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Glenn's Show Prep

Glenn: Words have real power

October 29, 2013
Wilson

Writer

Well, better late than never, I guess.  60 Minutes has finally figured out that maybe, just maybe the Benghazi thing isn’t a phony scandal after all.

VIDEO

Lt. Col. Andy Wood:  I made it known in a country team meeting you are going to get attacked.  You are going to get attacked in Benghazi.  It’s going to happen.  You need to change your security profile.

Lara Logan:  Shut down –

Lt. Col. Andy Wood:  Shut down operations, move out temporarily, or change locations within the city.  Do something to break up the profile, because you are being targeted.  They’re watching you.  The attack cycle is such that they’re in their final planning stages.

Lara Logan:  Wait a minute, you said they’re in the final planning stages of an attack on the American mission in Benghazi.

Lt. Col. Andy Wood:  It was apparent to me that that was the case.  Reading all these other attacks that were occurring, I could see what they were staging up to.  It was obvious.

Morgan Jones:  We’re here to kill Americans, not Libyans, so they’d give them a good beating, pistol whip them, beat them with their rifles and let them go.

Lara Logan:  We’re here to kill Americans.

Morgan Jones:  That’s what they said, yeah.

Lara Logan:  Not Libyans.

Morgan Jones:  Yeah.

Lt. Col. Andy Wood:  Coordination, planning, training, experience, personnel.  They practiced those things.  They knew what they were doing.

Wow!  It’s kind of like they knew all along it was a coordinated attack, and they knew that a coordinated attack was coming in advance, and they did nothing.  You know what would’ve been really great is if the media would’ve been nice enough to point this out as we were being told that it was a spontaneous reaction to a hateful YouTube video.

But it’s never too late for Americans to wake up and say wait a minute, they knew, and they lied, which puts this comment from Hillary Clinton when she was questioned about what happened before the attack in a whole new light now, doesn’t it?

VIDEO

Hillary Clinton:  The fact is we had four dead Americans.  Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans?  What difference at this point does it make?

Of course she doesn’t want to answer that question.  I can guarantee that was rehearsed, because the honest answer to that question results in the end of her career in public service, at least it should, but I don’t know if it would.  George Soros is now helping her with finances for her run for President of the United States.

But the spin is about to come undone.  It is happening at such a dizzying rate that nobody it seems even bats an eye anymore, but people know that it doesn’t work.  People aren’t watching the news like they used to.  They know.  They know, and they know they’re getting nothing but lies.  Bob Woodward summed up what was best.  He said this is right at the heart of this administration’s scandals.  Listen:

VIDEO

Bob Woodward:  I think it’s in The New York Times this morning that there is a review that Susan Rice, the national security advisor for Obama has done on Mideast policy.  They need to review this secret world and its power in their government, because you run into this rat’s nest of concealment and lies time and time again, then and now.

This is pretty amazing, a rat’s nest of concealment and lies.  Did you ever think you would see anyone on mainstream media say that?  But that’s what they’re choosing to spread.

The words that each of us choose, they have real power.  They have the power to build people up or tear them down, the power to heal or the power to destroy, the power to increase light or increase darkness.  Which will it be?

I remember when there was a time at least that the left understood the power of words, and they were really super concerned about the words, you know, that we use, and when I say “we use,” I mean Sarah Palin and me and you or the Tea Party.  They claimed that those words, hey, listen to the words.  It’s hateful.  It’s violent, and that we were causing the violence against people like Gabby Giffords.  Remember this?

VIDEO

Howard Kurtz:  And then you said, and I’m quoting here, “Both are being finally held to account for recklessly playing with violent images in a way that is bound to incite the unstable.”

 

“Bound to incite the unstable.”  You’re connecting the dots between their rhetoric and violence.

Dana Milbank:  Well, between violence, but not in this case, the Loughner case.  What I – in a sense, it’s rough justice.  I think it is very important that people are held to account for this nasty rhetoric that is causing – in Glenn Beck’s case, I’ve documented a few cases in which it’s led a crazy person to snap…

Keith Olberman:  I think it’s time as a country we need to do a little soul searching, because I think that the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from the people in the radio business and some people in the TV business and what we see on TV and how our youngsters are being raised, it may be free speech, but it does not come without consequences.

Bill Maher:  But it’s also clear that he was very antigovernment.  I mean, if you read some of the stuff that we have that we know he wrote, I mean, it’s sprinkled with things, antigovernment ideas, treason, tyranny, the gold, get back to the gold standard, that kind of stuff that seems like, you know, I don’t know who else but Glenn Beck talks about that.

 

This Jared guy’s chalkboard in his basement, I’m not sure it wouldn’t look that different than Glenn Beck’s chalkboard.

Okay, that guy was a leftist and a Communist if I remember right, but that’s what they were doing.  They were accusing me and Sarah Palin and you of violence and inciting violence.  I wrote it down.  This kind of talk appeals to the unstable.  Zero evidence – I wonder what this guy was saying that was quoted back to me.

There’s never been any violence, never, at least that I’ve ever been made aware of, never.  In fact, quite the opposite:  The people that gather are the picture of restraint and decency and love for fellow man, but that doesn’t stop the free flow of lies, right?  We know that.

Okay, the only reason why I’m dredging up the past is because I want to show you the power of words and what our government is turning into.  I want you to look at the rhetoric of this president.  Watch:

VIDEO

President Obama:  I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of, you know, fat cat bankers on Wall Street.

