Formerly the Thinking Catholic Strategic Center
Confirming Culture=Religion+Politics
Vic Biorseth, http://www.CatholicAmericanThinker.com
In any discussion on the necessity of war, we must begin with a basic, fundamental question:
Is there ever any practical and moral reason for war?
That is a simple yes or no question, but it is vital to the subject, and it must be answered as a beginning point to further discussion regarding the necessity of war. And if the answer is no, then, there is no point in any further discussion.
For if the answer to that question is no, then we never should have fought any war in our past, and if we had never fought any war in our past, then we would not exist, as a nation or as a people, in anything like the condition in which we find ourselves today.
I submit that the answer to the question is yes, because there are wars in our past that would have been unthinkable to have lost. Unacceptable is not a strong enough word. Absolutely unacceptable is not a strong enough term.
Our willful actions and our free-will decisions are ideally guided by our individual consciences and our collective common ethos. Each of which, when properly formed, stem from our deeply held religious sense of right and wrong, our sense of good justice, and our sense of love of (and responsibility for) our neighbor. And they sometimes reinforce our natural tendency to want to come to the aid of someone relatively small and weak who is being picked on by someone bigger and stronger.
The Necessity of War at the Individual Level
This applies at the individual level as well as at the national and international levels. We all tend to want to defend a woman against a man, a small child against older children, a little guy against a big guy, an individual against a gang, almost anyone against a recognized bully. It gets increasingly serious as the identity of the person being shoved around moves farther into our personal circle of acquaintances, friends and actual family members.
The very minute you become the victim of the bully, the principle of the necessity of war immediately makes itself known to you. We can all walk away from an insult, even accompanied by a shove or jostle. But when you are assaulted, or your home is invaded, or your family members are imperiled, it’s pretty unlikely you will take time to get out the Catechism to read up on the Just War doctrine. You will act, or you will suffer the consequences of not acting.
Once the fury is unleashed, rational thinking tends to take a back seat. We are called to moderate our response to the minimum necessary; in other words, we are not free to just whale the tar out of someone, perhaps even maiming or killing him, once we are morally justified to fight. Once the blood is up and the adrenalin is pumping, it can be very hard to remember that, or even think of it. And that is all the more reason to try, in the first place, to avoid physical conflict almost at all costs. Once you start down the trail of violence, it is almost unpredictable where it will end. That’s why reason is supposed to rule among reasonable men.
Still, it is good to keep in mind that we are not all reasonable men. The reason for the very existence of the term Law Enforcement rests in the fact that there are always those among us who must be forced to live within the constraints of the civil law, or be removed from among us. Major and minor criminals – who, by definition, disobey laws – are everywhere in society.
The Necessity of War at the Political Level
War is a purely political thing, usually fought between different peoples, sometimes fought by forces within the same people over who is to be ruler. Nevertheless, the necessity of war is always a political decision, usually made by the aggressor party first. Someone convinced the others of the necessity of war, and the war commenced. Whoever was attacked usually had no choice in the matter, but sometimes they were given a choice, and it usually became a political decision in that camp, too.
Nations with borders are a relatively new thing, historically speaking. In general, nations with borders have had a civilizing influence on man. The first feudal properties, be they kingdoms or some sort of noble domains, were disputed, settled and re-settled between nobility, with a decreasing necessity of war over time. That’s not to say they didn’t go to war with each other, but that the necessity of war decreased.
The main people they fought wars against were the non-nation nomads and various roving barbarian gangs. This forced the kingdom-nations into military alliances and firmed up the general sense of borders and sovereign property.
Attila the Hun had no nation or national affinity; neither did the Vandals, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Turks, or many others among the marauding hordes who swept across Europe making war for the sole purpose of conquest, pillage, riches and power. The absolute necessity of war was crystal clear to the inhabitants of any castle or fortified city that found itself in the path of any one of the many marauding bands.
We should not be terribly surprised that our current enemies in our Global War On Terror do not represent any particular nation. Indeed, in their ultimate ideology, they oppose the existence of all nations, and seek to create a one-world state in submission to Islam, by violence if necessary. Islam has no real nationality. Nevertheless, Islam is a very real major political force in the world. Even competing and warring groups within Islam – the Sunni and the Shia, for example – share the same ultimate ideological goal, that being the Ummah, the end of all competing religions and the end of all competing nations, and the formation of the idealized one Islamic world state. This is no secret; it is what orthodox, main-stream Islam teaches its disciples.
