Special Report: Times That Try Men’s Souls

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These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us - that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right not only to tax but "to bind us in all cases whatsoever," and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. Thomas Paine – 1776

Who would have thought two short years ago that the American people would be discussing revolutions in a somewhat serious context. The two revolutions most discussed are the American Revolution of which Founding Father, Thomas Paine gave us the above quotation from his pamphlets “The Crisis Papers.” The other revolution in this country relates to the Vietnam War, the last period of critical social distress. The important reference from that era that related directly to today is, “You Don’t Need a Weatherman To Know Which Way the Wind Blows.”

Adding to the national angst is the reality of actual wars. The Iraq War is in the process of hopefully winding down to a successful nation building operation. The War in Afghanistan is quite different. Iraq was a real nation in the twentieth century definition, at least since the end of WWII. The same cannot be said for Afghanistan, which is more akin to a historic tribal region, not successfully colonized by any western culture in its history.

Under the auspices of the War on Terror and after a traditional military invasion of Iraq the United States, became involved in a counterinsurgency to root out Al Qaeda, other foreign insurgents, and quench the historic conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

In Iraq and Iran the Shia are the majority of the population. In Afghanistan the numbers are reversed and the Taliban are essentially the Sunni insurgents to which the United States and a number of NATO allies, through the escalation of the Obama Administration, are now attempting to develop a successful counterinsurgency nation-building exercise.

For those interested in counterinsurgency warfare the following links will give you access to the military Field Manuals: FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency (282 pages - 13.6 MB) and FM 3-24.2 Tactics (300 pages - 9.3 MB)

Both Iraq and Afghanistan wars are propagated under the banner of the broader War on Terror, or other more politically correct term. These wars began in response to the radical Islamic attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, September 11, 2001. The Washington Post -Top Secret America series, disclosed last week the increase in American intelligence gathering operations after those attacks, while most people assumed that this was primarily a war of soldiers and resources in foreign lands. When discussing the magnitude of the buildup, the whole series is basically defined as an incomprehensible unknown redundancy of the recently generated missions to prevent further attacks.

Then Sunday the New York Daily News and the New York Times reported the largest leak of classified materials in intelligence history. Over 90,000 documents, related to Afghanistan are said to be included. As they say, this is a story that will have legs, for weeks, if not months, or years to come. Searching the cable news channels I quickly learned that the 24 hour news cycle doesn’t work on hot Sundays, in the middle of summer. I found nothing other than the above online stories, cable shows were either on tape, in the can, or on the hard drive, except for some reporters reading pre-produced scripts.

Where do we begin?

For most of the history of human societies there is something that occurs that almost always results in death. That word hasn’t been used in the United States seriously for probably half a century. That word is “Treason.” In case you have trouble with the concept it is spelled T - R - E - A - S - O - N. If you don’t know what it means, look it up, that way the meaning will be written into your memory.

Paine speaks from history of “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.” Following that reasoning he continues rapidly into thoughts and places that today are without meaning, without any context from where to begin. Our world is conceived in comfort and fashioned from slothfulness. We think we know it all, but really know nothing, other than regurgitated lines some producer has placed on a teleprompter, and read by some luminary that is paid handsomely to express elementary school stories as if he, or she, knew what they were talking about. We remember some of it, we make it our own, and life goes on.

Looking back on my life the most difficult internal struggle I can remember related to whether I could kill another human being. That is a question that, I may wrongly assume, that must be ask of anyone about to enter the military. Killing is the nature of the brute. Growing up I was not a fighter in the normal terms, because of my size, I pretty much got a free pass. But winning or never having to fight is not the same. Then at some unknown place and some unknown time, the killing decision was made and I have never looked back. Faced with the ultimate choice between you and me, you are dead and I will live. It is that simple.

Reading the windy underground manifesto above, I found myself reliving some long buried thoughts of the times. The Vietnam era, was a time, similar to today, which try the souls of thinking human beings. It is part of our God given human nature. The authors of this variation on the Little Red Book, were truly sincere. I assume those who are still alive remain true to their cause. Their work however does not fit with the military KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) but rather the more convoluted SUCICI (pronounced “suc-ki-I” and standing for So Utterly Complex It’s Completely Impossible).

