Ronald D. Ray Library of American History begins to take shape

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Colonel Ronald Dudley Ray, USMC (Ret.) was a highly decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War, an attorney, a loving father, a devoted husband and a life-long reader. His library was organized according to periods of history and books lined the walls of the Crestwood, Kentucky farmhouse, where we lived and worked for over 40 years. The collection focuses on the miracle of America and its founding history, a history disappearing from the internet and those who click to research.

It is our duty to leave our children and grandchildren the necessary information tools they will need to continue to protect and preserve America’s freedoms so many have previously fought and sacrificed to uphold. Kentucky Architect John Stewart learned of the library project and volunteered his nearly three decades of work experience and his talented team of professionals to concept and design “The Colonel Ronald D. Ray Library of American History.” At the end of my 40 years of working alongside the Colonel and then carrying on by securing his book collection would be a fitting tribute to all those whose lives are dedicated living lives to advancing the Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Eunice Ray with Architect Jon Stewart, discussing plans for building the Library

Having Done All, STAND…

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The last ten years have not been good for American Christians.

In November 2004, President George W. Bush was re-elected in no small part due to American opposition to redefining marriage. Social conservatives carried the day, sending Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to a narrow defeat.

Since then, the pitch has been downhill.

In spite of victories at the ballot box, Christians and social conservatives have endured an offensive of major proportions, as

(a) the judiciary in several states have ignored thousands of years of law, fact, and history by overriding the expressed will of the people and redefining marriage via judicial fiat;

(b) federal courts have weakened existing state laws restricting the definition of marriage;

(c) courts have forced Christian-owned businesses to cater to homosexuals wishing to pervert Biblically-defined covenants;

(d) at least one CEO of a major company–Brandon Eich of Mozilla–was forced to resign when his support of historical marriage became public. While Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty fame were able to push back successfully, smaller businesses and people of smaller financial means have been forced out of jobs and out of business;

(e) Christian chaplains in the military are under unprecedented assault from secularists. An Army Ranger Chaplain–Capt. Joseph Lawhorn–was given a career-ending “letter of concern” for the capital crime of sharing Biblical references in a suicide prevention class. Wes Modder, a Chaplain for Navy SEALs who, in his most recent evaluation was praised as “the best of the best”, now faces dismissal for holding to Biblical teachings regarding homosexuality;

(f) polls show that a critical mass of Americans now supports redefining marriage; the Supreme Court of the United States, barring a last-minute change of heart, is poised to redefine marriage in a “landmark decision”;

(g) Revealing what goes on behind the scenes at major companies, an accomplished software engineer of portly size and Christian persuasion was denied a job at GoDaddy.com in no small part due to his Christian faith.

ESPN, in an insult of great irony, tipped its hat to a former gold medaling athlete and proceeded to give Jenner an award for courage, ironically named after Arthur Ashe, a tennis legend who contracted AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion and who chided the culture of promiscuity in his last days.

Jenner may embody the remaking of American manhood and the triumph of feminism. Once the media celebrated him for his stellar decathlon performance in the 1976 Olympics.  Nearly 40 years later the media again celebrates Jenner, a man surgically and hormonally feminized, for he is largely its own creation.

That three percent of Americans who self-identify as homosexual are being permitted to redefine marriage, have been a wedge to abolish common law, and are given free rein and massive tax dollars to ramrod humanism down the throats of young Americans–dismissing objectors for thought crimes–is surely reflective of a Christian country under siege or conquered. In fact, the onslaught is of such sufficient magnitude that some progressives are expressing alarm at this attack on free speech and thought.

Kyle Smith calls it a “massive, silent, cultural revolution”, but he’s wrong on one front: while this “cultural revolution” has been massive, it has been anything but silent. The “gay-rights” lobby with their members and allies in Education, the mainstream media, Big Business, and Entertainment, have force-fed sodomy on America for most of the last seventy years.

This is all bad news for Christians. Standing up for your faith, as Wes Modder and Joseph Lawhorn have shown, can be a career-ending move. That Lawhorn had a Ranger tab and Modder was regarded as ‘the best of the best” did not spare them. That Eich had proven himself at Mozilla was a moot point; when his support of Proposition 8 hit the airwaves, he was out of a job.

