Book Review
He Came Looking for Me
January 17, 2011
He Came Looking For Me
Shiner and Ace, two offspring of Lynn’s beloved Appaloosa, Sky, who departed this earth a few years ago and whom we met in Amazing Grays, Amazing Grace, are the metaphor for every sinner who is lost, in pain, and starving for the love of God. There are no coincidences; only God-incidences, as Lynn shows us in the story of how she and her husband independently and simultaneously concluded that they must go search for the two young horses out of Sky that they had sold long ago.
While it is a great true story of rescue and redemption of two special horses, the parallel tale of God’s love for us is no less compelling. No matter how far we have strayed from “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn. 14:6), no matter how angry we might be with God, His boundless love keeps pursuing us, calling us to Himself. We are special to Him as Shiner and Ace are to the Babers.
Lynn’s book shows us that just as the two lost Appaloosas were never out of the Baber’s minds, so we are never out of God’s mind. Shiner and Ace could not rescue themselves nor can we rescue ourselves, but at the time when we are most helpless, vulnerable, and hopeless, He will send the right person to bring us to Him, just as He sent the Babers to find Sky’s progeny.
The technique of giving the horses their own voice makes this tale even more poignant. It is a beautiful book of hope and peace of heart along with being a really good story.
Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.
R. Now and forever!
(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
February 20, 2011
Welcome to our weekly Catholic Carnival hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Join us as we share our posts with one another. I always learn something from my fellow bloggers.
This week I wrote Lenten Reading Recommendations and Sabbath Moments where I mentioned my uncle’s passing. We had to make a day trip to visit hubby’s doctor on Wednesday so between dealing with issues around my uncle, I skipped my usual meditation on a psalm.
For your delight, I found the link to LiveScience: Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings at New Advent. Below is my favorite image from the seven. The Holy Trinity appears to be the underlying theme of everything in creation. Just awesome. I really regret that I was too cowardly to take physics and chemistry in high school.
Amazing Particle Triplets
Read what Clara Moskowitz, senior writer for LiveScience wrote about this. The most important sentence to me regarding the Borromean Rings is this: “If any ring were removed, they would all come apart.”
Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Lenten Reading Recommendations
February 17, 2011
This coming Sunday is Septuagesima Sunday, the day that alerts us in the 1962 calendar that Lent is on its way. Last year I wrote Top Ten Books for a Profitable Lent where I listed ten spiritually useful books for the season. This year our parish bookstore is carrying a book I’m adding to the list - Meditations for Lent From St. Thomas Aquinas
I’ve always found St. Thomas’ writings to be clear and logical and very helpful to my spiritual life. We know that he spent many hours in meditation in front of the Blessed Sacrament, so I figured, who better to guide me through this time of the liturgical year? Here are some of the topics he gives practical advice on:
- On reforming ourselves
- The need to be watchful
- Five evils we incur through sin
- The two purposes of fasting
- Why Our Lord went down to Limbo
- How to weed out vices and cultivate virtues
- How to detach ourselves from the things of this world
- Six ways in which the Blood of Christ is “precious”
Lent is a great time to improve our prayer life and our relationships with others. I’m looking forward to daily lessons from St. Thomas. Perhaps this book might appeal to you, too.
You can order it through Barb’s Custom Shop here. Just click on the “Store” tab at the top of the page and you’ll find it in the Blessed Virgin Mary category.
Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
January 9, 2010
Hello, Sunday Snippets readers! Welcome to this carnival hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing where Catholic bloggers share their posts for the week. Join us at RAnn’s and link over there to your favorite posts of the week or read and leave comments.
This week I finished an autobiography by Susan Boyle and reviewed it at Susan Boyle – Her Inspiring Story.
Pillar hermits have always fascinated me so on his feast day I wrote a bit about St. Simeon Stylites – A Hermit on a Pillar.
Epiphany – Celebration of Three Manifestations of Christ’s Divinity covers one of my favorite feasts of the year and why I love it.
Please pray for my sister who is out of work and needs a job.
Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Susan Boyle – Her Inspiring Story
January 4, 2010
Book Review: Susan Boyle – The Woman I Was Born to Be: My Story
In 2009 a short, frumpy-looking, forty-seven year old, single, shy Scottish woman with what appears to be an anxiety disorder took the world by storm in a very good way. Among pop music lovers, who has not seen Susan Boyle’s first audition for Britain’s Got Talent on YouTube?
