World War III

There was a time when we thought we knew what World War III would look like. In 1954-55, I was a nineteen-year-old Field Artillery Operations & Intelligence Specialist (Forward Observer) with a unit of the Seventh Army in West Germany. Our job was to patrol the hills and mountains along the high barbed wire fences that separated our part of the world from that of the Soviet Union. We aimed our Howitzers at Soviet troop concentrations and just sat back to await the start of World War III. 

But now that World War III, a.k.a. the War on Terror, is upon us, it looks nothing like the conventional war we envisioned a half century ago. In our earlier wars – World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam – the front lines were thousands of miles from our shores. But World War III is far different. Today the invaders come, not with guns drawn or with bombs strapped to their bodies, but with hatred in their eyes and in their hearts. They pour across our unguarded borders and they arrive at every port of entry in our country. The fronts in this war are here, in our cities and towns, right in our own neighborhoods. 

But what is so tragic about this war is that, not only do we face the most ruthless enemy we’ve ever faced, we find them aided and abetted by a home-grown fifth column consisting of most members of the liberal media, nearly every leader of the Democratic Party, a few key employees of our principal intelligence agencies, and even a small number of disgruntled retired military leaders. 

If we were a unified nation; if our children were taught about the greatness of America and what it is that makes us great; if our people knew with certainty who we are and what we stand for; if our media were fair, honest, and impartial; if our colleges and universities were institutions of higher learning, as opposed to propaganda factories for leftist ideology; and if both of our political parties put God and country ahead of victory at the ballot box, we might yet win World War III. 

But these are some very big “ifs.” We are not a unified nation. There is more raw hatred and divisiveness in the political arena today, almost all of it emanating from the political left, than at any time since the Civil War. 

Our children graduate from our public schools with little knowledge of mathematics and the sciences, little knowledge of American history or world geography, and barely able to read or write the English language.   

Our people zealously defend their right to vote, but most enter the voting booths with only a superficial understanding of the issues and with little or no knowledge of the candidates who seek to represent them. 

Our print and electronic media promote a leftist political agenda and do everything in their power to prevent us from hearing or reading an alternative point of view. 

The ivied halls of our colleges and universities are populated with faculty who see themselves, not as teachers, but as the intelligentsia of some future “new world order.” 

One of our two major political parties, the Democratic Party, seeks to capitalize on all of our dysfunctional behavior as their ticket for a return to power.  

But most importantly, we have a Republican administration that appears unwilling to hear what the people are saying, unwilling to prosecute those who disclose classified information critical to fighting the War on Terror, and uncertain whether to do what is best for the country, or what may be most advantageous, politically.   

Members of the U.S. Senate have been under FBI investigation for nearly three years for illegally disclosing classified information to the press, but with no charges being filed. Current and past employees of the CIA, former officials of the Clinton Administration, are under investigation for leaking details of NSA surveillance programs to the media, yet the Bush Justice Department seems incapable of producing either indictments or convictions.

In the meantime, after years of political pressure from members of his own party, the president has proposed to put 6,000 National Guard troops on our southern border – but with instructions not to challenge those entering the country illegally. 

The American people want our ports of entry policed and controlled, they want those who would harm us deported, and they want those who engage in treasonous activities prosecuted and imprisoned.  If our elected official fail to do these things the people should replace them – Republicans and Democrats alike.