Dixie Heritage News – September 7, 2018
Farewell Burt – rest in peace
GEORGIA STATUE TOPPLED
The people of Sylvania feel like they lost a piece of history. Inspired by the toppling of Silent Sam, an unknown person(s) have toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier in the Screven County Memorial Cemetery.
Everyday, people in Sylvania are driving to the cemetery to see what’s left of it.
The statue had already been moved from the City Park to the cemetery. “That statue was to memorialize the soldier,” explained retired veteran, Colonel David Titus. “More 340,000 soldiers lost their lives in the south, in the civil war conflict,” said Titus.
The destruction of the memorial has also gained attention from the Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans.
They’re offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s arrest.
The Sylvania Police Department asks for the public’s help to find the suspect. If you have any information, call (912) 564-2046.
WILL DUKE BE PAYING REPARATIONS?
Raliegh ABC News 11 reports that on Monday (yes, we know Monday was a holiday) there was a meeting at Duke University where the topics of discussion were the payment of reparations by the University for its past involvement in “slavery.”
Also discussed was the renaming of several buildings and chairs on campus because they were named for “white supremists.”
SILENT SAM TO BE RELOCATED?
This week the UNC system’s Board of Governors gave the Chapel Hill campus’s Board of Trustees a November 15 deadline to present a proposal for the future of Silent Sam, which is currently in storage. The Board of Governors would have the authority to make the final decision about the restoration of Silent Sam.
On Friday, Chancellor Folt issued a letter making very clear that while she respects the law requiring the restoration of the monument she does not believe that the law requires for the monument to be placed in the same place, or for that matter, even in a prominent place. If it were top to her, Sam would be “restored” in an out of the way location.
SOUTH CAROLINA STUDENTS REJECT HERITAGE
On Monday, members of the Clemson University Undergraduate Student Government passed a resolution condemning the public display of the Confederate Flag on or around campus “by student and community groups.”
The resolution passed by a simple majority, with some student senators voting against it.
ANOTHER TEXAS SCHOOL NAME CHANGE
Two Port Arthur elementary schools may undergo a name change.
The Port Arthur Independent School District (PAISD) announced during their meeting August 23 that the district would start taking suggestions from the community for re-naming Robert E. Lee and Dick Dowling Elementary Schools.
STATUE IN CROSSHAIRS
Roughly a year after a Confederate monument was removed from Forest Park, the placement of another statue in a St. Louis park has been called into question.
A commission is being formed to consider whether a statue of Christopher Columbus belongs in Tower Grove Park, where it has stood for more than 130 years.
Annie Rice, the 8th Ward alderman who represents several neighborhoods surrounding the park, told the Post-Dispatch she hoped the formation of the commission would lead to “fruitful conversations” between park officials and local activists who are saying that, “Christopher Columbus, a monstrous human that much of this country continues to celebrate and glorify, has an approximately 9-foot statue dedicated to him in Tower Grove Park. We think it’s long past time that this statue was dealt with permanently.”
VIRGINIA SCHOOL BOARD MEETING ENDS IN ARRESTS
Last week Thursday there was a school board meeting in Albemarle where “Dozens of community members gathered in a small room at the Albemarle County Office Building to ask the School Board to ban Confederate symbols from the dress code,” wrote the Daily Progress.
“Led by the Hate-Free Schools Coalition, community members quickly filled up the room and many had to stand in the hallway.”
According to the Police release:
The Albemarle County School Board held a special meeting at the County Office Building-McIntire Thursday night to discuss several items and get an update on the school division’s anti-racism policy.
A large group assembled in the lobby outside of Lane Auditorium, where the open meeting was taking place. The group became extremely loud and disruptive and was asked repeatedly by County staff and police to quiet down or they would be asked to leave. These efforts to seek compliance were meant to prevent any disruption of the ongoing meeting.
Several members of the group ignored the requests, resulting in four arrests as the school board meeting continued inside Lane Auditorium. There were also silent civil protests that took place inside the meeting, which were generally not disruptive to the business of the School Board. At one point, three people became disorderly and were asked to leave Lane Auditorium by the Chairman of the Board. Two of the three were arrested.