As I read however, I quickly recalled that my military intelligence training made me an enemy of their revolution. Thankfully our discussions, in secure areas of our military postings in Germany, revolved around taking our Nikon cameras to protest rallies back home and looking for spies. By the time I got back to the states, most of the more intense protest hubbub was dying down.

During our training before deployment to the Vietnamese European Front however, in our intelligence training we were briefed on communications intercepts from some of the larger and more violent protest rallies then taking place. What was amazing is that there really was not any difference from the radio chatter on our side, and the same among the protesters. How they were able to achieve such level of communications sophistication and who supplied that technology was beyond our need to know. But we did get a good idea of the restraint that the government imposed upon itself, to allow Americans to express their opinions.

So in the course of trying times where is the United States of America today?

I would say we have entered truly a new time, therefore I have used the Paine quote. Our times are driven more by true economic conditions rather than concepts of freedom and liberty. Just like Esau in the Old Testament, commonly we have sold that birthright long ago for a bowl of savory lentil soup. We will again deal with those economic conditions on our Wednesday post. However, just like in the days of the true American Revolution, these days will be driven by the specific will of God to achieve his purposes, not only in the United States but around the world.

For a long time I have used the concept of social darwinism to describe the current dominant religion of the self defined elite classes of world society. Most of us had thought that the marxists of the twentieth century were extinct. Little did we know that they had been pushed underground into academia there to relive past glories of perceived victories of their evolving worldview. Too bad the real future of marxism was sealed in Russia during the Russian Revolution. So now an aging former KGB agent, tries to direct change in a manner opposite centuries of repression of the individual Russian citizen. The impossible takes a little longer.

Thanks to Alan Greenspan, we in the States have experienced a conflicting evolving worldview of Objectivism. Individuals like that form of social darwinism much better, it makes us rich without imposing any moral code other than, “I help myself, because nobody is willing to stop me!”

Because we like it so much, God has given us leaders that makes us view our prosperity as our own. We however have reached the point where we have been weighed in the balance and found our side without mass. We blame Obama or praise him, in turn Obama and his followers blame Bush, while others again reflect on past material glories.

What is missing is an unwillingness to understand the conflict, the war, taking place not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but here in the heartland of North America. That does mean however, that those learning experiences and the grace of God alone, may keep real bullets at bay.

“Top Secret America” states that there over 854,000 people in the United States with Top Secret security clearances. The total number of Taliban in Afghanistan has probably been leaked in the recently disclosed classified documents. Just like the Weather Underground, our Intelligence networks have become SUCICI. This may mean we can assign two or three agents to track each individual Taliban, Al Qaeda, Islamic or marxist radical, and terrorist wherever they may be.

In history counterinsurgencies don’t work that well, simply because they counter natural law. In essence counterinsurgencies offer individuals security as a free gift of grace from the collective good. In our nation-state world, that security comes from the central government and its fiduciaries.

Naturally however, humans understand, which Paine points out so well, freedom and liberty are an inalienable right of every human being, whether that gift can be exercised in this life or not. Furthermore it is natively and commonly understood that the maintenance of that freedom finds its collective community much closer to home, in family and in “primitive” tribal regions, than in nation-states. The gift of that true freedom means intrinsically more than cashflow and a satellite antenna on the roof.

Hence, insurgencies have a much higher level of success. The American Revolution was probably the most successful and lasting insurgency in history. Contrary to revised history, that success was totally based upon individual initiative to create security greater than the individual’s self sufficiency, yet tensioned against it. Even Castro’s success in Cuba began within such a framework, only to be hijacked by Castro’s marxist collectivism.

During times that try men’s souls, it must be understood that our security is not based on our wishful thinking, but on an actual gift of God’s grace that extends well beyond religious faith and hence is the basis for sustainable social change. It is the hardness of man’s heart, or as Luther said, “Bondage of the Will” that causes all the ill.

If you take the six hundred pages of counterinsurgency field manuals, the 90,000 leaked security documents, the weather blowing report, Top Secret America and condense them all into a concise simple message you end up with something similar to: War is about controlling chaos, and those who control chaos and replace it with order, are always the victors.

That is true beyond our limited view of time, as well as within. If chaos control and replacement with order is the mission, then the use of bullets can be replaced with ideas and human potential limited only by God and not limited human understanding. The long lasting success of the American republic was that it uniquely captured the ordering process of God’s creation and adapted it into the natural order of a successful human nation. That was, is, and will remain a God induced reality come what may.