In a similar manner, Marxism knows no nationality, is merely an ideology, and represents a similar danger to sovereign nations, and to the very idea of sovereignty itself. The whole Marxist, Utopian, absolutely perfect, Worldly Heaven promised to millions by International Communism, fatally flawed and impossible though it may be, still infects so-called intellectual thought everywhere on Earth. The shear stupidity of the notion matters not one whit. You will still find a majority of university professors who quote Marx as a great social thinker, even a genius. Go figure.
The danger here is that the died-in-the-wool Marxists among us will seldom if ever publicly recognize any necessity of war. Any war. If you look at how the international variant of Marxism got its big foothold in Europe, and its big foothold in Asia, you see that Internationalism (Bolshevism; Socialism; Communism; whatever you choose to call it) took advantage of nation-tearing wars to fight, not for the nation, but for Marxism. The Red forces in Russia did not fight for Russia, but for Communism. The Red forces in China did not fight for China, but for Communism.
Communism succeeded only when the nation being revolted against was already under extreme duress fighting a war of survival against a foreign invader. But then, to the International Marxist, there is no such thing as a foreigner. And, if the populace is not ready or willing to revolt against the government, then the Marxist citizens hope for some sort of desperate war. They will not publicly admit to any necessity of war, even when the invader is at the door. They want war; they just won’t say it out loud. War is only an opportunity for them; a means to an end.
In all of history, no so-called Communist Revolution ever succeeded with popular support of the people. If it hadn’t been for World War I, the Russian Revolution would not have succeeded. If it hadn’t been for World War II, the Chinese Revolution would not have succeeded. They were not popular revolutions at all, but armed takeovers. Even in Cuba, Castro never even announced his Communism until after Batista and his gangsters were defeated. The new Communism of Cuba was as much a surprise to the Cuban people as it was to the rest of the world. So Marxism, in truth, recognizes the necessity of war as the means to an end.
However, American Marxists will always oppose any public notion of the necessity of war. Lefties will always be leading the charge to de-militarize us, cut defense spending, emasculate the military and convince the populace of the evil of the military and of anything like national war-readiness. They see it as an important part of their job.
Curiously, these are the same people who take the most extreme public umbrage at any suggestion that they might in any way be unpatriotic. And, they are also the ones who denigrate all real patriotism as jingoism.
The Church on the Necessity of War.
We know from Eccles. 3:3 that there is “a time to kill.” At many, many different places in the Old Testament God Himself sent Israel into battle. But then, Christ came, to be known for all time as the Prince Of Peace. He said “blessed are the peacemakers” in Matt. 5:9. He said “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” in Matt. 5:39. If He epitomized the image of the peaceful man then how are we to understand his warning in Luke 22:36 where He tells His Apostles “let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one” ? Is this not a pretty clear acknowledgement by Jesus Christ of a legitimate use of force?
The short answer is yes, it is.
The just goal of war is peace. When someone challenges or eliminates peace, war must be waged to the degree necessary to restore the peace. At the lowest level, that is the reason for the existence of the term Law Enforcement. The aim of civil law is to provide civil order, which is to say, peace.
Paul told us that the civil government – the state – “does not bear the sword in vain” and “is the servant of God to execute His wrath on the wrongdoer.” In Luke 3:14 we see John the Baptist acknowledging that Roman soldiers entitlement to their wages, and to their jobs, which involved keeping the Pax Romana, or the Peace of Rome, by force when necessary.
Now the necessity of war was not something the early Christians concerned themselves with in any serious way, because they were not only a minority but an oppressed minority, for multiple centuries. They were certainly not capable of waging war on anyone, so it was a moot point.
In St Augustine’s era, around 400 AD, more attention was devoted to the necessity of war; St. Augustine provided one, which has come to be known famously as the Just War doctrine. While it’s been somewhat refined over the centuries, the essence of it remains pretty much as he wrote it.
The Church clearly recognizes the necessity of war, however distasteful that may be. Here’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about Just War:
2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- there must be serious prospects of success;
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.
2310 Public authorities, in this case, have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense.
Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.107
2311 Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way.108
2312 The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflict. "The mere fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties."109
2313 Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely.
Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out. Thus the extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin. One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide.
2314 "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation."110 A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons - to commit such crimes.
Paragraph 2309 shows that the necessity of war is subject to strict conditions to be legitimate. The “damage inflicted” by the aggressor must be lasting, grave and certain. Islam met that requirement in spades, multiple times. The “serious prospect of success” cannot and does not translate to anything close to certainty. War is the most de-stabilizing and uncertain activity of social orders. Indeed, social order leaves the arena when war enters. In the practical world, this “serious prospect” can only be interpreted to be “reasonable expectation,” or even “hope for survival.” However, even grave necessity of war does not permit the production of evils graver than the evil to be eliminated.