After the first few notes you could hear a pin drop as this frizzy-haired lady’s strong, glorious voice mesmerized listeners. Eyes that rolled when she declared she wanted to be like Elaine Paige widened in wonder only seconds later when she opened her mouth and the first true, beautiful sounds engulfed a sea of hostile listeners. Susan Boyle became an international celebrity literally overnight as the video of that evening went viral on YouTube.
Susan tells the story of how she was born with oxygen deprivation that doctors said would make her slow at learning. However, to the delight of her loving family, she was found to have no issues with learning or intelligence level. She had plenty of trouble in school, though.
From the descriptions in her book, some kind of anxiety disorder affected her ability to do well on exams and shaped her coping behaviors. In any case, her classmates were not kind to her and this exacerbated her extreme shyness. However, accompanying that shyness is a feisty spirit that has brought Susan to her current celebrity.
“Baby Steps” Are a Key to Success
One thing you can clearly see when reading her story is that her apparent instant success was the result of many “baby steps” - a phrase she uses to describe how she overcame self-doubt and fear on her path to stardom - a path she did not know she was on – many times in her life.
What I was especially glad to learn was that Susan is a devout, practicing Catholic with deep devotion to Our Lady. She mentions trips to Lourdes with her family and visits to Knock in Ireland. Love of the Faith is in her DNA through the parents God gave her and she often turned to Our Lady for help as she moved forward little by little.
Three Things Worth Noting About Susan Boyle
First, Susan’s journey to musical fame started privately in her bedroom as a child when she found refuge from bullying in song. Later, a neighborhood pub where she started singing for fun in her early twenties became the next “baby step” in her career. Over the years she was active in local talent groups and competitions, honing her skills while not believing or understanding how good she really was. She was developing her talent from the very beginning without realizing it. Susan crushes the myth of “overnight success.”
Second, she lived with her family all of her life, and had no sense of purpose although she had a desire to do good for others. Shortly before she died, her mother admonished Susan to “do something with your life.” Today she is following that admonition with a sense of purpose and determination, aware and awed at how God is using her to bring people together through her voice.
Third, Susan Boyle is a source of hope and inspiration to many people because she has overcome many emotional difficulties and is continuing to learn to cope better with life’s demands. She did not come from a wealthy, well-placed family, but from ordinary people. She did not have a lot of advantages as some great in their fields have had. She was not drop-dead gorgeous. She did not have any friends as a child and few as an adult. Moreover, she was made fun of by others throughout the years, yet she stepped forward to share with the world the gift God has given her. She shows herself as fully human with all her foibles in a way that people of all ages can identify with, but especially those afflicted with mental and emotional issues. Susan’s life is a message: it’s never too late to discover why God put you on this earth.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. It’s a beautiful story of God’s love for a simple person, told with humor and openness. Be sure to have a hanky nearby because parts of it are very touching.
Click on the link at the top to purchase this book new or used.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Miracles of Forgiveness
September 6, 2010
Ever since I read Imaculeé Ilibagiza’s two books on surviving the 1994 Rwandan genocide a couple of weeks ago I have pondered the many lessons contained in them, most especially the problem of truly forgiving those who have wronged us. Outside of the fact that hatred, resentment and vengeful feelings can wreak havoc on body chemistry leading to all kinds of physical problems, keeping ill-will stoked up slowly poisons the soul.
Is there anyone among us who has not struggled with forgiveness? We all know that Jesus asked His Father to to forgive His executioners “for they know not what they do” in Luke 23:34, setting the example for us. Why, then, is it so hard to follow? What do we need to do to adopt the spirit of Christ in His extremity?
