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 Since April, nearly 9,000 contractors have been withdrawn.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.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Photo by Tamirlan Maratov on Unsplash

On a normal day, Joseph Hackett would be seeing clients in his chiropractic clinic. On a normal day, he might stop for groceries on the way home from work, mow the lawn or relax with his wife, Deena and their eleven-year-old daughter in their Sarasota, Florida home. But today is not a normal day. They will have to do without his income. They will have to mow the lawn and fetch the groceries without his help.

Nothing has been normal for them since May 28 when a swarm of FBI agents descended on their home. Joe was whisked to a courtroom in Tampa. His wife and child were kept out of the house while the FBI rifled through their belongings for hours. 

In Tampa, Joe was denied bail and passed from lockup to lockup until on June 28, he landed in Washington D.C. There he sits in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. This is not normal. Federal law requires that bail be set, except for two narrow conditions: 1) flight risk; 2) danger to the community. It is extremely difficult to see how Joe’s case meets either criterion.

Court documents allege that Hackett was in the U.S. Capitol rotunda from 2:45pm on January 6 until 2:54pm. Whether this is true or not can await a proper trial. My concern today is the injustice of denying bail and the inhumane conditions of his detention. 

Likely, I would know none of this if fellow pastors from across the nation had not asked me to inquire if any of at least 61 others similarly situated are receiving their constitutional rights to pastoral care. After more than a month of searching, I still do not know the answer. 

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)

Last week, Missouri Congresswoman, Vicky Hartzler, formally asked Attorney General Merrick Garland for an answer to this and seven other questions. He ignored her July 28 deadline. Nor can we know how many have been denied bail since the Department of Justice’s database neither provides the information for every arrestee nor does it even list Joseph Hackett. How many others are detained but not listed?

Especially in a highly charged political climate, it is vital for America that we maintain the formalities of justice. These people are, in fact, “innocent until proven guilty.” The government may, in the course of time, prove them guilty of crimes connected with January 6. But, until that time comes, every American should expect that they be treated as innocent people, because they are.

Joseph & Dr. Deena Hackett
and daughter

The reason for this bedrock principle is evident. Punishment—whether fines, incarceration, or death—cannot be undone. Should Hackett be given bail today, or exonerated tomorrow, still his chiropractic business is destroyed. The hours robbed from raising his daughter are irretrievable. Lost months with his wife cannot be returned. Nor will there be any just compensation for income denied. The trauma of solitary confinement—acknowledged as torture by the U.N.—cannot be erased.

On the very day that Congresswoman Hartzler sent her letter to Merrick Garland, a judge in Hong Kong denied bail to four reporters from the Apple Daily. The Chinese Communist Party found that “there was not enough evidence to show that the defendants will not commit further acts endangering national security.” That is essentially the same reason given for denial of bail to Hackett and the others. We expect that of Communists, but not of the American justice system.

In the heat of this political moment, Marxist Critical Theorists are trying to divide us and pit us against one another. Race-baiting is only part of the story. They are also working to create an unbridgeable divide between Democrats and Republicans, Christians and secularists, Wyoming hicks and Wyoming woke. Then, having cast people into arbitrary groups, they ignore individual circumstances and particular facts and find guilt by association.

Such is also the case here. Three-score individual lives are being subsumed in a narrative. Instead of treating the cases of Joe Hackett, Ron Mele, Sgt. Kenneth Harrelson, Scott Fairlamb, Couy Griffin, Derek Kinneson, Erik Warner, and dozens more as distinct cases with unique circumstances, you are told that they are “insurrectionists,” “domestic terrorists,” “Oath-Keepers,” “Three-percenters” or some other impersonal group label.

Do not fall for it. The core of justice is equal treatment under law. Membership in some group should neither privilege or penalize a person. It is the government’s burden to prove guilt from facts and evidence—not to advance group narratives for political gain. The former is justice, the latter is not. 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” wrote Martin Luther King from the Birmingham jail. It is the duty of Americans everywhere to learn the facts and to stand for individual rights anywhere they are threatened.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, July 30, 2021, and in the Cowboy State Daily on August 5, 2021.

T is for Tragedy

Abigail Shrier, independent journalist
Author of “Irreversible Damage”

Humans have known about testosterone for millennia. They castrated male slaves not only to make them sterile, but to alter body shape and psychology. Byzantium choirs used to castrate children for the unique vocal effects—a barbaric practice not fully outlawed until 1870.