And when you lose a job, or get sued by a gay couple, or get denied a job in spite of impeccable accomplishments, you’ll learn fast that your real circle of friends has a shorter radius than you ever thought possible.

Jesus called it: “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

Your only defense is to prepare for the day when you may be forced to walk the talk. Now is the time to consider developing your exit strategy from your job and into an independent business.

Jeremiah guides us on how to “stand” in Jeremiah 29, there the prophet wrote to the people of God during Daniel’s time.  Jeremiah declared captivity would last a long time.  Like the time it took to devolve, the captivity was going to last 70 years.  So what to do: The prophet directed the people to stand by having children and becoming a mighty people, to plant gardens (control your own sustenance) and to be independent – without causing a lot of trouble because remember Babylon is not your home.  Sound familiar?

At the same time, this is not solely about money.

Are you walking in integrity in your personal affairs?

Husbands: do you love your wives as Christ loved the Church?

Wives: do you submit to your husbands as to the Lord?  And Couples is your marriage bed “undefiled?”

Singles: do you eschew sexual immorality?

Pastors: do you provide uncompromising preaching and counsel, rightly dividing the word of truth, and walking in freedom from food and sexual appetites that enslave and ensnare?

Everyone: do you conduct yourself in a way that is honest and compassionate?

That may not save you from this present world–as Jesus did not promise that we would have easy lives–but it provides a witness to the only hope for the world while giving a howling reproach to a world that is rife with immorality, dishonesty, rebellion, and a fundamental disregard for that which is good.

Our founders understood that the long-term viability of the Republic is dependent upon the character of the American people.

The United States was founded on Christian principles by imperfect Christians; the common law that underscores our justice system is rooted in Scripture and predates our very Constitution by nearly a millennium.

We have resolved our gravest civil crises in no small part due to our Christian heritage.

Our Cold War victory would not have been possible but for the Christian. When President Reagan spoke of America as a “shining city on a hill”, he was calling attention to our Christian heritage.

John Adams, admonishing our troops, summed it up well:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

We are past the point where merely electing conservatives will materially change our course as a nation. It matters not whether our elected officials are Democrat or Republican. Not only is the corruption so entrenched in our institutions at every level, at least two of the last three Republican Speakers of the House–Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert–were involved in grievous sexual indiscretions.

Moreover, if Gallup is correct, Americans are drifting away from the plumb line of Scripture as our guide which translates to further erosion of our justice system.

While Jesus promised that not even the gates of Hell would prevail against the Church, neither did He promise that His people would be without hardship in captivity, if the greatly lauded Daniel is any guide for us. Indeed, Christians are under severe persecution in the Middle East, Africa, and China. In post-Christian Europe, Canada, and the United States, it is becoming apparent that Christians are increasingly dwindling and unwelcome.

It is evening in America.  So to the awake and alert dare to be a Daniel, take your precautions for the future and your time of testing as you deal with America’s “new normal.” And know the only quick remedy to reclaim the Republic is the Light once again shining upon us from another Great Awakening.

Indiana and RFRA: A Glimpse of Post-Christian America

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The United States of America, founded by Christians on a legal system (common law) rooted in the Old and New Testaments and institutions (military in particular) based on same, has sustained a seismic shift of foundation beginning in the middle of the 20^th Century. Today the recent upheaval in Indiana and Arkansas, whose governments passed state versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), has given Christians a glimpse of the hostility that awaits them in a nation now considered post-Christian.

The gay rights movement, in concert with their allies in state governments (Washington, Connecticut), academia (NCAA), and corporate America (Angie’s List, NASCAR, Google, Starbucks, Apple), attacked Indiana and Arkansas with overwhelming fury. While it did not help that Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN) fumbled in his interview with George Stephanopoulos, his performance would not have mattered: the backlash was so severe that the legislatures of Indiana and Arkansas backtracked and passed weakened versions of what was already a benign RFRA law.

I’m not going to focus on the particulars of the RFRA laws; at this point, that is a secondary issue. Even then, small businesses are hardly out of the woods on this. More on that later.