But, what about the principle of the preemptive strike when it is known ahead of time what the enemy is about to do? Israel has made use of this principle; is she now to be condemned for it, because the necessity of war had not been properly established by “damage inflicted” by the enemy? No. Recognition of a pending attack through intelligence or third party nations establishes the necessity of war, particularly when national survival is at stake.
Today, with the kinds of massively destructive weapons available to enemies who do not wear uniforms or necessarily even represent nations, necessity of war moves us into a new realm. We need to seek out, infiltrate, spy and do all sorts of normally distasteful things to even identify and find the enemy “soldiers” who hide among us, and among our allies. We should be thankful that they seem to have chosen to gather to fight us in Iraq, where we can deal with lots of them at the same time and in the same place.
In 2310 we see that the necessity of war imposes upon public authorities the duty to impose military obligations on the citizenry, and a recognition of the need for citizen service to country.
2311 says that conscientious objection needs to be allowed; we don’t need to draft the Amish. Necessity of war does not mean that everyone must contribute to the cause militarily. The remaining paragraphs point to the need for us to remain human; to retain the civilizing rules of our ethos, even in the face of savage barbarity. America, I would argue, has done a better job of that than any other nation on Earth. Our typical treatment of POWs, civilian populations and conquered nations is exemplary.
The only stain on our national honor involves the carpet bombing of cities like Dresden, which killed so many thousands of civilian non-combatants. Apparently, Western leadership believed that we could destroy the will of the people to resist, and perhaps we could; but it raises the question of how we came to think that we were waging war against the people instead of the armies and navies and air forces. And perhaps war materials factories and fuel supplies. Actually, I think Hitler and the allied leadership were sort of publicly dueling, seeing how many of each other’s citizens they could kill. Hopefully we will never get sucked into anything like that again. A valid necessity of war does not grant an unlimited license to annihilate populations.
Regarding our use of the atom bomb in WW II, we need to pause and remember what brought about the necessity of war in that instance. It was Japanese military conquest, pure and simple, accompanied by the worst order of atrocity, easily among the most gruesome in recorded history. And, of course, there was the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
I have mixed emotions regarding Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some say those were only civilian populations; others say, while granting that they were civilian population centers, that they were major military war materials and ship-building and port facilities, and thus the only major military targets worthy of such massively destructive weapons. I suppose we could have dropped one on a boat somewhere. I don’t know what other targets might have been available, but I do know that those two brought the war to an end. The estimates of how many American and allied lives would have been “expended” to take the final Japanese Islands were running into the millions.
It is horrible that so many innocents died in those two cities, but in the final analysis, those two bombs ended the war. It may be argued that Japan is better off now, even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, than she would have been if they had not been atom-bombed. Japan would have been even more ravaged and destroyed, with potentially nothing left of their old culture. The rest of the world could not and would not any longer tolerate Japanese imperial military conquest and bestial atrocity, as exemplified by Bata an, Nan King and so many other places. It simply had to be stopped, and the sooner the better.
I’m not going to second-guess the generals on that at this late date. I’ll simply say a prayer for the innocents, and just move on. The war is over, and Japan has become a peaceful nation and a peaceful people.
Today I don’t think anyone could argue that any nation spent more time, money and attention on the development of collateral-damage reduction, in the form of so-called smart weaponry than the USA. Only a fundamentally decent people would have any interest in developing a bomb or missile that could take out a military target right in among a native population, while injuring as few as possible or even none of the non-combatants. Islam isn’t doing that sort of thing. Quite the opposite. Today, they are making suicide-vests in toddler sizes.
Necessity of War and Peace Among Nations.
Earlier we saw some Scriptural support for state police as peace keepers among the populace. What about keeping peace between nations? Looking back through history we see that on occasion an Attila would sally forth, and the world would tremble until someone able to do so took to the field after the guy. It’s no different today. This is where the most vehement arguments arise regarding the necessity of war. The question is:
Should we go to war when someone else is attacked?
So, does a necessity of war exist for us when another nation is in military distress. And the answer is, it depends. Of course if the other nation is an ally, we might have a mutual defense treaty, as among NATO nations. But, the other nation might not be a NATO member, or an ally with a treaty.
The whole reason for our “Cold War” with the old Soviet Union hinged on this question regarding the necessity of war. Earlier I said that only in Russia and in China did the so-called Communist Revolutions take hold, and there only because the resources and military might of the government was divided. Russia was at war with Germany, and China was at war with Japan, at the same time the Reds were doing their big takeover thing.
