The War On Liberty

- John 15:13

Missouri has honored one of our own, Marine Lance Corporal Jared Marcus Schmitz, who was killed on Thursday, August 26 as the result of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.  The body of Corpsman Schmitz returned home to Wentzville on Wednesday and was interred today, September 11, 2021. We honor the sacrifice of our native son and his fellows and offer our condolences to their families, friends, and communities.  This scenario is playing out around the nation for the twelve other service members whose ultimate sacrifices in that attack are also mourned and honored.

We are reminded that there is no substance on earth more costly than blood.  It is at once the currency of liberty and the cost of tyranny.  Which we shall have depends on what we will learn from this tragic event.  In the reflections to follow, should we not ask what this experience tells us about the plight of our Republic and its trajectory?

Our youth in uniform will go where they are sent and do what they are trained well to do.  Eventually, they also must return.  But isn't something very wrong in the world when the cost outweighs the benefit, when they return in caskets, or mentally, emotionally, physically broken?   There are many questions to be asked, somber ones, as on this day, we also remember the events of twenty years ago, September 11, 2001.  All of us who witnessed that day have that experience seared into our collective memories.

Our national loss also saw the beginning of not only a War on Terror, but a War on Liberty.  Can we deny this?  Do we feel freer today than we did on September 10, 2001?  Have 20 years of war in the Middle East made Americans progressively more free?  You and I already know the answer.  Almost every safeguard imbedded in the Constitution and every protection of the Bill or Rights is being blatantly ignored or recklessly abridged.

Is this the result we've sacrificed our sons and daughters in uniform for?  Was it worth burying sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers – a few among the latest who will never see their soon-to-be firstborns? Let's awaken to our awful situation and realize that all of us, in and out of uniform are the makers of our past, present and future. What we except from those we elect is what we can expect and if we don't like the result, thirteen lost service members in our last hours in Afghanistan, 2400 in that country since its occupation and over 7000 since this “War on Terror” (and these are just the fatalities), then maybe… just maybe, it’s time to cleanse the inner vessel!

Probably the most decorated Marine in history, Smedley Butler, has a few words of insight from his own experience:

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

“I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

“I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.”

• Smedley Butler on Interventionism ( Excerpt from speech given in 1933 )
  Author of War Is A Racket – 1935

Dear Friends of Liberty, if this isn’t the America you recognize from before 2001 or even since the last 18 months, then you already know that what we’re really experiencing is the War on Liberty.  There is a war on our rights to speech, religion, assembly, and self-defense; against our property and the protection against unreasonable search and seizure; and even against your local self-governance.  Why?  Because those who hate the Constitution know that, even in its embattled condition, it still stands in the way of complete unfettered tyranny in America!

That seems like bad news, and it is.  The effort might seem futile, and it may be.  There is no political solution for what plagues America today.  A nation that has rejected “…the firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence...” which created it, is far overdue for a spiritual revival.   If there is any good news at all, it is that the Constitution still has teeth, enforcement teeth that we can use today.  While the current state of affairs looks like an in-your-face provocation, as if to say, “Watcha gonna do about it?”  Well, there is something we can do about it, and if we run out of time before the cleansing comes, maybe we can still save something of it.

Our Liberty Teeth – Part One was posted in July outlining the foundations of the power the people poses in our republic.  Our Liberty Teeth – Part Two, will be posted on Constitution Day - Friday, September 17 at noon with more answers on what we must to advance the cause of liberty.   We’ve recognized, honored and mourned for our fallen heroes. Let us now pick up the banner, persuade with our pens, inspire with our words, engage with our actions and supplicate with our prayers to reclaim the Republic.  It’s our turn!

                           “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”