If you are a Christian, you need to pay serious attention to what just happened in Indiana and Arkansas. 

Corporate America is not on your side.

Many Americans suffer from the illusion that Big Business leans conservative. In fact, Big Business is completely on board with Progressive government agendas.

(Planned Parenthood has many corporate donors spanning all sectors of the economy, and the Human Rights Campaign—which has spearheaded the efforts to redefine marriage to include gays—has a vast corporate base of support including IBM, BP, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Dell Computers, Morgan Stanley, Pepsico, Shell, Starbucks, Google, Bank of America, Delloite, Ernst and Young, Lexus, Prudential, Apple, Citi, American Airlines, The Coca Cola Company, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, and Nationwide.)

Homosexuals, as a demographic group, have very high per capita income, and represent many high achievers in the corporate world. Ditto for feminists, who have been climbing the corporate ladder for decades. Moreover, corporations often embrace government “diversity” standards in return for lucrative government contracts (some of which are “no-bid”).

In the government world, “diversity” is about mass re-education—promoting a leftist social agenda—and not about equitable race relations.

Big Business also has an economic incentive to support the sodomy agenda: it crushes small businesses. Yes, you read that correctly: the gay agenda crushes small businesses.

Here’s how…

For one thing, any small business that refuses to bow to the sodomy lobby is going to face litigation in a hostile court system. Hiring a legal team and fighting court battles is not value-added activity, and many small businesses will lack the resources to fight those battles. And while RFRA provides some protection—the verbiage is exactly the standard that allowed Hobby Lobby to prevail with SCOTUS—there are still many particulars that the gay lobby is anxious to test in court. Small businesses are going to be ground zero in that fight.

If you own a bakery and refuse to cater a gay “wedding”, you are still at risk of being sued. While RFRA appears to be on your side, that is no guarantee that the federal court system won’t decide that the “compelling government interest” test requires you to cater the wedding. And fighting that battle requires money, which leads me to…

Secondly, corporations have the economies of scale to handle the non-value-added activity of managing Human Resources (HR) policy, often at the direction of in-house legal counsel. If you’re a mom-and-pop shop that ekes out a marginal profit, you cannot afford that, and the big corporations know it. If the sodomites drive you out of business, then that’s good for the big businesses.

That dynamic is, in point of fact, the essence of the old-school Fascism of Mussolini’s Italy and the National Socialism that Germans embraced in the wake of their economic collapse.

If you work in corporate America, your job is not safe.

The corporate backlash against Indiana is very instructive; when have corporations ever made such waves against benign laws? Angie’s List canceled a planned expansion in Indiana; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Computers, penned an op-ed denouncing RFRA laws; Google, Microsoft, and even NASCAR released statements affirming the “LGBT” community and opposing the Indiana RFRA law.

If you work for a corporation, then you’d better trod very carefully. This is a perfect opportunity to be wise as a serpent. If you haven’t studied Proverbs in a while, then this is a good time to get re-acquainted with it. As you do, I will admonish you as a friend once admonished me when I was in a crisis: Keep your eyes and ears open, and your mouth shut. Pick your battles wisely, and prepare for the worst.

If you’ve ever given money to a cause that supports historical marriage, then you could be a target. Brandon Eich, whose record at Mozilla was stellar, was forced to resign his post as CEO. After a gay activist employee outed Eich for giving money in support of California’s Proposition 8, his board wouldn’t support him: he was done.

Even if you’re not an officer of a company, you’re still fair game. When layoffs become necessary, the HR department may put you at the top of the pecking order. Even if you are in a union-protected job, the union might cut a deal and throw you under the bus. You may find yourself passed over for promotions and pay raises.

If you belong to a church or religious group that defines homosexuality as sin, then you could be a target. All it will take is one activist who baits you into expressing your views, after which you could be at risk of termination for “promoting a hostile work environment.” It will not matter if your prior job evaluations are sterling. Just ask Lt. Cmdr Wes Modder, a Navy Chaplain whose latest evaluation rated him “the best of the best”, who now risks being drummed out of the service—short of his 20 year retirement—all because he stuck to the Biblical understanding of sexuality. His great performance and respect among his peers does him nothing; he’s still being targeted because he won’t click his heels and bow to the sodomy lobby.