Every other nation that was to fall under Communism did so only after having been overrun by Russian military. They drove the Germans out, and then they stayed, and took charge. There were no revolutions in any of those countries; they were simply conquered or militarily annexed, and they had nothing whatsoever to say about it. We left the lands we drove the Germans out of, but the Russians didn’t. And they sought and got more. Communism, as a world-conquest seeking ideology, was on the move, in Africa, in South and Central America and in Asia. Could this sort of imperial expansionism create a sense of the necessity of war in the minds of thinking men?
Well, there seemed to be a necessity of war mentality surrounding the quite obvious International Communist expansion that got us into Korea, and then Vietnam. If you see someone loose in the world whose publicly announced intention is to take over the world and eliminate all other forms of government, steadily gaining ground, does that create a necessity of war? To me, it is little different from another Attila, or another horde of Turks loose in the world. If someone doesn’t stop them somewhere, eventually they’ll kill or conquer everyone.
The only reason the necessity of war against Communism did not resonate in every breast in America was because of the intellectual viral infection of Marxism that was racing like wildfire through the intelligentsia. On the campus, in the studio, in the news room, there was and could be no necessity of war with Communism, ever.
America has been and will be much maligned for taking on the role of international peace keeper. But, if we didn’t do it, who would? The UN? Don’t make me laugh. In plain, simple fact, there is no other nation available that is powerful enough to do it, and honorable enough to not take advantage of the situation by building an empire or something similar. Historically, we leave free nations with their own representative governments in our wake. No one else does that. And our Leftists want us to stop doing that. And so does Islam.
Necessity of War and American Politics.
Nothing is more serious and nothing is more dangerous than going to war. Nothing is more destabilizing among nations, nothing is more confusing and nothing generates so much uncertainty about the future.
Here is where the big difference is:
This means that war, on the representative-government side of the street, becomes a political hot potato. On the other side, of course, the dictator answers to no one. Nobody ever voted for Ho Chi Minh, and no citizen ever opposed him and lived. But everybody rained on President Johnson’s parade, and eventually even broke his heart, and his spirit, and his Presidency. The war was lost politically, of all things.
Necessity of War and Representative Government.
We have established that the decision for war is the most serious decision that can be made. All the more reason we should be very careful in the selection of our leaders. Once they are in office, we the people need to be able to trust them to be able to make that decision, not based on any votes, not based on any popularity, but on whether the decision is right, or wrong. Once the necessity of war has been established, once our forces, however limited, have been committed, everybody other than the generals needs to back up two steps and shut up. That includes Senators and Congressmen, Justices and judges, even Presidents, though to a smaller degree. Because it has become a military matter, and war is not the proper domain of civilians.
No American trooper should ever go into harm’s way only to have the rug pulled out from under him by any act of congress, or any purely politically motivated decision, or any street demonstrations or any public tantrums by any Leftie celebrocrats. When it’s time to take a hill, the marines don’t take a vote on it. They do it. Once they’ve been committed, every single one of the rest of us is honor bound and duty bound to support them in every way we can. Recognizing the Lefties have no honor and no sense of national duty, the rest of us need to do more than required, to take up the slack and to override the anti-American efforts of the Left.
So, once we’re at war, the time for popularity polls is over. It doesn’t matter one iota if a lot of us disagree with the necessity of war. It doesn’t even matter if all of us disagree with the necessity of war. It’s too late. Once we’re in a war, the only goal needs to be to win it. Political battles can be fought later, but American troops always need the guaranteed and completely uninterrupted support of the nation that sent them there. The blood of the American fighting man is the very life-blood of the whole principle of Representative Government.
Which the Lefties hate, as they seek to grow the government, as they migrate power from the people to the government, and even as they pretend to be American patriots. Most of us don’t know it yet, but this is only one very small phase of the war we’ve begun to fight. At stake, believe it or not, is our national existence. And as we go, so will the world go.
Pray for the President, that he might have wisdom.
Pray for our troops, that they might have perseverance.
Pray for our nation, that we might return to our guiding ethos.
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Date: Sat Dec 12 00:52:19 2009
From: Roaring Fish
Email:
Location:
Comment:
'We all tend to want to defend a woman against a man, a small child against older children, a little guy against a big guy, an individual against a gang, almost anyone against a recognized bully.'
Once again, your basic premise is flawed. These are all examples of self-defense being necessary, and you are taking that to mean all war is necessary.
That is easily proved wrong: was it necessary for the man to attack the woman, the older child to attack the younger, or the gang to attack the individual?
'But, what about the principle of the preemptive strike when it is known ahead of time what the enemy is about to do? Israel has made use of this principle; is she now to be condemned for it, because the necessity of war had not been properly established by “damage inflicted” by the enemy? No. Recognition of a pending attack through intelligence or third party nations establishes the necessity of war, particularly when national survival is at stake.'