Ilibagiza’s book Led By Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide
Without giving away too much of what she writes, I will highlight a few points that impressed me. First, the Hutus shot her father in the back a few days after they hacked her mother to death with machetes. Her two brothers were also gruesomely murdered as were her uncles and cousins and some aunts. She knew nothing of their deaths because she was in hiding along with some other Tutsi women in a very tiny bathroom for the three months of the genocide. The killers were fellow villagers who had been friends, visited their house and shared meals with the family. Some of the killers had been helped by her parents in many ways, yet it made no difference. It was Hutus against Tutsis with the Hutu majority of 9 million against the Tutsi population of one million. The politics of the situation is covered in Ilibagiza’s book Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
Second, it was in that tiny bathroom where a couple of the women literally had to sit on top of one another and each had to take turns standing to stretch, that Ilibagiza heard the killers calling her by name in the dark of night. For the three months of their sequestration the women could not speak, only communicating with sign language so that no one else in the house would know that they were there. A mere slip could result in revealing their hiding place. In that case, both the kind minister, who was Hutu and owned the house, and they, would be killed by the roving bands of killers. They lived with little sunlight, often having no food for days, infested with body lice, and hunted daily. Several times the house was raided in the night, but their hiding place was never found.
Third, it was how Ilibagiza spent her time in this prison that made all the difference. Not knowing what happened to her family, she prayed her rosary for them and for all the killers. God gave her the grace to enter into a state of deep prayer for hours at a time while she concentrated on forgiving everyone who had ever wronged her, and all the killers of her fellow countrymen. She often thought of Jesus forgiving from the cross.
God also showed Imaculeé the truth that we are all His children, that He loves all, even when some are doing unimaginable evil. She saw in real terms that people God loves can turn their hearts over to the devil and only His love can turn them back. She saw that she must live this truth entirely by allowing God to reveal His love through her, never returning hate for hate. She developed a deep trust in God, without which forgiveness is impossible.
Fourth, in the state of almost constant prayerfulness, God inspired her to ask the minister to place his large wardrobe in front of the bathroom door by showing her a glowing cross on the door no one else could see. Ilibagiza understood that if the door was blocked they would be safe, and indeed it proved to be so. When the Hutu broke in a couple of times and ransacked the bedroom, they never thought to move the wardrobe and so never found the bathroom door even though they moved furniture in other rooms they searched. Those times, only the narrow wall of the house separated the women from death.
Fifth, some time after the genocide was over and a new government in place, Ilibagiza went to the prison where her father’s killer was incarcerated. He was in terrible condition because the Hutu killers were being drastically punished even before their trials. She took his hands in hers and looking into his eyes she said, “I forgive you.” Other Tutsis could not understand how she could do this and were angry with her. Ilibagiza knew, however, that God saved her from death for the purpose of carrying His message of forgiveness all over the world. She had to start by forgiving the grievous wrong done her by a man she and her family knew.
I won’t tell of all the other miracles God worked for Imaculeé because I don’t want to spoil a good read. Let’s just say they were many and came about because many times in prayer she forgave again and again everyone who had harmed her, part of her quest to make sure she had an absolutely clean heart before God.
Forgiveness in our hearts is a path to miracles in our lives. Jesus had a reason for including in the Our Father, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. God blesses the forgiving and merciful in ways impossible to imagine. With simple faith, let us imitate Christ and Ilibagiza and start forgiving those close to us who have hurt us, the political leaders who are damaging us personally and our country, the businesses which are ruining our health and destroying our food sources, and the religious ideologues who want to enslave us. Pray for the grace to do this and keep on praying no matter how long it takes.
Both of Ilibagiza’s books are available through my Amazon store. Just click on the “store” tab at the top of the page and go to the end of the “Blessed Virgin Mary” category.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.)
Our Lady of Kibeho
July 29, 2010
Our Lady of Kibeho
This week a friend sent me the book, Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa
What makes Kibeho so appealing is that Our Lady came to one of the poorest countries in the heart of Africa to open hearts to Jesus. As in Fatima and Lourdes, she chose young people to convey urgent messages to the people, to government officials, and to the bishops – messages urging Rwandans to end the ethnic hatred in their country, to repent of their sins, and to make Jesus the center of their lives. These messages were meant not only for Rwanda but for the whole world. Jesus and Mary told the visionaries that they came to Rwanda to let all the people know that even the poorest of the poor in the world were in their hearts.
