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The bitterest Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, retired USMC LTC Max Morton memorializes the lost Republic, and the warriors our new oligarchy has betrayed.

When I talk about members of the military who I served with, I purposely use the term warrior. Despite the social deconstruction du jour, the purpose of the military is to conduct war. Clausewitz famously stated, “war is the continuation of politics by other means,” and that other means is fighting and killing the enemy. If you think sending your military to war to do anything other than kill your enemy is acceptable, realistic, or moral, you are a dangerous fool who has no understanding or regard for the myriad disturbing consequences of half-assed armed conflict. So nouveau U.S. Army commercials and Navy wokeism comedy aside, the purpose of the military is to kill the enemy, and the people who do that killing are warriors.

Like many in flyover country, I come from a family with a tradition of military service, some of us were the proverbial lifers and others single-hitch patriots, so the concept of service and sacrifice is ingrained into our psyche. For our family, having to give your life in service to your country was always a possibility. Within that context, Memorial Day, for me, has been not just a remembrance but an acknowledgement of the outcome associated with that risk…that is until this year.

When I look at America, the way it is today, I wonder if any of the killing and dying was worth it. America today is run by someone, we’re not really sure who, and every part of its culture and history is being deconstructed.

The Constitution is not even a speed bump to a new class of oligarchs and tyrants who are in the process of “reimagining” America as a giant Eveready battery to power their globalist business interests. Clearly half the country no longer believes in ideals like individual liberty, freedom, free speech, live-and-let-live, the Golden Rule, or tolerance.

What happened? If I could go back in time and talk to my dead friends and comrades who fell in service to America, what would they say? Would they still have volunteered? Would they still have put their lives on the line for this? Because this is pretty much nothing like the way of life I know they signed up to defend. This is an abomination. This is something I expect they would fight against.

It’s a near-certainty that, before very much longer, they will get their chance.

To paraphrase my colleague Angelo Codevilla, what’s happening now in America is not a perversion or aberration, it’s an assertion of power. What we are seeing is the transformation of America from a free and sovereign nation accountable to the citizens, to a vassal state coalition of oligarchs and rogue national security bureaucrats sympathetic to, if not outright supportive of, China’s global hegemony. Who is really on top in this relationship has yet to be determined. Is it the bureaucrats in service to the oligarchs, or is it the oligarchs backing a rogue bureaucracy? Either way, in the words of the late, great George Carlin, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”

The current regime likes to talk about the domestic extremist danger to “our democracy.” What they really mean is that traditional Americans are a threat to their transformation of America away from a sovereign nation-state to some form of authoritarian oligarchy.

Too many Americans fail to understand the very real threat to their lives, liberty, and pursuit of happiness posed by a regime that holds this belief. Unfortunately, Americans seem to be waiting for a white knight or some divine miracle to roll back the regime’s ongoing transformation of America. The truth is, that old America, the one you grew up in, the one you think of as normal, doesn’t exist anymore. It’s gone, and it isn’t coming back.

Whether the current regime is backed by an oligarchy-supported deep state bureaucracy, or a deep state bureaucracy supported by China-sympathetic oligarchs, the clear and present danger to every traditional American is centered in Washington, D.C.

On this Memorial Day, I will be thinking of my friends and comrades who made the ultimate sacrifice, and I’m not afraid to say that some of those memories will be difficult. But I know that their beliefs and the way of life that motivated them to serve as warriors still exists. It exists in every defiant American who refuses to bend the knee to the tyrant. It exists in every American who still believes in liberty, freedom, and equal justice under law. It exists in those who yearn for the self-determination of a republic. I think that’s worth fighting for, and I think there are others out there across America who believe the same.

Then they will be forced to confront the cold, hard nut of the matter: that “fighting for it” does in fact mean fighting for it—as opposed to speechifying about it, politicking for it, or voting it back into existence. Reclaiming our liberty and restoring some facsimile of our former Republic can only be done the old-fashioned way, the same way the Founders created it. Those valiant, indomitable men proclaimed their willingness to hazard “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” neither lightly nor unknowingly. They well knew what that pledge might bring down on their heads; when they pronounced themselves free and independent, they said exactly what they meant, and they meant exactly what they said. They signed the Declaration fully aware that the price of fulfillment for their mutual pledge was payable exclusively in blood, ruin, and death. They did it anyway. They risked all, sacrificed much, and won everything.