Again, you make an assertion and don't bother to support it. Let me introduce you to Article 2 of the UNC:
"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."
In simple terms, that says "don't attack other countries". Now let me introduce you Article 51 of the UNC:
"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security."
That say "but you can defend yourself IF ARMED ATTACK OCCURS." Since it states explicitly that there must be an armed attack to trigger the right to self-defense, then pre-emptive strikes or anticipatory self-defense or whatever the latest euphemism for 'attack' is, are illegal.
Saying otherwise is just war-mongers making excuses for aggression.
if you like wars Vic, just grow some balls and say so. Trying to say attacking others is legal, and that Jesus liked wars, and that the church likes wars just makes you look ridiculous.
Justifying wars on religious grounds also puts you on the same level as militant Islamists who do exactly the same thing. Take the "catholic' out of your URL - you are a disgrace to both Catholicism and Christianity.
Date: Sat Dec 12 08:33:56 2009
From: Vic Biorseth
Comment:
Ms. Roaring Fish:
I’m sorry that you are so upset; you seem to have gotten your panties all bunched up in a knot. But please don’t put words in my mouth. I never said that all war is necessary. I don’t like war. Been there, done that. Nobody I know who has ever been in any war likes war.
You seem to think that it would be wrong to protect a child, woman, etc., because they should not have been attacked by whoever the attacker was. Well then, perhaps the appropriate action would be to tap the attacker on the shoulder and say, pardon me, but you shouldn’t be doing that, and that would resolve the situation, and everybody would be happy. You’re just nuts.
Regarding the preemptive strike, the last organization any free man should pay any attention to is the UN. If anyone openly threatens me with grave harm, by that mere act, they place themselves in immediate grave danger. Period. Only a fool like you would stand idly around and await the grave harm to occur first, before acting. How impractical and stupid can you get?
America should drop out of the UN, or at least stop funding it. America is a nation of laws and not of men. We are subject to our Constitution, and we will have no foreign authority that is not accountable to us and not subject to our Constitution super-imposed over our Constitution and over us. Our government represents us, it does not rule us. Yet. Obamunism is working to change all that, but just watch and see what happens in the next and following American elections. We will not stand for it.
If Israel just stands around with her thumb up her butt and awaits nuclear annihilation from Iran before striking Iranian nuclear facilities, then the current Israeli government is just plain stupid, perhaps even as dumb as you. The notion of holding out until after a murderous attack represents a suicidal level of stupidity.
Your pro-Marxist comments after the Definition of Marxism page and the Refuting Marxism page reveal your moral grounding, or lack of it. I therefore understand where you’re coming from when you criticize my faith, or how you think I represent it.
Your wonderful Marxian philosophy not only opposes belief in God, but attacks religious faith and practice of religion. To quote your favorite “philosopher”:
”Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress
and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the
spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The
abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is
required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion
about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs
illusions.
Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.“
So we see that your moral grounding is not only alien but antagonistic to the moral grounding of the overwhelming majority population of the whole world. Morality comes out of religion, not out of government. The guiding ethos of America is the Judeo-Christian Ethos of Western Civilization. That is what gives our lives purpose, meaning and direction.
On the other hand, your personal guiding ethos that gives your life purpose, meaning and direction is the ethos of BMDFP10 and Karl Marx.And, unlike my admittedly poor personal example of Catholicism and Christianity, you are the perfect, classic example of a close disciple of your beloved Marx.
Regards,
Vic
Date: Sat Feb 19 10:41:54 2011
From: Jerry (Alias Liberal Loony)
Email:
Location:
Comment:
Dear Vic,
As much as I sympathize with the Jewish position, I think that Israel is at times way overboard. You think the Palestinians invented bloodshed? How do you think the Jews got control of the land, by being nice? Palestinians blowing themselves up in Jerusalem in Jewish schools is as reprehensible as Israel bombing refugee camps in Jordan and Ramallah. You might be unable to see this, but both Arabs and Jews have no compulsions in being ruthless when it serves their interests. There is no innocent party here. If you think Israel has to have our complete and unqualified support, I beg to differ. I think Obama and Hillary Clinton is taking a brilliant line in this issue by not offering Israel all-out support.
Date: Sat Feb 19 12:43:01 2011
From: Vic Biorseth
Comment:
Jerry, or Liberal Loony:
Why would you think that I think the Palestinians invented bloodshed?
The story of how the Jews got control of the land is thousands of years old; Moses led them to it, and Joshua led them into it. You should read it some time.
Yes, yes, Hillary and Obama are brilliant, just brilliant. Take a good look at what they are currently doing to the world.
Regards,
Vic
Friday, April 05, 2013
Converted Page to SBI! Release 3.0 BB 2.0.