Eight of the visionaries have been declared by the Church to be authentic, but during the years between 1982 and 1994 many people in remote villages throughout the country claimed to have seen both Jesus and Our Lady. It is likely that these appearances were authentic in many cases. The bishops just did not have the manpower to examine all of them and so stopped with the eight visionaries. Not all the people who saw them were Catholic or even Christian. One illiterate young man (one of the eight authenticated) was pagan and so were his parents. Yet Jesus came to him personally and taught him the complete Bible and infused deep theological knowledge in his heart, sending him throughout all Rwanda to spread the Gospel.
One striking fact reported by the visionaries was that Our Lady’s skin glowed with such a light they could not tell if it was white or black. Some of them were taken to see both heaven and hell. And, as at Fatima and Lourdes, Our Lady asked for daily praying of the rosary, the prayers that bring the Gospel alive in our minds every time we meditate on the mysteries. She also taught one of the visionaries the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, an old devotion in the Church but unknown in Africa and asked that she spread this devotion to everyone. The Blessed Virgin also asked that a basilica in her honor be built in Kibeho, and the people also built a small chapel of the Seven Sorrows there.
Even as Our Lady warned the people that Rwanda would become a “river of blood” if the hatred of the people was not quickly stopped, miracle after miracle occurred in Kibeho amongst the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who flocked to this remote village. Sadly, neither the government officials nor the people repented of the hatred, and the prophetic warnings came true during 100 horrifying days of mass murder and genocide. Rwanda in 1994 was awash in blood amongst unspeakable suffering.
Nineteen-eighty-two was not that long ago, nor was 1994. Is there less hatred in the world today or more? How can man be so stubborn that even in the face of major miracles and stark evidence of God’s love in this day and time, that he will not excise evil from his heart? What horrors will be visited upon this world as we continue to lie, cheat, steal and murder one another? It was not a lack of grace from heaven to change hearts that brought about the slaughter in Rwanda. It was man’s hardening against the grace and stubborn refusal to accept the grace available to everyone. Let Kibeho speak to us today and let us heed the messages by daily conversion of heart.
Our Lady of Kibeho was written by Immaculée Ilibagiza who survived the Rwandan genocide and lived in hiding for several years afterwards. She is well acquainted with the apparitions and several of the visionaries. I have put this book in my Custom Shop, or you can click on the links in this post to purchase it from Amazon.
Salvation Is From the Jews: Book Review
May 12, 2010
Salvation Is from the Jews: The Role of Judaism in Salvation History 
This is not a new book, having been published by Ignatius Press in 2003, but it is well worth reading if you have an interest in the conversion of Jews and understanding better today’s scourge of Islam. Shoeman tells his own conversion story in the process of covering the role of Judaism in salvation history from Abraham to the Second Coming.
Because of his background in Hebrew, having studied with noteworthy rabbis of American Judaism, Shoeman sheds light on certain Biblical passages that show how the Jews have a central place in the destiny of the world and the fulfillment of the Messianic prophesies. He covers the Holocaust from a spiritual standpoint and includes writings of St. Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). He also links Our Lady of Fatima with the conversion of the Jews and explains the role of the Jews in the Second Coming. Of particular interest is his explanation of the anti-Christian roots of Nazi anti-Semitism and its links to Arab anti-Semitism.
Shoeman gives an excellent explanation of why Jews do not have to renounce their “Jewishness” to enter the Catholic Church. For them, it is full acceptance of the Messianic prophesies and the Word. It is, as it were, a completion of the past rather than a severing with it. If you know any Jews who may be interested in Christianity, this is a good book to give them.
One thing I especially liked about Salvation Is From the Jews was learning about Jewish scholarship, the Talmud, Torah, and the great Maimonides’ writings about the coming of the Messiah. The better we understand the Bible the better Christians we will be and this book helped me to do just that. I found myself re-reading certain passages of the book and meditating on God’s generosity to man. Also, the book explains the role of Islam in God’s plan.
One of the more important saints of the twentieth century for westerners is St. Edith Stein. If you would like to read some excerpts of her writings contained in this book, visit my blog post, Judaism and the Holocaust. If you want to order the book you can do it from here. It is in Barb’s Custom Shop as well. I highly recommend this book not only for increasing understanding of the Scriptures, but also for understanding the present state of world affairs as it relates to Islam and Judaism. It’s never too late to read a good book, even one that has been around for a few years.