“The School Board as a group was committed to getting through the business it was elected to do,” said Chairman Kate Acuff. “Fortunately, with help from the County Attorney and County Police we were able to do that. We strive to hold meetings in a civilized manner.”
Superintendent Matt Haas said, “We are grateful to the Albemarle County Police Department and County staff for protecting our Board, staff, parents, students, and community members. Overall, we were able to have a peaceful and productive meeting thanks to their efforts.”
In total, six people were arrested and were processed at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
ITS NOT JUST OUR COUNTRY
Adopted in 2007, Spain’s Historical Memory Law (Ley de Memoria Histórica) was adopted to eliminate the glorification of the “fascist dictatorship” of Francisco Franco, who ruled for 40 years, beginning in 1939 after a devastating civil war, until his death in 1979.
In mid-August, the Spanish government announced plans to amend the Memory Law law to include the exhumation of Franco’s body from its current location: A neoclassical mausoleum and basilica adorned with a 500-foot-tall cross, located outside Madrid.
Franco commissioned the memorial, Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos), four years before his death, as a war monument. The site not only includes the gravesite of the deceased dictator, but also about 34,000 victims from both sides of the civil war. The mausoleum was constructed with government funds but is now operated and maintained by a public cultural organization.
Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo at a press conference suggested that having a memorial lionizing Franco and his rule implicates that the government endorses the glorification of fascism just as having monuments that revere the Confederacy insinuates that the U.S. government endorses the glorification of slavery.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Spanish Parliament is expected to approve the decision by the end of September, and Franco’s family members, who have opposed the exhumation, will be given his body for reburial.
A poll by Antena 3, a Spanish television channel, reported 71.7 percent did not consider the exhumation of Franco’s body to be a priority. Clearly, not everyone agrees with the government’s decision.
NON-HERITAGE NEWS EFFECTING THE SOUTHLAND:
Almost two decades after it was salvaged from its watery grave not far from the mouth of Charleston Harbor, it remains unclear where the H.L. Hunley’s final resting place will be.
Increasingly, it looks like the Confederate submarine could end up at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum rather than North Charleston.
Any new museum home for the first sub ever to sink an enemy ship still remains in the early planning stages, with more questions than answers not only about the site but also about the building’s size, scope and design, as well as its timetable.
The state agency tasked with building the museum recently misappropriated $11 million of potential Hunley Museum funds to the International African American Museum. The state only funds the agency to the tune of $7 million a year until 2028.
Back in 2004, after a two years of jockeying, the city of North Charleston beat out Mount Pleasant and Charleston as the planned site for a Hunley museum, partly because North Charleston pledged $13 million toward its construction. But a lot has changed since then and North Charleston has withdrawn that offer.
The Hunley has remained in a conservation tank longer than expected as politicians debate how big and how much?
Robert Ryan, the Redevelopment Authority executive director, has said the authority has $20 million to $25 million on hand that isn’t already committed and could be used for the museum.
It also remains to be determined what aside from the Hunley might be included. The state already owns a Maritime Museum Collection of more than 8,000 19th century maritime artifacts, and Schachte said other items eventually could be added, too.
Kellen Correia of Friends of the Hunley, the nonprofit that runs the existing museum inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center where the Confederate sub is being restored said the sub’s conservation is mostly done but added, “There is debate about when done is done.” The final stage of conservation, which could include it being set in an airtight container filled with Argon glass, could be done at a museum.
“We certainly don’t want the sub done and the museum not to be ready,” Correia said.
NEW HOLY LAND TOUR GOES BACK IN TIME
Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum, which is housed in the Old City’s ancient stronghold, plans to launch the high-tech guided virtual reality tour that allows visitors to experience how archaeologists believe Jerusalem looked 2,000 years ago.