Date: Wed Oct 08 2014
From: Vic Biorseth
Comment:
Changes pursuant to changing the website URL
and name from
Thinking Catholic Strategic
Center to
Catholic American Thinker.
Pulled the trigger on the 301 MOVE IT option June 1, 2014. Working my way through all the webpages. .
Regards,
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Never be lukewarm.
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Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and
Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in
thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life:
and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in
the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Jesus
Christ; Matthew 7:13–15
Related WebPages
These are the pages that explore the dichotomy between what Benjamin Franklin called "our American religion," which is General Christianity, and waging war.
Necessity of War pages
Whether man wants war or not, it is best to be prepared for war so long as evil exists, and evil will exist until Christ comes again. Even Heaven itself was not free of war.
Unavoidable existence of evil and the periodic Necessary War. So long as evil exists, necessary war will be fought, lest the Church and "Good" be extinguished on earth.
The Necessity of War: Is there such a thing? Do we ever need war? The Thinking Catholic looks at the seemingly perpetual argument over the very Necessity of War.
America's Limited War Doctrine: A Fatal Flaw. Since Korea, top-level American war strategy has been terribly flawed. (Note well that the Korean "war" is not even over with, and we are still there, at this late date.)
The Bush War Doctrine Revisited: a fresh look at our horrible situation. A reproduction of the "Bush War Doctrine Revisited" article and discussion points by David Yerushalmi; there is much food for thought here.
For God and Country – More Thoughts on America, and on National Existence. For God and Country: Comparisons of martyrdom and heroism, Sovereign Nationhood Vs. Internationalism, distinct people-hood Vs. the Global Village, and Godliness Vs. godlessness.
How Cronkite and the SLIMC lost the Vietnam War for America. With the whole SLIMC overwhelmingly Marxist, the Reds couldn't possibly loose politically and publicly that which they couldn't posssibly win militarily in the Vietnam war.
The End Game; Marxism & Islam join hands beneath the smoke of world chaos. This could be the end game, it could be the beginning of World War Three, or, just another global depression.
World Revolution returns with a vengeance: the rebirth of Marxism. Marxist world revolution returns, and faces far less opposition than in 1848 or the period between the Great Wars.
Again, it's Israel up against what appears to be the whole pea-picking world. Weak lip-service and pretty speeches aside, America is Israel's only real ally. And, as war is imposed upon her again, even many Americans are lukewarm in their support. Why?
The latest Israeli conflict is little different from all the previous ones. The first Israeli conflict with her neighbors, and every one since then, has been a simple matter of self defense.
From 1768 through 1776 the Brits vainly attempted gun control in the Colonies. The British feared that, absent "gun control", the militias in the colonies could become as "regulated" and fearsome as the British "Regulars" themselves.
American Military Assault Weapons originally intended in the 2nd Amendment. To miss the point of the 2nd Amendment is to miss the point of the whole Constitution.
CCW Entrapment discusses the legal dangers of legal carrying. George Zimmerman is a victim of CCW Entrapment and Sponsored Racial Polarization.
Thoughts in remembrance of 09/11/2001, five years later. The changing shape of the war, the changing shape of the enemy.
The evil materialist faith of global Luciferianism, Technocracy, Socialism, and Marxism
Prayer Against Wicked Ideologues Rescue us, O Lord!
System of Lies: Ideological Paradise on Earth and Why the Bloody, Violent Dream Will Not Die
Christendom and Protestant America’s Apostasy into Paganism A Timeline
The presence and influence of powers, principalities, and demons in our age of apostasy into godlessness
Nihilism…All That Exists is Matter and Energy The Worldview that Caused the Collapse of Christendom and Protestant America
Revisiting Nihilism: The Will Turned Toward Evil and the Destruction of Western and American Civilization
The enemies of God, reality, truth, western civilization and our souls Linda Kimbal column
The Last Hour and the New World Order Prayer
Our Call to Battle: Rise of the Spirit of Antichrist Prayer Article: “And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:3)
God to Mankind: NOW Do You See the Stupidity, Depravity, and Evil in Your Hearts?
Raising the New Tower-- Occult Evolution: Antediluvian, Babylonian and Modern Expressions
Psychopathy and the Western and American Tyranny of Evil Leftist Progressive Myths
Supernatural Genesis 1-11 vs. Pagan Darwinism God and Liberty or Fallen Mankind and Tyranny
Luke 21: 29-31: Some Signs Of America's Abandonment And Spiritual Bondage
Eternal Paradise Or Hell? How And Why Both Choices Are Freely Made
Luciferian Humanists: Citing the Genesis Account is Evil "Any country grounded in Judaeo-Christian values can't be overthrown until those roots are cut ... "
Who is intolerant because ashamed: Creationists or Evolutionary Theists?