The drug responsible for these effects was named and began artificial production in the late 1930s. The effects of testosterone deprivation were long known. So, scientists began to experiment with elevating testosterone levels. High doses produced impressive results, but not without serious threats to health. In short order, fair sporting practices banned the drug.

The Controlled Substance Act lists testosterone among “Schedule III” drugs. These have legitimate medicinal value—like treating hypogonadism in men, and certain forms of breast cancer in women. But they also have “a potential for abuse” that “may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.” 

Testosterone is produced naturally by both sexes, but males have seven to eight times more than females. Another difference is that testosterone deprivation leads to sterility in men but for women it is the opposite. A woman given male levels of the hormone will be rendered sterile over time. This fact, combined with its addictive power, make “T” a potentially tragic drug for young women. Lured by peer pressure and captured by its addicting quality, children can significantly harm their capacity to have children before they are even old enough to vote.

Mack Beggs, girls state wrestling champion

Worse, the Affordable Care Act of 2009 contained a little-known provision that forced insurance companies to cover testosterone use in minors. The prohibitively expensive drug used exclusively to treat adults was suddenly cheap and accessible to kids. Fueled by an aggressive lobbying campaign, the use of “T” among teen girls spiked overnight. 

Exact numbers are hard to come by. Those that are available are staggering. A Swedish study, for instance, documented that in the past decade the percentage of girls between 13-17 who self-identify as “trans” has increased by a factor of 15. For many of these young girls, “T” has become a Rite of Passage.

The sudden spike in young females using testosterone off-label has many physicians, psychologists and parents deeply concerned. Since it is such a recent phenomenon, large-sample, longitudinal studies are not yet available, but early indications are not encouraging. 

The health risks of teenage girls taking “T” are significant and the damage is permanent. They include deformation of sexual organs, endometriosis, and cardiovascular issues. Compounding the problem, a person’s cerebral cortex is not fully developed until age 25. Thus, even at the legal age of consent, a person’s ability to make a full and rational risk-assessment is impaired.

Despite these contraindications, Britain’s National Health Service’s Tavistock clinic lowered(!) the age of consent from 16 to 12 in 2011. By 2014 it dropped age requirements altogether. In the following decade, it gave puberty blockers (often followed by “T”) to over a thousand children, some as young as ten. 

Kiera Bell, Tavistock plaintiff

But last December, Britain’s highest court ruled in favor of a 23-year-old woman who sued Tavistock over its treatment of her mind and body. She pointed out that the clinic should have known that she was incapable of legally informed consent before the age of 18. Her doctors and psychologists had the responsibility to protect her from self-harm, not to encourage her toward it. The court agreed and effectively reversed Tavistock’s age of consent rollbacks. American activists should have followed Britain’s wisdom. Instead, they doubled down. 

“Irreversible Damage,” a powerful new book by Abigail Shrier, can fill you in on the myriad details that we cannot cover here. For a quick primer, you can also watch “Trans Mission: What’s the rush to reassign gender?” This film, produced by the Center for Bioethics and Culture is free and available on YouTube.

Every parent, teacher, librarian and lobbyist who cares about children should study these resources. A tsunami is coming. Myriad women will soon reach their mid-twenties, only to discover that the treatments they consented to in their early teens were not what they wanted, at all.

For their sake, policy makers need to be asking questions. Why the rush to lower the age of consent? Why the rush to strip parents of the right to protect their children from self-harm? All of the lobbyists that push “T” on children are adults. Most are not even trans. Big Pharma is raking in billions from the government’s subsidy of “T” and related drugs. As with opioids, it profits from an epidemic of its own making.

This should outrage you. It raises serious questions about why taxpayer funded schools, libraries and insurance are being used to promote a drug abuse that is sterilizing our children. When they mature enough to understand the tragedy, they will ask: How could you let them do that?

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, July 23, 2021.

Can Cheney give Americans what they justly deserve?

Hours after Representative Cheney (R-WY) broke from her 190 fellow Republicans to establish a “House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” she wasted no time in accepting an appointment to it. This move gave Pelosi’s Committee a façade of bi-partisanship and pre-emptively undercut Republican threats to boycott its committee appointments.

