Afghanistan couldn’t keep it. Can we?

Army Specialist Jonn J. Edmunds was one of the first soldiers to die in the Afghan war. The 20-year-old Cheyenne native was killed in action on October 19, 2001, five and a half weeks after the Twin Towers fell. Over the next two decades, America’s longest war claimed the lives of 2,352 soldiers. These, together with over 20,149 injured, tell only part of the story. 

Mark Geist, former U.S. Marine and founder of the Shadow Warriors Project, reports that for every active-duty soldier in Afghanistan, there are 2.9 military contractors. These are mostly retired service members who are hired back as non-uniformed soldiers. At least 3,800 have been killed in action. Since April, nearly 9,000 contractors have been withdrawn. Still, as of July 21, 7,800 remained in country. These make up the bulk of Americans stranded in the aftermath of the Biden Administration’s debacle.

These Americans, together with their Afghani helpers, expect to be hunted down and tortured to death over the coming weeks, according to Geist. Add this human cost to the millions of dollars (actually billions) in usable war materiel that was deliberately handed over to the Taliban and you have an unfolding disaster that is beyond imagining. 

Sec. Def. Lloyd Austin, Chair JCS Mark Milley

Both the Washington bureaucrats and military brass responsible for this murderous miscalculation must be held to account. Trust in America’s institutions cannot be restored otherwise.

While we are holding lying leaders to account, it is also necessary to criticize our own contribution to the mess. Some of the unfolding disaster results from the administration’s incompetent implementation of a sound withdrawal plan. But some of it lies at the foot of every single American citizen who encouraged a war intended to bring democracy to the Afghani people.

I was one of them. I not only supported our troops, in general, I supported the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, in particular. I believed, falsely, that the only thing standing between the people of these countries and their freedom to self-govern was an oppressive and brutal government. I was wrong.

The freedom to self-govern—the republican form of government—does not begin with the Constitution and the formal institutions found in the American tradition. Nor does it even begin in the human heart that yearns for freedom—as President George W. Bush promised America at the inception of the war. 

Rather, successful self-governance begins with a worldview. Unless a people buy into that worldview, no external force can keep them free. To put it in American terms, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our state and federal government institutions are all incapable of keeping us free unless we all buy into the worldview articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

That’s what Benjamin Franklin meant when he emerged from a summer of negotiating the U.S. Constitution and fielded a question from a certain Mrs. Powel. She asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Over the past two decades, America gave the Afghani people a republic. It cost two trillion dollars, 2,352 soldiers, 3,800 contractors, 20,149 injuries, and the deaths of 140,000 Afghani citizens and soldiers. They couldn’t keep it. The world watched in real time as the Afghani republic evaporated into the very same brutal oligarchy that it was on the day Jonn Edmunds died. 

Self-evidently, they do not believe “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” If they believed this worldview, they would not be hunting down ideological opponents. Instead, they would be building coalitions with them. If they believed this creed, they would not be forcing women into brutal “marriages,” or torturing infidels.

Those who believe in a good and just Creator cannot act unjustly and evilly without denying the very core of their being. This is the true foundation of a republican form of government. Give up this creed and our own government will fall just as spectacularly and horrifically as the government of Afghanistan.

If we had seriously wanted to build a republic in Afghanistan, we should have started with this creed. Likewise, if we are serious about restoring America’s republic, we have no choice but to reestablish this same creed in our land. 

All men are created equal. Americans are no different than Afghanis when it comes to self-governance or brutal oligarchies. Americans have no magical qualities that will spare us from the chaos currently playing out in Afghanistan. We, like them, have only one thing standing between us and barbarism: the firm and uncompromising belief that all people are created by the same good and just Creator.

NOTE: Any veterans of the Afghan war who are struggling, in any way, are encouraged to reach out to the author at the address below. I will answer you, talk with you, and do everything in my power to arrange any other help that you may need.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, August 20, 2021.

Christian youth point to a bright future

Photo by Natalie Pedigo on Unsplash

Last Wednesday’s sun rose upon a gaggle of teenagers who had just summited a small peak in the Wind River Range. It happened during this author’s annual retreat above Sinks Canyon State Park west of Lander. 

Nobody was compelled to go. Rather, the campers themselves took charge. They organized a predawn expedition of three dozen youth who assembled in nautical twilight for the climb.

These are the leaders of tomorrow. And the future looks bright. They are filled with the vigor of youth and the usual spunk and recklessness. But it is no longer directionless and careless. Something has been added to the usual qualities of youth. It is almost imperceptible, but it is palpably present. Purpose, unity, determination and grit can be seen in their bright eyes.

The ascent was not a scrambled melee. It was teamwork. The strong helped the weak. The discerning advised the reckless. The fast waited for the slow and the slow happily pressed their limits to keep up. I was a counsellor allowed to be a part of something special. But, like a fly on the wall, I did more observing than guiding. It was a beauty to behold.

I can vividly remember the first day that I met some of these people in the summer of 2015. There were uncertain greetings exchanged as awkward preteens and an inexperienced counsellor met for the first time. We occupied cabin 7 at the Freemont County Youth Camp and were clueless about the routines and rhythms of summer camp. Everything we did took twice as long and was half as good. That was a long time ago.

Slowly, imperceptibly, boys became men and men became leaders. There is no single person who can claim the credit. Parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, pastors, teachers and a host of unnamed role models each contributed something. Together, it led to a summit marked by a rustic cross that had been cobbled together from a pair of lodgepole pines.