None but a purblind chucklehead could dare to dream that our Founders’ present-day heirs might secure such a lustrous prize for themselves at a discount rate. With every word of delusional drivel asserting the existence of a way to redeem their loss at only trifling physical expense, another entry is stamped into the “UNWORTHY” side of freedom’s ledger.

None of which in any way tarnishes the men for whom Memorial Day was established, of course. Lincoln probably said it best:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Beautiful words, which recent events have put a painful sting into. Our closer, from the incomparable Rudyard Kipling.

The Veterans
Written for the Gathering of Survivors the Indian Mutiny, Albert Hall, 1907

To-day, across our fathers’ graves,
The astonished years reveal
The remnant of that desperate host
Which cleansed our East with steel.

Hail and farewell! We greet you here,
With tears that none will scorn–
O Keepers of the House of old,
Or ever we were born!

One service more we dare to ask–
Pray for us, heroes, pray,
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the Day!

Amen.

10 thoughts on “The bitterest Memorial Day

  1. What was the inflection point when the U.S. government ceased being honest to its fighting men, to its citizens, and to itself? That question has many possible answers, but herewith allow me to suggest some possibilities.

    In the dawn of the Cold War, brilliant spymaster and polymath Sir William Stephenson, who had been Churchill’s trusted advisor and intelligence liaison to FDR, as well as head of British Security Coordination, ruminated upon the fate of western democracies following the Second World War. Having help create the vast and mostly secret super-state within the U.S. and Britain, Stephenson now asked whether the western democracies, the victors of the Second World War, would be able to keep the potent new espionage weapon they had created from being turned against the very people it was designed to protect. The great spymaster was referring to the enormous power and secrecy with which these new organizations were vested, the scant oversight under which they operated and the enormous moral hazards they posed for free and democratic societies.

    These were rhetorical questions in 1945, but only fifteen years later, they were very real indeed. General Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the military-industrial complex in his farewell address to the nation. In his book, “JFK and the Unspeakable,” author-historian James Douglass concludes that the young and charismatic president’s death came about because he spoke openly of curtailing the power of the deep-state, specifically with his pledges to end the Cold War with the USSR, and also to end the Federal Reserve. Kennedy was killed by rogue elements deep within the very government he was supposed to be leading,the CIA being the suspect most-often mentioned. Clearly, whomever was responsible for JFK’s death, the late chief executive had crossed someone with immense and hidden power.

    This event marked a crossing of the Rubicon. The public, through elected leaders, no longer controlled U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. had become what Israeli historian J.L. Talmon termed a “totalitarian democracy,” a polity in which the various visible appurtenances of representative government remain in place, i.e.,a chief executive, legislature, courts, etc. – but in which the population actually plays little part in how the nation is run on a day-to-day basis. The people were allowed to keep on believing that they ran the country via elections, but the deep-state was really the one in the driver’s seat.

    Vietnam and its aftermath cemented this state of affairs, and dug the deep-state in that much further with the petro-dollar agreement in the early 1970s. This largely secret negotiation between the U.S. government – specifically the Nixon-Kissinger regime – and the Sunni Arab oil states, concluded an arrangement whereby Saudi Arabia and OPEC agreed to do business only in USD (U.S. dollars), but in return, the U.S. would agree to defend these kingdoms against all threats, foreign or domestic. The U.S. central banks reaped billions in profits when they began “recycling” Arab oil revenues through them, and the Arabs also used their new-found wealth to hook the U.S. government on cheap money in the form of the purchase of U.S.government debt instruments such as T-Bills. Soon, the easy money convinced policymakers that balanced budgets were an anachronism no longer necessary and the national debt began skyrocketing.

    Within a remarkably short amount of time, the U.S. and her western allies began getting involved in war-after-war-after-intervention in the Middle East and SW Asia… Lebanon and Iran in the 1980s, GW One in the early 1990s and again in the early 2000s, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, etc.

    Why was this happening? Because the U.S. no longer controlled its own foreign policy; the Arabs and – to a lesser extent – the Israelis, did. The Saudi king had the POTUS on speed-dial, and if he called and said “Jump!,” the President had to ask “How high?” or risk losing the petro-dollar regime. An arrangement to which by now the federal government and central banks were quite addicted.

