whites; Christians creationists against evolutionists and seemingly, Moslems against every one else! Blood touches blood from one part of the country to the other, as citizens, armed to the teeth, shoot it out from school campus’s such as Virginia Tech, to individuals shot at random by violent gangs such as, The Bloods and the Crips, and all for no apparent reason! America is truly at war and at war with itself!

Americans have become so absorbed into fighting their fellow Americans over this or that cause, that now; the very fundamental right of freedom of speech is in question! People are scared to say any thing, about anything, or anybody, less they be found guilty of a hate crime! Its total madness! The American Civil Liberty organization is doing its best to limit Americans right of speech on so many contentious issues such as the ability to use or express one’s religious belief in public that one can’t help but wonder why America’s traditional enemies are dancing in glee, as Americans fight, kill and maim each other! They see what America doesn't, that it has become its own enemy, so busy fighting one another that America has lost the will to fight, lost the very pride of its power and the ability to take a fully united stand on anything, be it Iraq or anything else. They know that America has become a house divided, but the question is, will America wake up and acknowledge the same before it is too late?

We have all heard the expression, 'United we stand, divided we fall,' but do we believe it? Our enemies do, they know we are a house divided and that we have become our own worst enemies, which embolden them, all the more, into thinking they can get away with anything they please.

If America is to be defeated it will have to be at its own hand, its own doing. No other enemy of itself has the power to bring down America, so they are content on us to do the job for them. By becoming a nation divided, on so many issues, America has weakened itself to the point that its other enemies are now within striking distance, just waiting for the perfect opportunity, of issuing the final knock-out punch themselves!

The new values of doing what is right in one's own eyes; the idea of getting the other guy first, before he gets you; the idea of taking care of number one first, has turned America into a nation far removed from the principles and values of its founding fathers and the consequences are here for the entire world to see, and they are not very pretty.

I love America deeply and it deeply pains me to see how the latter values have turned America into a lazy, self-centered, pleasure-seeking society, rather than that of its former self. America still has the power, the greatest history has ever known, but for how much longer? Surely the saying is true: 'A house divided, cannot stand!" Will that also be true of America?

Will America ever face up and realize that America has become its own greatest enemy, or more correctly, the abandonment of the ideals, principles and values of its founding fathers has, and will America yet return to embrace them once again, and then emerge as a stronger, better, brighter and more just society, a society that will shame its enemies, earning it the respect and admiration of the whole world, that it once did in the past?

I can only hope so.

And that's my 2 cents worth for May 25th., 22007