Death of the Christian God in Hearts of All Humans Why America and W. Europe are Committing Suicide
THE WORLDVIEW OF EVIL SPIRITS - an article by Linda Kimball MAGICAL MYSTERY CHURCH
Pagan-Darwinian-Materialism Redoubt of Miserable Self-Deceived Non-Self Nihilists
Americas' Spiritually Dead, Deep State and Ruling Class Nihilists Walking Dead Parasitic Idolaters
Doctrines of Demons and the Modern Pagan and Pantheist Antithesis The West's Greatest Threat
Gnosis: The Main Expression of Paganized Christianity in the New Age Inner Knowing, Self-Salvation
Our Age of Malicious Perversion How Truth, Meaning, and Reality Have Been Perverted
The Serpent's Gnostic Luciferian Elite Oligarchy and Global Powers Demonic Darkness Over the West and America
The Creation Model Versus Modern Pagan Models
2 Corinthians 10:5
What Kind of God Do You Believe In?
2 Cor. 10:5 Destroying 'scientific' arguments for false Gods
Evil Spirits, Death of God, Satanic Inversion Pagan America's Reality of Madness, Demonic Bondage, and Non-Self
Judgment and Wrath The Biblical Explanation for Madness and Evil
The Worldview of Evil Spirits Revolution, Evolution, Materialism, Nihilism, New World Order, and More
Gnosis The Main Expression of Modern Paganized Christianity
America's Transformation Into A Mystical Pantheist God-State What the Death of God Has Wrought
Message to All Wearied Truthtellers: Let Isaiah Be Your Inspiration the Remnant
The Triune God, Supernatural Heaven, Souls, Hell, and Demons Do They Exist?
Teachings of Demons The Aeon of Horus, Reign of God-Men, and End of the Christian God
Revelation 2:7" ...the closing of a steel door – a solemn, cataclysmic slamming of a door."
Systemic Nihilism: End of the Human Race Eternal Damnation of Human Souls
Infernal Apocalyptic Atmosphere Over America Disintegration into nothing
Global and Ruling Class Criminal Elitists Their Ring of Power and Pact with the Spirit of Death and Hell
Blessed is the Man Who Does Not Listen to Falling Stars Who Follow After Damnable Heresies
Darwinism: An Abomination Aborting and Rotting the Church. The falling away and apostasy from the one true and personal Holy Triune Creator God has not ended
The Evil One and the Impenitent Who Receive His Mark“. And the LORD God formed man (and) breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7
The Fall of Mankind, the Religion of Evolution, and the Antichrist. "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
Why Secular Liberals Actively Promote Evil. Mentally Retarded Liberals
Cultural Marxism. The Many Hidden Faces of Living Active Communism
The Devil, the Big Bang, Evolution, Extraterrestrials and the Genesis Problem
The Ascension To Power Of Misogyny. Hatred of Women
Gnostic Chiliastic Evolution: Satan's Alternative Plan of Salvation. The Great Reset
Why Proclaiming Jesus Christ the Word Became Flesh is Offensive. The Technocratic Utopian World Order
The Divine Androgyne, Pandemonium, and the Battle for Our Souls. Satan's Rising New World Order
America's Modern Pagan Oligarchy, Aztec Gods, and Human Sacrifice. Isaiah 57 Revisited
The Peace Symbol: Occult Sign Meaning Death Against Christians. Hatred of Jesus Christ and Christianity
Americas’ Spiritually Desolate, Parasitic, Ruling Class Nihilists. Satan and Powers and Principalities
Global Oligarchy, Forces of Darkness, and the Spirit of Antichrist. Forces Darkness Within Church and State
Darwinism: Idol of mind symbolizing hatred of Triune Creator God. And Logical End of America
Is the World a Computer Simulation in the Minds of Robotic Overlords? Magic Science, Transhumanists, Gnostic Physicists.
Your soul: Cost of admission to the Progressive Pagan City of Man. New Egypt, Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah
Iron Curtain Over American Minds Progressive Marxisms’ Ideological Utopia
Satan’s New World Order Blueprint and Key Strategy. Christian Capitulation To the Serpent's Consensus Process
Chaos, Breakdown, Demoralization, Destruction: America's New Normal. How it came about and where we are going.