“The Last Train from Hiroshima”
February 26, 2010
My thoughtful husband brought this book home from the library, knowing my great interest in Japan and World War II. At the age of 14 or 15 I read John Hersey’s Hiroshima: The Story of six human beings who survived the explosion of the atom bomb over Hiroshima. Putting it in today’s slang, the book freaked me out. As a child of the Cold War, which I believe began immediately after Hiroshima and Nagasaki though historians will disagree, the fear of a repeat of August, 1945 has been bound to my psyche for life.
A monumental and heart rending work,The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back (John MacRae Books)
In the confusion and chaos of the flattened city, survivors and the dying were overcome with a terrible thirst. As the black rain containing radioactive isotopes fell they opened their mouths to take it in and hastened their deaths. Ferocious tornados of fire chased people into the river only to become waterspouts and then emerge as fire on the other side.
Pellegrino spares nothing describing the hellish scene and reporting the words of the survivors who were forbidden by their government to speak publicly about their experiences for many years. To this day scientists cannot explain some of the phenomena after the blast, but this book gives far more scientific information and understanding than any previous work, especially to the average person.
Prominently featured are unforgettable characters who survived both Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. They were the ones who staggered over the radioactive wasteland to the train station to catch the only transportation out of Hiroshima to what they thought was safety only to be caught in the second blast three days later over Nagasaki. Some of them were dead in six weeks from radiation poisoning while others lived many years. Most died from cancer caused by radiation effects.
Tsutomo Yamaguchi, RIP - link to Facebook page
The last survivor, Tsutsomo Yamaguchi, died January 4, 2010 at age 93, the only “official” recognized-by-the-government survivor of both atom bombs. He suffered leukemia, cataracts, and finally stomach cancer from the radiation effects. Yamaguchi traveled to New York in 2006, bringing comfort to families who lost loved ones at ground zero on 9-11 as only he could. Like Dr. Takashi Nagai who survived Nagasaki, he unfailingly brought a message of love and forgiveness to the world. It is sad that when he addressed the United Nations with this message, asking for a ban on nuclear weapons, some people rolled their eyes.
I must say that even though the recounting of deeply disturbing aspects of this story left me with feelings of horror, Pellegrino also brought out the heroism of ordinary people, too. This book answered some questions I’ve had for a long time about what led to Japanese aggression and how the United States arrived at the decision to drop atom bombs to end the war in the Pacific. The role communist Russia and Stalin played was not insignificant, as I have suspected for some time.
We are now over three generations past the events of August 6th and 9th of 1945, but this story must not die. In this age with Sharia governments threatening nuclear war, the lessons from Japan demand attention. What Pellegrino records is very painful to read, but essential to understanding what happened then and what could happen today with far worse effects. I believe the book should be required reading in history classes.
“A Song for Nagasaki” by Paul Glynn, S.M.
February 26, 2010
Dr. Takashi Nagai
Last Sunday I found a book at the church library. It wasn’t on my top ten for Lent, but it was about Japan and a Japanese holy man who transformed others’ lives by his gentleness and forgiveness. Since I am interested in Japanese history, especially in what transpired to cause the terrible aggression that drew so many into World War II, I checked it out. What I ended up with is a moving conversion story that brings Christ’s teachings to life in a unique way and that has enriched my Lenten prayer.
A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai-Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb
Nagai entered into a spiritual quest while he attended medical school in Nagasaki – a quest that led him from Shintoism to atheism to Catholicism and ultimately to marriage with the daughter of the family which had been at the heart of the underground Church for the centuries of government persecution of Christians. The biography reveals how Nagai’s medical studies, service as a medic in the Japanese army during the occupation of Manchuria, and his return to become a pioneer of radiology research at Nagasaki University formed his spiritual growth.
Before the bomb exploded over the city that fateful August day, Nagai already had developed leukemia from his radiation exposure, yet he had refused to quit working. The cancer did not stop him from caring for victims of the inferno although he was wounded himself, and to his surprise and that of his fellow medical practitioners, his disease went into remission for a couple of years because of his exposure to the bomb’s radiation.