While the anti-Christian tide in America pales in comparison to the slaughter of Christians at the hands of ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Muslim Brotherhood, make no mistake: Christians in America are facing marginalization on the home front, and that situation is getting more—not less—hostile.

Just as ISIS is destroying Christian artifacts and relics and churches in the Middle East, the secular left in America is destroying every vestige of Christianity that made America exceptional.

This is a time for sobriety among the Christians of America. The same country that won the Cold War—because of the Christian—is now embracing the very secularist agenda that has led to barbarism on scales that would have made Ghengis Khan blush, all at a time when the Islamic world is advancing against the West.

It is on the Christian to provide the answer to the Islamist and the Secularist.

While the penalty for doing so will be costly, the penalty for silence will be magnitudes worse.

A Military at an Impasse: Chaplains or Social Workers?

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USAF Chaplain School

In the height of the Cold War and in the wake of Vietnam, the military went to great lengths to recruit Christians. Our leaders promoted the Cold War in terms of our Christianity in contrast with the cold, murderous Atheism of the Soviet Union. It was not uncommon for recruiting magazines to portray outstanding Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who were outspoken evangelical Christians. I know, because I received those publications during my high school days.

The Christian answered the call: they would go to West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs; they would enlist and become Rangers and Green Berets and Pararescuemen; they would become Air Force pilots, Naval Aviators, Marines, missile launch officers, combat infantryman, aircraft mechanics, medics, and sonar technicians.

Ten years after the fall of Saigon in 1975–when military morale was low–the American military had literally remade itself into the fighting force that won the Cold War. The Christian played an integral role in that turnaround.

This is not surprising, as Christians have always been the spiritual backbone of the Armed Forces.

Prior to the rescue of the Cabanatuan POW camp–where the 6th Ranger Battalion rescued 508 Allied POWs who survived the Bataan Death March and were marked for extermination–Col. Henry Mucci warned those who wanted to fight: “There will be no atheists on this trip.” He forbade any Ranger from participating the mission unless they had met with a chaplain and prayed about it. After the mission, Col. Mucci was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross.

Fast forward 70 years…

On November 20, 2014, at a suicide prevention class for the 5th Ranger Training Battalion, Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn–a rare chaplain who also wore the Ranger Tab and who himself had suffered depression–provided Biblical resources for dealing with depression. During the Cold War, this would have been quite welcome, and Lawhorn would be a front-page champion for the Army: the Ranger who promotes the highest virtues as a Chaplain.

Unfortunately, someone in the class barked at the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, and, as a result, Lawhorn received a “Letter of Concern” from Col. David Fivecoat on Thanksgiving Day.

So let’s get this straight: we’ve gone from a culture where a Ranger Colonel excludes atheists from a major rescue mission–demanding that they meet with a chaplain and pray about it first–and gets a Distinguished Service Cross, to a culture where a Ranger Chaplain provides Biblical resources for suicide and, for doing so, gets a career-threatening “letter of concern” from a Ranger Colonel?

Vietnam veteran Col. Ronald D. Ray (USMC, Ret) has been following this decline over the last three decades. From his defense of Michael New, who rightly refused to wear United Nations insignia, to his defense of Virginia Military Institute, which came under attack for their pre-meal prayer, Col. Ray is not surprised by the recent developments.

“None of our founding fathers would have supported this. Our military was founded to uphold our highest virtues. What else is a Chaplain supposed to do? This is a suicide prevention class and a chaplain provides Biblical references. He was doing his job.”

Our military is at an impasse. An institution that once reinforced the best of American virtues is turning chaplains into a secular social workers; an institution that, for 200 years, enthusiastically welcomed the Christian is now pushing that very Christian out of the service.

This is out of character for a military that has a time-honored track record of supporting the Christian consensus that made America exceptional. At First Principles Press, we have amassed a collection of prayers and exhortations by our Founding Fathers, military leaders, and Presidents: Endowed By Their Creator.