On June 30th, Cheney issued a press release stating, “This investigation can only succeed if it is sober, professional, and non-partisan. The threat to our democracy is far too grave for grandstanding or political maneuvering. The Committee should issue and enforce subpoenas promptly, hire skilled counsel, and do its job thoroughly and expeditiously. The American people need and deserve a full accounting. We must ensure that what happened on January 6, 2021 never happens again.”

Indeed. On this point everyone is agreed. The substantial questions are: What really did happen on January 6, and can this committee conduct a “sober, professional, and non-partisan investigation? After two embarrassing impeachments, and three years of peddling the fraudulent “Steele Dossier,” American’s may rightly be skeptical.

“The American people need and deserve a full accounting.” That is true. The committee’s subpoena power and legal resources must be employed to examine aspects of January 6 that have, so far, been withheld from the American public. If congress wants to rehabilitate its public credibility, here are some things that should be investigated thoroughly and transparently.

The investigation should begin with the days leading up to January 6th. What did congressional leaders know, and when did they know it? All communications from the Intelligence Community, D.C. Police, and Capitol Police should be subpoenaed. Leadership from both parties should be placed under oath—beginning with Cheney—in order to determine why multiple security requests were denied.

Next, the Committee should subpoena the 14,000 hours of CCTV captured by cameras around the Capitol and owned by the American people. This evidence should be made public. For six months, the Department of Justice has used highly edited snippets to prosecute over 500 citizens. But it has denied access to defense attorneys, claiming that the tapes are state secrets. 

More than an hour before anybody entered the Capitol, video shows  troops in riot gear shooting stun grenades and pepper spray without warning at law-abiding citizens. The attack appeared unprovoked. The group, including small children and the elderly, had crossed no barriers nor were they threatening to do so. Were the unidentified troops federal agents? Or were they agent provocateurs?

The American people deserve to know the full extent of what was done to peaceful protesters. Were they reacting to a speech happening over a mile away? Or were they reacting to a more immediate threat? Releasing all the video footage from that day would provide necessary transparency.

Third, every death should be vigorously investigated. Before the first door was breached into the Capitol, a man died of a reported heart attack. Soon, a second died from a reported stroke. Then, a third was trampled. What accounts for this? Did chemicals, munitions or police procedures contribute to these tragedies? Were federal officers following crowd safety protocols.

The only shot fired on January 6th was aimed at the throat of Ashli Babbitt. The Capitol Police officer who killed the unarmed woman still has not been formally identified. This most violent event of the entire day ought to receive the fullest and the most painstaking investigation. Who was the shooter? What were his rules of engagement? What training did he receive? What was his service record?

The next day, Officer Brian Sicknick died of a stroke. For months it was falsely reported that he had been struck by a fire extinguisher. Who planted this false information? And why did it take more than 100 days to release the autopsy that disproved it? 

Days later two other officers died in apparent suicides. Who investigated their deaths? What evidence is conclusive that they died of suicide linked to January 6th? Who made the decision to connect their deaths to the Capitol? Before these questions were addressed, Cheney claimed that they “made the ultimate sacrifice as a result of what happened that day.” 

Also, before the smoke had cleared from January 6th, Cheney began the narrative that the crowd acted “to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes.” How could she know either the motives of 500 individuals, or whether they were acting in coordination? 

This is irresponsible behavior for a public official. Worse, it is extremely prejudicial to the investigation she now wishes to lead. “The American people need and deserve a full accounting.” Will they get it? Or, will they only get more “grandstanding [and] political maneuvering”?

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, July 9, 2021, and in the Cowboy State Daily on July 21, 2021.

The Court-Sanctioned Persecution Of Jack Phillips Shows How ‘Hate Crime’ Laws End Everyone’s Freedom Of Speech

 

The goal of lawfare against people like Phillips is to destroy free speech, not by winning discrete battles, but by winning a war of attrition.

Jack Phillips, a smiling grandfather from the Denver suburbs, is about to face the tenth year of unceasing high-stakes lawfare against his religious convictions. His only ambition was to combine his visual and culinary artistic talents in a business that serves Jesus, the Master. Masterpiece Cakeshop, with its artist’s palette logo, makes this clear.

But on July 19, 2012, a couple walked into his shop who would unleash the opening salvo of nine years of belligerent litigation. 

Continue reading on The Federalist.