If you are a wealthy CEO or hedge fund manager in America right now, your taxes are lower than they have ever been.  And you can afford it.  You’ll still be able to ride on your corporate jet.  You’re just going to have to pay a little more.

Everybody, including the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, have to pay their fair share.

Tell them to stop giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and aren’t asking for them.  Tell them to start asking everybody to do their fair share and play by the same rules.

And what we then do is ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more.

Okay, you know this.  I don’t have to keep going on.  You know this.  He is preaching the gospel of two Americas, that there is a small sliver of people that do nothing.  They don’t pay their fair share, the really uber rich, and then everybody else who’s carrying all the burden, when studies show, and I mean facts show, the IRS will show you that there’s over now 50% that don’t pay any taxes at all.  And they’re the haves and the have-nots.  That’s what it is, the rich guy and then you.

Now who’s going to take the blame?  Well, he takes the blame because he takes it from you, and he keeps it away from you.  How many times have we seen from the Tides Foundation and everybody else that the rich exploit the resources of the world and keep you down?  Meanwhile, while they’re saying that, they have union mobs descending on the private homes of the evil bank CEOs – screw him, screw him and all of his money.

The president has been billed as a uniter, and I guess it’s true if he’s uniting the 99% against the 1%, which those numbers aren’t even accurate.  This is an all-out class warfare act.  The reason why I’m bringing this up to you tonight is because your words do have power.  You’re getting lies from the top, and then they are keeping things away from you and never mentioning what’s really going on.

Tonight, I want to introduce you to the first victims in this war on the wealthy.  It’s a family of five, including a one-year-old.  They were slaughtered with a meat cleaver.  The man who carried out the slaying was a 25-year-old family relative.  Now, why did he do it, and why could I possibly say this has anything to do with this administration?

Well, according to a police source, “The family had too much.  The family had better income and a better lifestyle than him.”  That’s what the crazy man is saying.  Now where are you getting that envy?  For being successful and despite being kind enough to let a 25-year-old relative stay at their home, the 37-year-old mother of four, who wasn’t Bill Gates, was butchered, along with her nine, five, seven, and one-year-old.  The one-year-old was found decapitated.

Now, this is an amazing story no matter how you slice it, but I’m wondering where the press is, because the story happened just outside of New York City, so you know they have the trucks there.  They were so paranoid that the Tea Party would act out against any government official because they heard a lot of rhetoric about shrinking the size of government.

You couldn’t even say the word “target” without scolding somebody, yet the President of the United States and his allies constantly nonstop vilify anyone with any money.  They tell people they are taking it from you.  They blame them for every sort of every problem.  It’s not Bush; it’s the rich people, and if it’s not the rich people, it’s Bush.  They even have supported unions that intimidate and use violent tactics like surrounding private homes with mobs and beating people down at town halls and blocking “scab” truckers.  Think of just even that word, scabs.

And there’s silence from the media.  I want you to know because part of my job is to inform you on what I see coming, but you’re seeing it now.  It’s here, a class war and a race war not of your doing, and don’t participate in it in any way, shape, or form.  It’s a war on anyone who stands in the way of the agenda, even, believe it or not, if you’re an 87-year-old World War II veteran.

How could you possibly say that the administration had anything to do with the killing of an 87-year-old man?  Well, can we look at the facts?  The World War II Memorial during the phony shutdown, what happened to the World War II veterans?  Were they treated with respect?  Taking on America’s finest living heroes was something previously unthinkable, even among the dirtiest of politicians.

Growing up, we were all taught to respect our elders, especially those, the Greatest American Generation, but now, somehow or another, our teens are taught life doesn’t matter, and old people, it’s okay to use them as a political prop.  It’s even okay to hassle them.  We’re taught that old people and their stupidity is what caused today’s problems.  And if I may quote, so you’ve had your chance, grandma.  “Step aside, Grandma.  We want health care, and we want it now.”

Is it any wonder we see teens beating up and mugging World War II veterans just for giggles?  I want you to be very, very clear on what I’m saying.  While the president and his allies are leading this current race, the media and higher education have done such a great snow job on most of us and most of us have welcomed it with open arms because we wanted to believe, I mean, it’s much easier to believe that we can just take it from somebody else.

It’s much easier to believe that our kids really do deserve that trophy.  It’s really a lot easier on me as a parent.  I’m tired when I get home.  I don’t know about you.  I don’t want to teach my kids lessons.  I want somebody else to do it.  I have to teach them that life isn’t unfair?  That’s hard.  But universal law is universal law, and it doesn’t matter who uses it.

Life isn’t fair.  You’re not always going to win your way, even if you’re the good guy.  And words do have power.  I have a new and greater understanding of the power of words.  Words are like seeds, and when you scatter them all across the ground, some will take root, and some will not, depending on if it’s fertile soil or rocks.  And some will take very shallow roots, and some will take deep.  It depends not only who’s scattering them but also who’s receiving them.

The question is what seeds are you sowing?  What words will you choose?  I know their choice.  I got it.  I can’t do anything about their choice.  Let’s talk about me and you.  The answer can be found in this question:  Who is the author of your life?  I have two, God and me.  God created me, and then he gave me rights.  He gave me power, and he gave me responsibility, and I choose what I do with those.

Jesus said the son only does what he has seen the father doing, so who’s the author of your life?  Who’s your father?  For many, unfortunately, I believe it is now the father of all lies, and what they see him do, they will do.  And so we have a rat’s nest of concealment and lies.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.