Working with archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Lithodomos VR created 360-degree simulations of how Jerusalem’s citadel, palaces, streets and ancient Jewish temple are believed to have appeared during its heyday under King Herod in the first century B.C. and during the life of Jesus.
Accompanied by a guide, visitors will be able explore nine different vantage points in the city, starting at the citadel – an Ottoman-era fortress built atop remnants of several earlier bastions – then meandering through the Old City’s Jewish Quarter down toward the remains of the Second Jewish Temple. In order to keep from crashing into modern Jerusalem, visitors carry the goggles between sites, then put them on once they are stationary.
At each point, a narrator explains the historical significance of the structures they can
The tour is confined to the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. The Old City lies in east Jerusalem – an area captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital. Israel rejects any division of the Old City – home to Jerusalem’s most sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.
The VR team is working on adding additional historical layers to the virtual reality guide that would allow people to explore Jerusalem during other periods, such as the Crusades.
Judy Magnusson, an Australian tourist who previewed the tour on Monday ahead of its launch, said the virtual reality-enhanced experience “brings history to life” and makes the stories about the city “more real.”
USA POSTURING FOR WAR
The U.S. military is planning to expand its presence in Greece as Washington’s relationship with Turkey deteriorates. The U.S. hopes to use collaboration with Athens to increase its military access to key parts of the Middle East, officials said.
The ongoing civil war in Syria likely plays a significant role in the U.S.’s decision to explore closer military ties with Greece. The Syrian government is currently preparing to launch an offensive against rebel groups in the province of Idlib, while Turkey is meeting with officials from Russia and Iran this week to discuss Syria’s future. With the U.S. increasingly sidelined and unable to influence the strategy of major players in the war-torn country, experts say the U.S. military is looking for ways to respond quickly if they decide to stage a military intervention.
KABOOM!!!!!!
Gateway Pundit reported that it appears that the reason there was no FISA Court hearing on the Carter Page FISA warrant was because Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch forced through the application using an obscure loophole described on page 7 of the 1978 FISA Act.
President Obama would have had to approve the Carter Page warrant per law in order for the spying to proceed without a court hearing. This means that that President Trump was right when he tweeted shortly after his inauguration that he was spied on by Obama!
It also means that AG Jeff Sessions or his deputy Rod Rosenstein pushed through any extensions after President Trump took office.
LEST WE FORGET
by Al Benson, Jr.
Al Benson, Jr., is the Editor of the Copperhead Chronicle. In addition to writing for Southern Patriot and other publications, he is a member of the Confederate Society of America and the League of the South.
It has been forty four years ago this month, if my timeline is correct, that government (public) schools reopened in Kanawha County, West Virginia to a very slim group of students. Most of the students were kept at home by parents who had major (and understandable) problems with the textbooks their kids were supposed to use that year and they were not about to subject their kids to what many of them felt were pornographic texts.
I’ve seen copies of what was in some of the books. The parents were right.
This whole situation set off a major struggle over who really controlled what passes for public education in this country–and just to give you a subtle hint–it ain’t the parents. Even with Trump’s new education secretary, it still ain’t the parents. A public school system run by the state will never be under the control of the parents, no matter what you may hear at the parent-teacher meetings.
A public school system is a state school system and our parents, especially our Christian parents, need to be able to get a grasp of this salient fact. Most of them don’t have a clue.
As for much of went on in West Virginia during this textbook protest, I would urge you to read a book by Karl Priest called Protester Voices–the 1974 Textbook Tea Party. I believe it’s still on Amazon, but if you can’t find it there contact me and I will give you Karl’s mailing address.
The textbook protest in Kanawha County changed the lives of myself and my family because, even though we lived in Illinois when it started, we ended up in West Virginia while it continued.
The whole situation never would have come to light had not Alice Moore been on the school board.It was her that exposed what was in the books. The other school board members were willing to just go along to get along with the texts that were “suggested” for the students. Mrs. Moore, when she got a look at what was being proposed to feed the kids intellectually, was not. She was on target–the rest of the school board was “out to lunch” so to speak, willing to go along to get along.