Here is an example of a prayer from that collection, that was once a part of the West Point Prayer Book:

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage;
We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a
people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land
with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save
us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance,
and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one
united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds
and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy
Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be
justice and peace at home, and that, through the obedience to thy law,
we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In
the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the
day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail, all which we ask
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Even the hardest of hardcore Generals, Lt. Gen. George Patton, provided similar leadership in prayer:

God of our Fathers, who by land and sea has ever led us on to
victory, please continue Your inspiring guidance in this the greatest
of our conflicts.

Strengthen my soul so that the weakening instinct of self-
preservation, which besets all of us in battle, shall not blind me to
my duty to my own manhood, to the glory of my calling, and to my
responsibility to my fellow soldiers.

Grant to our armed forces the disciplined valor and mutual
confidence which insures success in war.
Let me not mourn for men who have died fighting, but rather
let me be glad that such heroes have lived.

If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a
manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please,
O Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind.

Give us the victory, O Lord. Amen.

At the end of World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur–a Five Star General–called on Americans to send Christian missionaries to Japan.

In other words, at this time, a Ranger chaplain is under assault for providing counsel that is totally in line with the heritage of The United States Military Academy, and the spirit in which great generals–from Washington to Patton and MacArthur–led our Armed Forces to their greatest victories in the worst of conflicts.

Reclaiming that heritage from a small, but noisy and well-funded cadre of scoffers, will be key to American survival.

The NYPD Shootings and the Character of Our Nation

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The Rev. Al Sharpton has a longstanding career as a rabble-rouser whose rants have led to fatalities. His actions in the wake of an accidental death at Crown Heights led to the stabbing death of Yankel Rosenbaum, and his incitations against Freddie’s Fashion Mart, which led to the deaths of seven employees in a fire started by a rioter.

In the aftermath of the police shooting in Ferguson, the Grand Jury heard a large volume of evidence, sifted out truthful testimony while comparing it with forensic evidence, and decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson. Sharpton, who had riled up the masses in the weeks leading to the Grand Jury decision, made a tepid effort to stanch the angst.

In a recent police case in New York City, which left a man dead, a Grand Jury also refused to indict. Sharpton again failed to speak forcefully against rioters, and New York mayor Bil de Blasio gave a speech that heaped disgust on the New York Police Department.

Against this backdrop, on Saturday, December 20, 2014, a troubled man in Maryland shot his ex-girlfriend, posted a desire to “put wings on pigs (policemen)”, and lashed out against the recent police cases in Ferguson and New York City. He went to New York and gunned down two policemen before killing himself.

In the wake of these incidents, many Americans have attacked the “militarization” of the police force, with some libertarians tacitly supporting the deaths of the two officers.

This is indeed a time for sober assessment.

First, irrespective of what one thinks of the Brown case in Ferguson or the Garner case in New York City, we must begin with reality: in each case, a Grand Jury returned “no true bill”; i.e., decided NOT to indict.

Like trial (petit) jurors, grand jurors are first selected at random.

Unlike petit jurors, Grand Jurors are not prejudicially screened out. In a criminal trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys will eliminate jurors through the voir doir process: they will exclude jurors whom they believe may be adverse. Some defense attorneys and prosecutors will even enlist consultants who will screen out jurors who may be problematic.

This is not the case with Grand Juries: provided they meet the legal criteria, they get to serve. They are not questioned about their knowledge of particular cases, or what they think of various issues, or even what they do for a living.

Unlike petit jurors–who must remain silent while prosecutors and defense attorneys fight it out with witnesses–Grand Jurors have the capacity to directly question witnesses. They can even compel witnesses to testify. They can ask direct questions of prosecutors.

Unlike petit jurors, Grand Jurors do not decide on issues of guilt or innocence; they merely decide whether the evidence warrants having a trial.

Unlike petit jurors, who must unanimously judge “guilt beyond reasonable doubt” in order to convict, Grand Jurors only have to determine–with 9 votes out of 12–whether there is enough evidence for “probable cause”.

So when a Grand Jury refuses to indict, that is a very big deal: they are effectively saying that there is no case.