Nyoko-do
Nagai lost his beloved wife in the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945, but his children who were farther from ground zero survived. Not long after, he moved into the rubble of the ruined city to study the effects of radiation on all life forms, constructing a tiny dwelling on the ground where his house once stood. He called his little abode “Nyoko-do“, meaning “as yourself hall” taken from Jesus’s words: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It was one 6×6 room with a porch built by friends. He lived there with his children until he died.
Throughout the book Glynn interweaves Japanese history and customs into Nagai’s story, giving the reader a good understanding of the depth of this man. He describes well how Nagai brought not only physical healing but spiritual healing to the suffering and war-weary people. Determined not to be bitter or vengeful, he wrote articles and powerful books as a legacy for his children that became best-sellers throughout Japan. During the last four years of his life, he accomplished this lying on his back because of weakness and abdominal swelling caused by the cancer.
This book above all, is a story of love and forgiveness, of sanctity brought forth from horror. Many people from around the world, including Helen Keller journeyed to meet this unassuming man, who gave most of his earnings for the education and care of war orphans. His example continues to inspire and he is considered a saint by many Japanese people of all faiths.
If you are attracted to conversion stories, this book will not disappoint you. It is filled with the wonders of God’s grace and inspiration to overcome all bitterness, resentment, and desire for vengeance that plague the human heart. Nagai truly suffered with joy.
Top Ten Books for a Profitable Lent
February 13, 2010
Ash Wednesday is coming. Are you agonizing over what to do for your soul during Lent? Every year I struggle with this, but today I read Father Tom Euteneuer’s Don’t Waste Lent post over at Human Life International and the Gordion Knot untangled. He said:
…stay simple; that is, don’t load yourself down with too many spiritual exercises or intentions that may discourage you if you run too fast out into the desert.
Good advice for a perfectionist like me! For people under stress and struggling with various mental or physical health issues, simplification of life is essential. If we focus on one new good habit to acquire during Lent we will have done more for our soul than if we had five or six penances we failed to do well.
I have 10 books to recommend for those who want to spend some minutes each day doing spiritual reading for Lent. They are great for a journey with the Lord into the desert – books for renewing the soul and enlarging the Christian heart. Any of them would make a good Lenten companion.
1. 
2. The Passion of Jesus and Its Hidden Meaning
3. 
4. The Plaints of the Passion,: Meditations on the Reproaches of the Good Friday Liturgy
5. 
The Sadness of Christ (Yale University Press Translation)
6. 
The School of Jesus Crucified: The Lessons of Calvary in Daily Catholic Life
7. Sermons of The Cure of Ars
8. Spiritual Combat: How to Win Your Spiritual Battles and Attain Peace
9. What Jesus Saw from the Cross
10. Praying With Icons
You can use these books for yourself or as part of family prayer. Home schoolers may find them a springboard to activities or projects when covering religious subjects. Besides the links here, all are available in my Amazon store. Have a joyful Lent in the peace of Christ in the desert.
Book Review: Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton
Sometimes a book grabs you and shakes you by the neck. Horse Soldiers
In the “first large American unconventional warfare operation since World War II” as Major General Geoffrey C. Lambert, U. S. Army (retired) puts it, “My Green Berets were launched deep into enemy territory to befriend, recruit, equip, advise, and lead their Afghan counterparts to attack the Taliban.” Known as the “Horse Soldiers” because they rode horses into battle alongside the Northern Alliance fighters, these few brave men ran a de-centralized campaign aided by our modern airpower and precision bombing capabilities to brilliant success in the space of a few months. While the American government claimed it would take two years to unseat the Taliban, it took about two months, but not without the loss of CIA paramilitary officer and former Marine Mike Spann who was overcome in the Qala-i-Janghi Fortress at Mazar and became the first casualty of our involvement in the war.
Under what circumstances did our handful of soldiers go to Afghanistan in the first place? The answer lies in the joining of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces against the Lion of the Panjshir, Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Afghani forces and ally of the United States in the 1979-1989 Soviet invasion. Masterminded by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda devised a plan to assassinate Massoud by having two Arabs traveling under stolen Belgian passports pose as journalists and secure an interview. They accomplished this on September 9, 2001 when they blew Massoud apart in his office chair. Two days later Al Qaeda struck the Twin Towers in New York and then the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania taking the lives of American heroes who overcame the terrorists and saved the country from further damage…that day.