Mrs. Moore exposed what was in the books to Kanawha County parents with the help of several local preachers and rallies were held all over the county to alert people to the intellectual swamp that was the public school system. So when public schools convened in the Fall of 1974, most kids stayed home. Not only that, parents started picketing the schools and that meant lots of people, truck drivers included, would not cross the picket lines. West Virginia was a union state and you didn’t cross a picket line.
Parents wrote to their state legislators, their national legislators, and whoever they thought would help them get these horrible books out of their schools. No one was willing to do anything. No one did anything. What the parents didn’t realize at the time, and I hope they do now, is that no one was going to do anything–ever!
The sleaze-books their kids were to be force-fed were mandated in Washington and that was that. When parents publicly protested they were often met by “peace officers” with billy clubs who enjoyed breaking up the protests by hitting little old ladies (and others) over the shoulder with billy clubs and if they could hit hard enough they often broke the shoulder. They got their kicks doing that. Some were heard to say as much.
Word of the protest eventually got out despite the managed media’s attempts to contain it locally. That’s how we found out about it in Illinois. There was an article in one of the Chicago papers that really bashed the protesters and it was bad enough that I started watching for more articles with names in them and when I found some I started trying to contact those people to find out what really was going on because, even at that early date, I realized the “news” media mostly lied to us.
We took a trip to West Virginia in June of 1975 and stayed with a fine Christian family there for a week. During that time I interviewed some of the protest leaders and really got an earful. Hard to believe that some of what I heard happens in Amerika, but it did–and does.
The parents in Kanawha County were guilty–of wanting a decent, moral education for their kids. Little did they realize at the time they would never, and I mean never, get that in the public school system. And today it’s even worse.
The Deep State of that day (not much different than today’s) managed to beat the protest (literally) into submission. Several new Christian schools came out of the protest, but if more Christians had gotten involved instead of sitting it out, the effect could have been greater.
So the textbook protest in West Virginia ended, not with a whimper, but with a billy club whacked over old ladies shoulders. I saw some of them, heard what they had to say about it all. The public schools in West Virginia and other places, are no different today than then except they are busier taking down Confederate flags than they used to be.
If you are one of those whose hope is in the “reformation” of public schools you are dreaming a dream that will never happen, no matter what kind of administration they have in Washington. The educational establishment is dedicated to the cultural destruction of your children and you’d better get used to that idea because that’s how it is. If you want anything better for your kids, take them and secede from the public “education” system and educate them at home or find some kind of Christian school you can trust. For a little added info, try checking out Exodus Mandate on the internet.
THE NEED FOR TRUE GENTLEMEN
by Dr. Rondel Rumburg
Dr. Rumburg is a prolific author, a Presbyterian Pastor, and a former Chaplain-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
A “gentleman” is a genteel man. In other words he is noble in the Christian sense of the word. he is a man of character. Character is actually what a man is and not what a man is perceived to be or perceives himself to be, which is reputation. Douglas Southall Freeman distilled Robert E. Lee’s visible life into one word, “Character!”
General R.E. Lee was considered the consummate Southern Christian gentleman. He exemplified the best in Southern manhood. Freeman remarked, “In Lee the South sees character…Success could no dim it. Public adulation could not tarnish it. Defeat could only test it. For character is invincible.”
How can Southern men lead the South back to the culture of their forefathers? Certainly not by aping men such as the drunken Grant, the pyromaniac Sherman, or the agnostic Lincoln. The South must have men such as Lee, Jackson, Stuart Davis, Stevens, Pelham and the myriad of others who were Christian gentlemen. These Christian gentlemen practiced their faith in a manly way. Christian gentlemen are not effeminate! Southern men of Confederate ancestry must seek to become such gentlemen. Unless this is true of us no amount of flag waving, monument preservation, moralizing about our Confederate dead, promotion of Southern literature or any such will make a lasting impact on our generation. We must be men whose lives demand respect and thus have credibility.