Let us not forget that the Grand Jury is a major part of the Constitutional right to Due Process. However you feel about the shooting in Ferguson, or the fracas that led to Garner’s death in New York City, the officers involved have rights. The Fifth Amendment reads the same without respect to skin color or station in life:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

This means that, unless you are in a military capacity, in which the Uniform Code of Military Justice applies, then you are entitled to a particular course of Due Process. The burden is on government to prove your guilt, not on you to prove your innocence. It also means that you cannot be tried for the same crime twice. You have the right not to testify. (Officers go to great lengths to advise you of those rights when you are arrested.)

In other words, (1) freedom is your default state, (2) government cannot take that away except through Due Process, and (3) it is on them to prove you guilty.

This goes for you and me; this goes for the rich executive and the homeless man; this goes for the gangster and the police officer.

Secondly, words mean things. When Michael Brown’s stepfather, in the wake of the Grand Jury decision, said, “burn this bitch down,” that inflamed and already angry mob. The ensuing damage to Ferguson will reverberate for years. Sharpton, di Blasio, and President Obama tacitly granted legitimacy to rioters where no such legitimacy was warranted.

Rather than call out thugs and marginalize them, certain political leaders only emboldened them. This not only damages minorities; it divides Americans where such division is unproductive and destructive.

Thirdly, don’t blame the police for enforcing bad laws. Libertarians are right to be outraged that New York police officers are cracking down on the sale of unauthorized cigarettes (“loosies”). This, however, is not the fault of the police, but rather the mayor and the city council and the officials who made the law and enacted the policy for enforcement of the law. Police officers are merely instruments of policy.

New York is already a Draconian regime, given their tax structure and hostility toward gun owners. That they crack down on “loosies” is hardly surprising. This, however, is not the fault of the police.

Finally, what kind of nation do we wish to be?

Paul Harvey often said that self-rule is impossible without self-discipline. An integral part of self-discipline is the integrity to call evil for what it is. While no one wants to say that his or her child is bad, we need to be brutally honest: there are men and women of ill repute, who–for all the talk of how “good” they are–are thugs and felons.

When an armed robber fights an officer for his gun and gets shot to death, it isn’t “injustice”; it is the Law of Sowing and Reaping on live display. Fighting another adult over a deadly weapon can make one…dead.

In all the talk about “society”, we need to be honest about the factors contributing to the criminal class in America: illegitimacy, cohabitation, broken homes, promiscuity, and even drug use. We must call out a Church that has softened her preaching of truth.

This is not a poverty issue; it is a character issue. John Adams said it succinctly: “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

That is not to say that there aren’t bad cops out there; police officers are like any other segment of America: most are good, some are excellent, and yes, there are a few bad ones. The bad ones should be rooted out and dismissed and/or prosecuted.

Still, the larger issue is our character as a nation.

Election 2014 and Endless War: Buchanan’s Prescient Warning

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The Republican victory of November 4 was a summary dismissal of the Obama agenda by the American people. From runaway deficit spending, to the health care disaster that is Obamacare, to a rudderless, bumbling, reactionary foreign policy, Americans overwhelmingly voted against this administration, but will there be a new direction?  And does a new direction include new wars?

That is a poignant question that Pat Buchanan asks, and with good reason. No matter who wins the elections, there is a perennial element that seeks to engage in wars. Our first President, George Washington, warned Americans about the dangers of foreign entanglements in his farewell address. President Eisenhower, in his farewell address, warned Americans about the dangers of the military-industrial complex.

On September 10, 2001, President Bush’s biggest headache was the menacing recession in the wake of the dot-com bust, but 8:45AM on September 11, 2001, his priorities radically changed.

While sending armed forces after the parties responsible for the attacks is perfectly legitimate—although Congress did not formally declare war, its Constitutional responsibility—since when did the mission of America’s military become one of nation-building? 

We toppled the Taliban within weeks, but have spent the last 13 years in Afghanistan, attempting to establish a first-world government, rooted in a Christian understanding of law and justice, among an Islamic people with an 8th-century mindset.

Whereas the Soviet Union wasted a decade trying to impose communism on Afghanistan, President Bush, emboldened by his cadre of neoconservatives, took on the mission of imposing a Jefferson-Franklin style Constitutional republic on a people having no Christian consensus to make it work. To date, 2,347 Americans have died in Afghanistan.