    Looking back at this history, it has been fifty years since the U.S. had something approaching an independent foreign policy, one determined by Americans for Americans, and something more like sixty years since the deep-state wrapped its tentacles around everything.

    The four-year interregnum of Donald Trump was remarkable for what it revealed about the deep-state – or “the swamp” as that man termed it – namely, how jealously it could guard its perceived prerogatives and the extent to which it was willing to go to protect them. Some observers have termed the deep-state embedded within the federal government as the largest and most-powerful criminal syndicate in history, and in certain respects, they are not far wrong.

    To coin a figure of speech, it is going to take a very big broom to clean up that mess….. if it can be cleaned up at all. DJT tried to drain the swamp and instead it swallowed him instead. To use a different metaphor, the deep-state is a many-headed hydra, and every time one head gets cut off, another one appears. How does one neutralize, let alone kill, such a beast?

    1. “How does one neutralize, let alone kill, such a beast?”

      One man cannot, not even as president. That requires a large number of Americans to stop doing what they want.

      While I think much of what you stated is conjecture, unprovable at best, there is no doubt the bureaucracy has become an entrenched deep state, used and run by unknown actors* against the interests of the American people.

      *with certainty anyway. chinese fingerprints are mingled in there as are those of some of the tech giant/billionaire class. Who is the head? IS there one?

      1. @ Barry

        Re: “While I think much of what you stated is conjecture, unprovable at best…”

        Pray tell, sir, please be specific…

        The petrodollar is a geopolitical fact which has been written and spoken about for decades as an acknowledged reality, both in and outside of the U.S. and both in and outside the oil business and the federal government.

        If you are referring to the discussion of the JFK assassination, conjecture is not necessarily out of place, provided it is well-informed and backed by evidence, such as it is. Sometimes,when piecing together an unsolved mystery – and that’s what we’re dealing with here – requires inferences, conjecture and even speculation until more hard evidence can be found. Alas, at this late date, the black-bag boys have covered their tracks so well, and so has the passage of time since 1963, that the JFK killing is likely to remain permanently in the cold-case file.

        I would close by stating that “proof” is one of those nebulous words that means different things to different people. There is ample proof that the public has not been told the truth about the death of JFK, provided of course that one is receptive to such information in the first place.

        Some people dismiss all conspiracy theories as being nonsensical, whereas others claim virtually everything falls into the category of being a conspiracy. The truth lies somewhere in between, in my estimation. To dismiss conspiracies as being far-fetched in every circumstance is to betray a startling naivete about human nature and man’s capacity for criminality and evil.

        1. “Kennedy was killed by rogue elements deep within the very government he was supposed to be leading…”

          “Because the U.S. no longer controlled its own foreign policy; the Arabs and – to a lesser extent – the Israelis, did.”

          There, specific.

          I don’t know if any elements of our government were involved in the assassination of JFK, neither do you. It might be true, it might not. It’s conjecture and unprovable.

          The US has controlled it’s own foreign policy. That it didn’t control it in a way that suits you, or me, doesn’t mean it was not controlled by our corrupt government for their benefit. Stretching that to suggest the Arabs, or Israeli’s control it is just that, a stretch.

          Our political class is capable of graft and corruption and has been since our founding. The last 50-60 years has certainly seen an explosion in the corruption throughout the government.

          While I agree with you in principle, I don’t endorse unprovable speculation, and thus my statement.

    2. The petro dollar aspect is very interesting to me. I grew up in the Texas oil patch with family members who worked for some of the oil majors, so I have followed the industry for a long time.

      When you mention billions in profits from recycling petro dollars, I suspect it is actually more like hundreds of billions to trillions. The scale of the global oil business is massive, and the money flows are equally huge. And this money has flowed back into the US political system in many ways, from deficit spending to campaign money to trade deficits and global banking policy. This arrangement was very lucrative for many powerful people for decades. And then fracking came along and upset the gravy train, reducing the US dependence on middle eastern oil and thus the political leverage of the OPEC nations. Cue the hysterical efforts by the Green lobby to block fracking and domestic US production, despite the blindingly obvious huge economic benefits to America.