First, one needs to be a Christian to be such a gentleman. In creation “God hath made man upright” but in the fall man “sought out many inventions.” Man has tried to evade God’s mandates for his life. Man outside Christianity has “many inventions” or many fallen speculations of heart that are foreign to God. A christian is a person who has had a regenerating work of the Holy Spirit; has been convicted of his sins against God and has embraced Christ as his only Lord and Savior. He is given a new nature whereby old things have passed away and all things have become new. He then has the Christian graces of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, and many more such attributes, which are the true traits of character. Lee reflected, “I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.” Lee’s life exemplified the presence of those Christian graces.
Second, when a man is a Christian he will be on his way to being a gentleman. Thomas Nelson Page, the great Southern writer wrote, to his father, “To be a…gentleman was his first duty; it embraced being a Christian and all the virtues.” Dabney Carr Harrison heart Lee say, “The virtue and fidelity which should characterize a solider, can be learned from the holy pages of the Bible alone.” Lee as president of Washington College, explained the code of honor-“be a gentleman”. That was succinct and implied what the culture of the day expected, which included a man who was a practicing Christian. Lee answered an inquiring student, “Young gentlemen, we have no printed rules. We have but one rule here, and that is that every student must be a gentleman.” Sadly the Southern culture of today is not producing such men. The cause seems to be ignoring or despising of Biblical Christianity, which leaves men pagans. Paul the apostle warned against “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” and he said, “from such turn away.”
Lee composed a test for a true gentleman during the war for Southern independence. “The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman. The power which the strong have over the weak, the magistrate over the citizen, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly – the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in plain light. The gentleman does not needlessly remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He can not only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which imparts sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.” The need of the hour is Southern men of quality, which is another way of reiterating the point of this article. Lee certainly has a grasp of it and exemplified it. Even so the sons of the Confederate soldiers, as well as other men, should be men of quality. It is written, “Honor your father.”
What is required of such Southern men? And what is not meant by it? The men needed are those who not only respect Christianity, but who are Christians in the true sense of the Word. Such men who are needed do not just acknowledge the Bible to be God’s Word, but they practice the principles of that Word in every facet of life. The kind of men needed not only favor honor, but they are honorable. They not only desire respect, but they are respectful and respectable. Needed are men who do not just want to be treated honestly, but are men of integrity. Gentlemen respect the Lord, the home, the family, womanhood, neighbors and the church for which the Savior died.
The Old South could not conceive of a Christian who was not a gentleman or a gentleman who was not a Christian. The sons of such illustrious ancestors must return to the old ways if they would experience the old days. ~ Deo Vindice
Jasper Williams Jr., Pastor of Salem Bible Church in Atlanta, was accused of being “homophobic, sexist and demeaning to other black people,” for comments he made while preaching at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
Believe it or not, this sermon was preached some seven hours into a day-long funeral. Just a couple of quotes:
“It amazes me how it is that when the police kills one of us, we’re ready to protest, march, destroy innocent property,” he said. “We’re ready to loot, steal whatever we want.”
“Anytime we stray away from God’s design for what the home is supposed to be, heavy will be our results,” he said. “God has told us what to do with our home. He designed the home. I mean God put in a home a man and a woman, a father and a mother. God put in the home a husband and a wife. A provider and a nurturer.”
It appears that when a black preacher dares to stand up and tell the truth he will be stoned by his own. But hasn’t history shown that to be the fate of all prophets?
WHY CAN’T TRUMP BE MORE LIKE GRANT?
by Phil Leigh
Phil Leigh was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He has contributed twenty-four articles to The New York Times Disunion Series.
Most recent biographers praise President Grant for supporting civil rights.
In a recent interview, for example, biographer Ron Chernow said, “[Grant] was the single most important President in terms of civil rights between Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson . . .”
In contrast, Trump’s critics often label today’s President a racist. Not only is Trump racist, they suggest, but they worry he will manipulate the justice department in order to avoid criminal convictions against himself and Administration allies. Vanity Fair compared Trump’s recent “flipping” remarks about plea bargaining to the language of mafia gangsters.