In 2003, Bush, again with a vision drawn by the likes of neocons—Perle, Wolfowitz, Abrams, and Rice—embarked on an elective war in Iraq, a nation carved out in the aftermath of World War I. While Saddam Hussein toppled in short order, we created a power vacuum that violent Islamic factions quickly filled. By 2005, Sunnis and Shiites were engaged in open civil war, long after we declared an end to “major hostilities”. Ultimately, 4,491 Americans died in Iraq.

The removal of military forces from Iraq, as well as our support of Syrian rebels battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, have given birth to a menacing new Islamic group—the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)–which has overrun most of Iraq. Today, Iraq is struggling to survive the onslaught of ISIS, whereas the Taliban controls Afghanistan just as they did on September 10, 2001. President Obama, who marketed himself as an anti-war President in 2008, has now committed more than 3,000 “military advisors” to Iraq to combat ISIS.

The Middle East is worse-off today than on September 10, 2001. And much of the blame for this rests firmly on the backs of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Against this backdrop, Buchanan rightly questions the wisdom of the neocons who from their foxholes in US think tanks promote military action against Iran and increased saber-rattling with Russia.

Whatever his faults, Russian President Vladimir Putin is exerting the same influence in his region that the United States has influenced in her hemisphere. If Europeans consider Putin a threat, then they can take it up with him; it’s none of our concern. War with Russia is about the worst idea on the table: two nuclear powers engaging in the very escalated conflict that we won by avoiding in the Cold War. To paraphrase Clancy (Red Storm Rising), neither side can win, but both sides can lose.

As for Iran, while the Islamic regime is not friendly toward the United States, their having nuclear weapons would hardly be without precedent in that region, as India, Pakistan, Russia, and Israel—each within a stone’s throw of Iran—are nuclear powers. Nor would a nuclear Iran be the only country hostile to the United States to have such weapons, as North Korea has them, and Pakistan and Russia, at best, are “frienemies”. And while Khameini and Rouhani are hardly the stable, pro-Western leaders we would prefer in Iran, they are perfectly rational compared to the Kim regime in North Korea. 

For all their noise, Iran is not a viable threat to the security of the United States. If they are a threat to Israel, then Israel can fight them. It is hardly our job to fight Israel’s wars. To suggest otherwise has no Biblical precedent.  The church must decide “who” or “what” is Israel – real estate or a person/people. 

As ugly as the Cold War was, our victory was possible in no small part due to President Reagan’s ability to pick his battles wisely.

Reagan held a hard line, even as he welcomed Russian President Gorbachev to the table. Reagan built a military capable of defending our borders without engaging in unwise brinkmanship with our enemies. In the aftermath of the Marine barracks bombing in 1983, Reagan wisely chose not to become entangled in the bottomless pit of war in the Middle East. Instead, he focused on the real threat: the Soviet Union.

On January 20, 1989, President Reagan left office with a Cold War victory, and with a Middle East that was no worse than when he took office. He did not allow hawks of the day to draw him into endless wars.

Just as Americans dismissed the Obama agenda on November 4, they must also dismiss the corrosive agenda of the neocons.

They have cost Americans more in lives and dollars than the September 11 hijackers.

Against this backdrop, Buchanan rightly questions the wisdom of the Neocons who from their foxholes in US think tanks promote military action against Iran and increased saber-rattling with Russia.  He cites in particular the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, whose leaders were given generous space to promote their war-mongering in the Wall Street Journal.  The Foundation is highly funded by a small billionaires club who would buy U.S. foreign policy to start a preemptive nuclear war against Iran and Syria.  Who are these billionaires?  Buchanan names Home Depot’s Bernard Marcus who gave $10.7 million, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer who gave $3.6 million, and Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas-Macau casino kingpin, who gave  $1.5 million to the foundation.  It is naive indeed to believe that making the whole world a democracy will solve centuries of violence and hatred that are inbred in Middle East dictatorships. But when you put that many millions behind it, the idea gains traction no matter how ill conceived.