This experience, while heart-warming, is probably not terribly unusual in Wyoming. Our mountains are dotted with summer youth camps that are booked solid from the spring thaw to late fall road closures. Rocks, water, dirt and pines form an outdoor classroom filled by kids and counsellors from every walk of life. All share the experience described above.

But this year I was privileged to witness something else that I have not seen before. I wager that few have. It happened back in the lodge. Still before breakfast, twelve men of high school age spontaneously picked up hymnals, stood before 70 peers and two dozen counsellors, and sang the Church’s hymns. The cross at the top of the mountain was not an empty symbol to them. It silently proclaimed the Creator’s redemption of His world. These young men were unashamed to stand before their female peers and lead the song.

It was the recklessness of youth redirected. And in that carefree confession, something remarkable happened. No longer were the adults trying patiently to spoon feed the lessons that youth would need for life. The baton was passed to the next generation.

That full throated song of a dozen young men was like the dawn of a new day. These are tomorrow’s leaders. They recognize not only the need to put a hand to the plow. They recognize, also, the Maker of the plow and the Maker of the soil. 

In a flash of light, those present saw the potential of the generation who will lead us out of our present confusion. They are eager to take their place as the builders of tomorrow. And they recognize that true building can be done only by “men with chests.” 

That phrase comes from one of C.S. Lewis’ most important writings. In “The Abolition of Man,” he laments that the scourge of Materialism treats human beings as soulless machines. It removes “their chests” and then wonders why they act as less than human.

To treat people as “men without chests” is to address only half of their potential. We should not be surprised when it results in corruption, confusion and chaos in the institutions we once revered. Materialism that denies the spiritual side of man ties one hand behind his back and still asks him to build. 

Photo by Anthony Fomin on Unsplash

Tomorrow’s generation of leaders is growing to see this folly. It is determined to do something about it. Soulless materialism has led us into a box canyon from which there is no escape. Yet rather than give up the fight, a new generation sees that the way out is the way up.

Beleaguered builders of our day can take heart as these happy warriors come of age. They are the dawn of a new day.

Also published in the Cowboy State Daily on August 15, and in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, August 13, 2021.

Squandered public trust can be restored

Trust is the currency of civilization. Without it you can’t leave the house. For that matter, unless you trust your housemates, you don’t leave your bedroom. It is the basis of all communal living.

To ride a bus or a taxi, you must trust that the driver is skilled, and the vehicle is safe. To eat restaurant food, you must trust that the kids flipping burgers won’t spit on the grill or give you Botulism. To send your kids to school, you must trust that the school will not fill their minds with lies or undermine your parenting. To take medicine, you must trust that the drug is effective and safe and that your doctor abides by the Hippocratic Oath. Absent such trust, industries close, parents keep their children home, doctors are ignored.

Such trust cannot come from coercion. It comes from culture. It comes from each person’s commitment to do the right thing even when no one is watching. Cultures die when self-restraint is lost. Citizens conditioned to do whatever they can get away with make for a toxic environment. Absent self-restraint, there are not enough policemen in the universe to keep the peace.

Our generation is the beneficiary of parents and grandparents who made such unsupervised virtue a widespread habit. The more widespread the habit, the more freedoms we enjoyed. Conversely, when self-restraint is lost so, also, is freedom. For this reason, trust is truly a currency. It has real value—monetary value. 

Every unseen, virtuous act over America’s history has been a deposit in the bank of civilization. Together, our forebears built a great deposit of public trust. The monetary value of the United States of America is not measured only in natural resources, workforce, or technological knowhow. It is measured primarily in the public trust built over decades. 

There is a reason why international businesses prefer to write contracts in English and file them in New York rather than Beijing. It’s not because Central Park is a lovely place. It is because people the world over trust American courts to administer equal justice under the law. If that virtue is lost, America loses her national treasure. 

For this reason, every private act of self-indulgence and every secret vice squanders the public trust that has been accumulated over decades. And what is true of private vices is equally true of public crimes. Any breach of law that is ignored, any law that is unequally investigated, prosecuted, or punished is massively destructive of civilization.

Public servants from school board members to the president are constantly tempted by Nietsche’s “will to power.” The acquisition of raw power to get one’s way despite any law, any principle, or the ongoing consent of the governed has become the philosophy of too many godless elites. 

Daily we are treated to revelations of corruption at the highest levels of government, media, and corporate America. Government agents have forged documents and lied to congress without consequences. News organizations have wantonly lied without retraction. Social media giants have passed off political hacks as “fact-checkers.” 

All of this is squandering the public trust. Public trust in institutions, from congress and the FBI to corporate news and corporate board rooms, is at an all-time low. It is enough to cause people of good will to throw in the towel and adopt the unprincipled ethics of the worst public actors. 

That would be a mistake. For Solomon says, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished… It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness” (Proverbs 16:5, 12, KJV).

It is a time to reinvest in the currency that built our nation--one deposit at a time. You are not powerless in the face of overwhelming evil and corruption. Rather, each act of personal integrity is infinitely powerful. Evil is defeated when you do the right thing while nobody’s watching. Dragons are slain when you stand for truth rather than for self-preservation. 

Such actions will not only restore the trust of your family and neighbors, they will also make you intolerant of people who flagrantly drain the public trust. No matter whether they are hiding behind a label of red or blue, black or white, you will demand the same integrity from people in positions of public trust that you demand from yourself. 

As you treat others fairly, you will demand equal treatment under law from your government. As you refuse to tell a lie, you will also refuse to accept lies from propagandists. Acting together, Americans of every stripe and every persuasion can restore our lost public trust. We can, and we must.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, August 6, 2021.