But most modern biographers overestimate Grant’s morality.
He limited his racial advocacy to the solitary minority group (blacks) that was reliably Republican-loyal. He did nothing for other racial minorities such as Chinese Americans.
In addition to lacking potential as a GOP voting bloc, Asian Americans lived mainly in Republican-controlled states like California where whites refused to give them the vote or even citizenship. They were, in fact, hated. The biggest lynching in American history happened in Los Angeles during Grant’s presidency and all nineteen victims were Chinese Americans.
During his second year in office President Grant signed the 1870 Naturalization Act that permitted black immigrants to become naturalized citizens, but denied it to Chinese Americans and other “non-whites.” He also used the Act, and others, to “police” voting in the big cities of the North where white immigrants, such as the Irish, typically voted Democratic.
Grant also abused presidential powers to frustrate criminal prosecutions when they came too close for comfort. One example was the Whisky Ring Scandal. It involved tax evasion and bribery in the distilled spirits industry, which was then the top source of domestic federal tax revenue.
Ultimately, the treasury’s investigation led to the threshold of the presidency when Grant’s personal secretary, Orville Babcock, was indicted as a leading Ring conspirator. Grant responded by first trying to move the trial to a friendly military court since Babcock was also an army officer. But a justice department prosecutor blocked the move by noting the procedural violations that would result from taking evidence away from the court of jurisdiction. Second, he hired a spy to infiltrate the prosecutor’s office, but the mole eventually sided with the prosecution. Third, he fired an assistant prosecutor whose comments during a jury summation in an earlier related trial personally offended the President. Fourth, he forbade prosecutors to plea bargain with low-level conspirators as a means to convict high-level participants. Along with other evidence, Grant’s obstruction were so suspicious that the treasury department’s chief clerk wrote a future Supreme Court justice two days before Babcock’s trial: “What has hurt [Treasury Secretary] Bristow worst of all & most disheartened him is the final conviction that Grant himself is in the Ring and knows all about [it.]”
Grant fans who wish that Trump could be more like their hero might want to reconsider their wish.
Are the Interventionists Now Leaderless?
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Patrick J. Buchanan is a political commentator who was was senior advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. He ran for President in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
“McCain’s Death Leaves Void” ran The Wall Street Journal headline over a front-page story that began:
“The death of John McCain will leave Congress without perhaps its loudest voice in support of the robust internationalism that has defined the country’s security relations since World War II.”
Certainly, the passing of the senator whose life story will dominate the news until he is buried at his alma mater, the Naval Academy, on Sunday, leaves America’s interventionists without their greatest champion.
No one around has the prestige or media following of McCain.
And the cause he championed, compulsive intervention in foreign quarrels to face down dictators and bring democrats to power, appears to be a cause whose time has passed.
When 9/11 occurred, America was united in crushing the al-Qaida terrorists who perpetrated the atrocities. John McCain then backed President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which had no role in the attacks.
During Barack Obama’s presidency, he slipped into northern Syria to cheer rebels who had arisen to overthrow President Bashar Assad, an insurgency that led to a seven-year civil war and one of the great humanitarian disasters of our time.
McCain supported the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe and the Baltic, right up to Russia’s border. When Georgia invaded South Ossetia in 2008, and was expelled by the Russian army, McCain roared, “We are all Georgians now!”
He urged intervention. But Bush, his approval rating scraping bottom, had had enough of the neocon crusades for democracy.
McCain’s contempt for Vladimir Putin was unconstrained. When crowds gathered in Maidan Square in Kiev to overthrow an elected pro-Russian president, McCain was there, cheering them on.
He supported sending arms to the Ukrainian army to fight pro-Russian rebels in the Donbass. He backed U.S. support for Saudi intervention in Yemen. And this war, too, proved to be a humanitarian disaster.
John McCain was a war hawk, and proud of it. But by 2006, the wars he had championed had cost the Republican Party both houses of Congress.
In 2008, when he was on the ballot, those wars helped cost him the presidency.