      Even with the left’s efforts to strangle US production of oil, I have been thinking for some years now that the petro dollar arrangements are doomed. The US is no longer the world’s leading oil importer — China is. A shift to a “petro yuan” arrangement is almost inevitable. But of course the left, the globalists, and China are happy to keep free riding on US military efforts in the middle east for as long as possible. Sucking America dry of blood and treasure for their own benefit.

      Much like with China trade policy, Trump tried to shift US policy away from fighting in the middle east to maintain the oil supply lines. DC went into hysteria at the mere idea that our troops might leave places like Syria and Afghanistan, as Trump began publicly questioning why were were even there when we did not need their oil.

      But they managed to remove Trump, and among the puppet Biden’s very first actions were shutting down pipelines, blocking domestic drilling, and making the US dependent on middle east oil again…with more fighting in the middle east immediately after.

      1. “No blood for oil they cried.” Remember that one? They have always supported murder though, always.

        You make good points Haz. I agree that eventually china will refuse to pay for oil with dollars. And since china has no oil, buy it they must, Another of their weakness’s. I expect the move to the Yuan will come soon.

        Take every piece of the Trump international doctrine and you find a policy based upon common sense and what was good for Americans. Trade, energy, ME peace, it was all correct.

        And we through it away. Trump is not to blame for the failures. He handed it to us on a silver platter. “Here’s how you do it” he said, and he put it into place. We never did deserve George Washington or his fellow revolutionaries. Well, perhaps the soldiers do. We really didn’t deserve Trump either. He worked tirelessly. We’ve done nothing to back him up.

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      2. @ HazHap

        Re: “The petro dollar aspect is very interesting to me. I grew up in the Texas oil patch with family members who worked for some of the oil majors, so I have followed the industry for a long time.”

        As an industry insider, you are better-positioned to comment on some aspects of the problem than many others are, but it is germane to note that down at the level of working oilmen, the guys actually drilling for the stuff and bringing it to market, something like the petrodollar is not really all that visible in day-to-day operations. By which I mean it was a geopolitical and financial deal negotiated at the level of senior national officials and leaders, guys like Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon and so on.

        The petrodollar arrangement is, to me, simply one manifestation of the old adage “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” The Arabs, who are predominantly Sunni Muslims, are famous for cutting strategically-advantageous deals when they are weak or when opportunism suits their needs, and later renouncing such arrangements when it is to their advantage. The Koran speaks of such “fake truces,” and history is rife with them.

        That being said, as long as everyone is more-or-less happy and making lots of money, sometimes even would-be foes can get along for a time, which is probably what has happened here. I use the word “foes,” but to a substantial portion of our economic elite, the Arabs are regarded as “friends,” even though the majority of the 9-11 al-Qaeda operatives were Saudis, and it is pretty well-established that the Saudi intelligence service cooperated with Bin Laden at various times/places. The Bushes, for example, are as thick as thieves with the Arabs, and they aren’t the only ones.

        The petrodollar happened in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kipper War when it finally sunk into the heads of the Saudis and other Arabs that they weren’t going to conquer Israel. They decided instead to try and tap into the same power source Tel Aviv was using – namely, Washington, D.C. Protected by Washington, the Arabs slept better knowing that Tel Aviv wasn’t likely to pull a fast one on them. And today, now that Tel Aviv and Riyadh are fast friends, there’s smiles all around, right?

        The big-shots have fleeced about all of the real wealth they can out of their petrodollar play and its subsequent machinations. The current regime isn’t at an end, not yet,but everyone knows it is just a matter of time. That’s one reason the globalist elites are in such a panic to get some sort of new wealth-extraction scheme into place, be it environmentally-based carbon credits or something else. The good times, vis a vis the oil-backed USD, are coming to end and they don’t yet have a revenue-replacement mechanism yet in position.

        1. You are correct that the petro dollar is not something that directly affects the oil industry workers in the fields on a day to day basis. But at least in the middle executive ranks it does get talked about, as the majors have operations around the globe and they do keep a watchful eye on trends and shifting geopolitics.

          It looks like the globalists are trying to keep the petro dollar going a bit longer, so they can squeeze some more blood out of Americans. The Biden junta has just in the last couple days blocked (again) drilling in ANWR and is even permitting importation of oil from the mullahs in Iran again. I am expecting a hard crack down on fracking as part of the Green Nude Eel, if the Dems can ever stop squabbling internally long enough to pass something.

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