The events of September 9th and 11th of 2001 were an orchestrated one-two punch against America and the freedom fighters of Afghanistan as Stanton relates in his book. The book is hard to put down and a real eye-opener for the average American who most likely doesn’t know, as I did not, the background of our involvement in Afghanistan and why the Taliban must be defeated.
Stanton tells smoothly and vividly the tale of how our American soldiers landed at the Northern Alliance camp of a warlord in complete darkness amid chilling danger on October 19, 2001. From there he details the events of battles and how we almost lost against the Taliban before it was all over, sprinkling the narrative with highlights of the relationships between the American soldiers and their families back in the States who were not permitted to know where they were nor the extent of the danger they were in.
Every American should read this book to educate himself thoroughly on what is at stake in the battle against Al Qaeda, which figures large in the Afghani situation and throughout the Middle East. Neither they nor the Taliban leaders are people you want to have living next door.
Stanton relates that many of the Afghan people surrounded the Americans when they liberated a town and said how much they appreciated being freed from the Taliban who would beat men for not wearing beards, would force them into their ranks under pain of death, cut the hands off those who stole food to feed their starving families, and hack off the limbs of children if their parents tried to escape with the family from Taliban occupied towns. Women whose husbands had been killed and had no other male family member to help them were forced to take to the streets with their children and beg. Most starved to death. When forcibly conscripted Talabanis ran to the Northern Alliance soldiers in the posture of surrender, they were shot in the back by their own forces. And that is not the half of it.
The Afghani people especially hated the “foreign” Taliban: the approximately 3000 Al Qaeda Arabs, Pakistanis, Chechens, and Chinese who had come to their country to destroy their lives. Stanton wrote that the Taliban welcomed these foreigners because they would fight to the death to establish Islamic Sharia everywhere. Never would they surrender, which is how, under false pretenses, the Americans and Northern Alliance almost lost the war.
Something else we can learn from this book is that the Special Forces strategy instituted by the American government is a winning strategy we should apply wherever we must go to help other countries battling for their freedom against Islamic extremists. Stanton points out that Arthur Bremmer’s decision to disband 500,000 young Iraqi soldiers when we gained control of their country was a strategic mistake that cost countless of American and Iraqi lives. What did he think a half million unemployed Iraqis would be able to do when they went home to their villages? With crushing poverty and no jobs they became the heart of an insurgency against the American occupiers instead of co-operators in the fight for freedom in their country.
One result of reading this book is, for me, a much deeper appreciation for our courageous soldiers and a firm conviction that Congress should support the military by getting out of the way of those who know how to make war shorter and less painful for us and the people of a country who have asked for our help. Highly recommended. The book is to be made into a movie by Disney in partnership with an outside producer, but I wouldn’t count on fidelity to Stanton’s story. Read the book first.
Memorable quote: Warlord Dostum said, “I asked for a few Americans. They brought with them the courage of a whole army.”
To order the book click on “Horse Soldiers” highlighted in the second sentence. I am an Amazon associate and your purchase will help keep this site going. Thank you.
Search
Want posts by email?
Community of Catholic Bloggers
Barb's Custom Shop
Donate
I am grateful for even small donations to help keep this site going. All donors will be kept in my prayers.
Catholic Bloggers Network
Archives
Blogroll
- Amazing Grays Ministry
- American Life League
- Catholic Bloggers Network
- Catholic Morality
- Cause of Our Joy
- Dr. Brownstein
- Dr. David Williams
- Dr. Joseph Mercola
- Flechas Family Practice
- He Gently Calls Us
- Human Life International
- Into Stillness
- Kansas Catholic
- Latin Prayers
- Life Extension
- LifeSite News
- Lynn Baber
- New Liturgical Movement
- Pray It Off!
- Rorate Caeli
- Savior.org
- Secret Harbor
- St. Louis Archdiocese Missions
- St. Louis Catholic
- The Beautiful Gate
- The Hermeneutic of Continuity
- The Holy See Press Services
- The Remnant
- Thou Art Jules
- Thoughts on Grace
- Time for Reflections
- Una Voce Ark. Ozarks Newsletters
- Vitamin Research Products
- Vultus Christi
- What Does the Prayer Really Say
