By
Thomas McInerney LTG USAF (Ret) Class of 59’
Paul E Vallely MG USA (Ret) Class of 61’
Andrew P. O’Meara, Jr., Col., USA (Ret.) Class of 59’
Americans have a long tradition of self-sacrifice to make men free. From the time of the Pilgrims to the pioneers opening the frontier, work, and self-sacrifice have been the chief endeavors of the American people. Pioneers cleared the land, built cabins, hunted game, tilled the soil, harvested crops, and raised families on the frontier. When America’s young men went to war, they needed no introduction to rigorous physical labor. They were accustomed to hard work and sacrifice. It was their joy, means of survival, and measure of success.
Americans came into being through revolution. The American Revolution was fought to free King George III's subjects from the English Monarchy's tyranny. American colonials initially sought nothing more than their rights as Englishmen. When both Parliament and the King unanimously rejected their right to representation in Parliament, Americans were forced to embrace independence as the only way to secure their rights as free men.
If England refused to treat Americans as equals, there was no alternative to revolution. Only as free men could Americans fulfill their dreams of nation-building. Their struggle for freedom resulted in a just war to build an independent Republic dedicated to individual liberty, the rule of law, and government by and for the people.
The great Civil War followed the American Revolution. It was the product of conflict between the freemen of the frontier and southern slaveholders. The conflict was many years in the making. It was predicted by the Declaration of Independence, penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 that all men are created equal. Jefferson’s bold words judged slavery as intolerable in a free society.
The institution of slavery in America had been the work of the English Crown. Slavery existed on large English plantations in Ireland before establishing slave plantations in America. Plantation slavery and the English monopoly of the slave trade to English colonies in America were protected by law. Both utilized human bondage and were highly profitable, making fortunes for the English Crown and the English landed gentry.
Human bondage did not sit well with frontiersmen, who cherished their liberty. It rankled freemen like Abraham Lincoln. Furthermore, it was forbidden by the Declaration of Independence, which made conflict unavoidable. Abraham Lincoln ran for president on a platform calling for the abolition of slavery. With Lincoln’s election as president in 1860, war was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before the commencement of hostilities.
The Civil War was fought by Union soldiers, who sang the words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men free. William Tecumseh Sherman’s soldiers believed they had a duty to free black slaves from human bondage. They burned Atlanta, fought battles, burned plantations, built roads across vast swamps, and liberated black slaves across the Confederacy. Sherman’s soldiers believed they were doing God’s will, which made them invincible. Their example showed that American soldiers were prepared to accept self-sacrifice in the struggle for freedom. They saw their cause as the epitome of good versus evil.
In World War I, Americans fought to make the world safe for democracy. Determined to remain neutral during the early years of the War, Americans refused to enter the conflict. When the British intercepted a German diplomatic cable, the Zimmerman Telegram, American attitudes changed overnight. Detailing German efforts to ally with Mexico, the German telegram promised the Mexican Government American territories that had been part of Mexico. The publication of the Zimmerman Telegram, coupled with the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, brought the Americans into the war.
Americans saw themselves as the victims of German aggression. They accepted the War as the price of justice. The War was a just cause. Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, American soldiers went off to fight in France singing – We won’t come back until it is over, over there.
Similarly, World War II was seen as a just cause. Nazi Germany declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Germany had waged war on its European neighbors, committing massive crimes against humanity killing over six million Jews. The American war against the Third Reich became a war against fascism to free occupied allies and liberate Jews incarcerated in Death Camps throughout Greater Germany that had expanded to include captured lands (Lebensraum) taken by the Nazis during the conflict.
World War II in the Pacific was more of the same – good against evil. It was a conflict to combat genocidal warfare by Imperial Japan across Asia. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the Americans into the War as victims of an undeclared and unprovoked attack upon the US Naval base of the Pacific Fleet by the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Once again, American men and women in uniform fought for a just cause. It was a pattern repeated in the post-war era as America fought containment wars to halt communist aggression in Korea, Vietnam, and Latin America. Communist regimes were exporting communism using military force. The UN, NATO, SEATO, and Americans in uniform were called upon to confront and halt Communist aggression.
It was a repetition of the American tradition of combating evil to restore peace in a dangerous world. American soldiers were idealistic and God-fearing warriors prepared to sacrifice so that justice might prevail and God’s will be done. So long as the cause was just, American soldiers demonstrated a remarkable ability to wage war for the greater good of mankind.
Regrettably, under Democratic leadership, opportunistic politicians have changed the ancient formula of Americans fighting just wars for causes. New precedents separated American foreign policy from the idealistic purposes it traditionally served. The ancient, traditional American formula of serving causes was replaced by anything goes by corrupt politicians, who became millionaires serving in public office.
Following the Cold War with the Soviet Union, America waged limited wars in the Balkans and the Middle East. To the extent the conflicts targeted terrorism, the wars appeared to have been just. When the causation was uncertain, the outcome was mixed. The Clinton Administration elected to wage war in the Balkans. The war was a religious conflict that dates to the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. That an American administration elected to fight in a religious war on the side of Islamic state sponsors of terrorism against Christian communities meant the American-led conflict was something other than a just war. We were waging war against Western Civilization.
When uncertainty prevails, American blood and treasure should not be invested in uncertain wars. The same might be said of wars to export democracy to Islamic states in the Middle East. Since democracy conflicts with Sharia Law, exporting democracy as justification for intervention in conflicts between Islamic states appears unfortunate at best. Such ill-advised actions provoked retaliation against defenseless civilians when Sharia Law was restored.
Today, Americans support Ukrainians in a war against Russia. It is a war without US national interests that is typically the basis of US foreign policy. On the contrary, the battle appears to be a cynical use of US power by the Democrats in control to conceal widespread evidence of bribery, money laundering, illegal biological warfare research, and corruption by previous administrations.
Regrettably, the bad news doesn’t end there. Under contemporary Democratic leadership, the US armed forces have been imbued with Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness. Both policies are rooted in Marxist-Leninist doctrine that is socialist, anti-democratic, anti-American, and secular humanist in nature.
The Biden regime has made no secret that it rejects the US Constitution as outdated and lacking the force of law. Furthermore, the Administration plainly asserts that the free-market economy is socially unjust and must be transformed into a socialist economy. In so doing, America has gone to war against our national heritage as a Judeo-Christian culture of Western Civilization. America is no longer on the side of the living God of Abraham, Isaach, and Jacob.
Today's WOKE service of politically correct American general officers on active duty includes multiple crimes best described as treason. They include the conduct of military training that is unconstitutional, un-American, racist, secular, and pro-communist. Their behavior appears to manifest the evil Americans have fought against throughout the Cold War. It is a cause that cannot be called a just cause.
America has lost its way. Socialism does not work. Communism is fundamentally evil. (See Liberty Vs. Tyranny.) Serving in uniform for unconstitutional rogue administrations for malicious ends is evil. American soldiers have never fought for evil. They are unlikely to do so now. Moreover, soldiers who carry out illegal orders are guilty of crimes under the UCMJ. If unconstitutional campaigns are waged, we should not expect American soldiers to comply with unlawful orders despite Constitutionally prohibited training in Marxist Leninist doctrine. To do so would be treason.
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