Demonic Darkness: America's Invisible Wave of Evil. Staring into the abyss
Cain, Marxism, Leftism and America's ruling class of 'superior' humans. The dragon they have in common
Modernist Christians in a Man-Centered Universe. Scientific Neutrality and Biblical Deconstruction
The Connection Between Baphomet and Why Researchers Are Creating Interspecies Embryos. 2 Corinthians 10:5
Isaiah 57 revisited: America's progressive pagan elites. Staring into the Abyss
Evolutionary Theism Implies That Christ is Wrong About Creation. "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" John 5:46-47
Utopianism. Progressive Utopian Cultural Marxism Poisoning Minds, Churches, Schools, Politics
Acts 17:18-19-modern pagan and pantheist antithesis of the Word of God Ecclesiates 1:9 "What has been is what will be.."
Trotsky's Permanent Revolution From Hell In America. The Soviet System in America
Why Transgenderism Is Being Forced Upon America and Our Children. The Divine Androgyne
The Evil Eye Of Envy: Why Being ‘White’ Is Offensive To Some People. No Vice Worse Than Envy
Absolute Nothingness and Non-Self: The Reigning Worldview of Global Power Elites and Western Ruling Classes
What is Evil? Man-made alternative realities
Trump is Destroying Reagan's Legacy By Cliff Kincaid
Trump is a Marked Man By Cliff Kincaid
Terrorist Attack in Baltimore By Cliff Kincaid
Moscow Terror Attack is Another KGB Operation to Fool the West
Obama’s New Nazi-Communist Alliance
On the "Days Of Rage" Planned For The 2024 Marxocrat Party Convention Some of you just couldn't believe that the formerly Democrat
(Confederate) Party had already gone totally Communist before the 1968
Party Convention
Making Russia Great Again By Cliff Cinkaid
De-Nazification and De-Communization in Russia The The mutual non-aggression Hitler-Stalin Pact, which started World War II, has been carefully “forgotten”
Climate Emergency To Produce a New World Order By Cliff Kincaid
The Next Phase of Obama’s “Permanent Revolution” By Cliff Kincaid
Evil in the White House In This War, The Enemy Is In The Ranks, Standing Right Next To You
Satanism, Communism: What's The Difference? Look To The Roots Of Communism
Fox Is the Leading "Trans" Channel There are some rather peculiar goings-on at the Fox News Channel.
Trump and His Communist Enemies The Demonized Joe McCarthy Turned Out To Be Accurate In Everything He Claimed: Fox News Is Wrong About Him And About Much More
The Five Stooges on Capitol Hill They Think We Need Even More Doped No-Hopers In The American Intelligence Community
The Biden Doctrine of Demoralization and Defeat By Cliff Kincaid
A Republican Church Committee? Do Pro-American Republicans Even Know Who Frank Church Really Was?
A Top to Bottom Housecleaning of America When we clean our house, my wife has a slogan, “Top to bottom,” meaning you have to target the whole house. The same advice applies to nations.
China's Mass Murder Experiment Phase Two
Bury The Dead And Move On Fuggedaboutit!
9/11 Truth This is the real 9/11 Truth: Our “intelligence” agencies are infiltrated.
Moving Toward Gorbachev’s “World of Communism” It's called the Monster Plot.
The Errors of Russia, the Dupes of Putin, and Another Holocaust Can The Increasingly Faithless Free World Be Saved From Russia?
World War Quietly Conquering A Distracted and Blithely Unaware World. Could it actually be Satan's world war on despised humanity?
Stand With Ukraine Against Russia and China By Cliff Kincaid
Tucker Carlson Carlson Gets His Comeuppance. Tucker's View: It is not moral for us to intervene in support of any nation's (Ukraine's) democratic self-determination and against Soviet military expansion.
The Need for Secure Borders. Have we so easily forgotten what borders are for? Have we forgotten that evil exists in the world? Have we forgotten how to keep apart from this evil?
Can Ukraine Survive Putin and Biden? Can America? Can the Free World? Can Faith in God?
The Soviet Union: Back From The Dead The Return of the Evil Empire
Could an American Surrender be in the offing with Biden at the wheel? Is this not the perfect time for Communism to strike, with Commies now governing America, China and Russia? What would Biden do?
Abortion and Communism. If you ever wondered where all the popular abortion-contraception-sexuality-perversion nuttiness came from, look to Marx's Communist Manifesto.
The Secret Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. A life almost totally at odds with his reputation as a minister of the Gospel.
"We belong to the Church militant; and She is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass Her destruction. Not only in the far-off centuries of the early Church, but down through the ages and in this our day, the enemies of God and Christian civilization make bold to attack the Creator's supreme dominion and sacrosanct human rights." --Pope Pius XII
"It is not lawful to take the things of others to give to the poor. It is a sin worthy of punishment, not an act deserving a reward, to give away what belongs to others." --St. Francis of Assisi
Truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.—Winston Churchill
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.—Ayn Rand
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