By 2016, the Republican majority would turn its back on McCain and his protege, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and nominate Donald Trump, who said he would seek to get along with Russia and extricate America from the wars into which McCain had helped plunge the country.
Yet, while interventionism now has no great champion and has proven unable to rally an American majority, it retains a residual momentum. This compulsion is pushing us to continue backing the Saudi war in Yemen and to seek regime change in Iran.
Yet if either of these enterprises holds any prospect of bringing about a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East, no one has made the case.
While the foreign policy that won the Cold War, containment, was articulated by George Kennan and pursued by presidents from Truman to Bush I, no grand strategy for the post-Cold War era has ever been embraced by a majority of Americans.
Bush I’s “New World Order” was rejected by Ross Perot’s economic patriots and Bill Clinton’s baby boomers who wanted to spend America’s peace dividend from our Cold War victory on America’s homefront.
As for the Bush II crusades for democracy “to end tyranny in our world,” the fruits of that Wilsonian idealism turned into ashes in our mouths.
But if the foreign policy agendas of Bush I and Bush II, along with McCain’s interventionism, have been tried and found wanting, what is America’s grand strategy?
What are the great goals of U.S. foreign policy? What are the vital interests for which all, or almost all Americans, believe we should fight?
“Take away this pudding; it has no theme,” said Churchill. Britain has lost an empire, but not yet found a role, was the crushing comment of Dean Acheson in 1962.
Both statements appear to apply to U.S. foreign policy in 2018.
We are bombing and fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, partly John McCain’s legacy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sent a virtual ultimatum to Iran. We have told North Korea, a nuclear power with the world’s fourth-largest army, either to denuclearize or the U.S. may use its military might to get the job done.
We are challenging Beijing in its claimed territorial waters of the South China Sea. From South Korea to Estonia, we are committed by solemn treaty to go to war if any one of dozens of nations is attacked.
Now one hears talk of an “Arab NATO” to confront the ayatollah’s Iran and its Shiite allies. Lest we forget, ISIS and al-Qaida are Sunni.
With all these war guarantees, the odds are excellent that one day we are going to be dragged in yet another war that the American people will sour upon soon after it begins.
Where is the American Kennan of the new century?
FROM THE EDITOR
Dr. Ed is a pastor, author, public speaker, radio personality, lobbyist, re-enactor, and the Director of Dixie Heritage.
I think that it was George Orwell who wrote: “In a Time of Universal Deceit – Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act.”
I know it was Orwell, in his book, ‘1984’ who wrote:
Every Record has been destroyed or Falsified.
Every Book Rewritten.
Every Picture has been Repainted.
Every Statue and Street building has been renamed.
Every Date has been altered.
And the Process is Continuing day by day and minute by minute.
History has Stopped.
Nothing exists but one endless present in which the Party is always right.
And this is why General Stephen Dill Lee’s “Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans” is even more important now than it was when he gave it in 1906.
“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations.”
The “Charge” far from being “owned” by any particular organization. The “Charge” is the duty of all of us through who’s veins southern blood flows.
Every day we are fulfilling the “Charge” striking directly at those who would erase our history and our heritage. With your continuing help, we can strike even harder!
POSTSCRIPT:
It is Thursday night. I had actually uploaded this week’s letter earlier today before leaving the room and it was all set to go. But while I was stuck in traffic, and it was only Vice President Pence’s motorcade, I’d hate to have seen what happens when the President is being driven; I received a phone call that Burt Reynolds had passed.
I was actually looking forward to interviewing Burt for an upcoming Dixie Heritage Hour. Sadly, that will not happen
Something Burt was planning on saying in the Radio interview, and I want to leave you with it:
“Lots of movies ridiculed Southerners, and I resented them. I wanted to play a Southern hero, a guy who was proud of being from the South. Most of those folks are middle-of-the-road, not left or right. They believe in God, they work hard, and they love their country. They’re the people I grew up with, and I like them.”
Until Next Week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed
Dixie Heritage
P.O. Box 618
Lowell, FL 32663
