Remembering in Gratitude Those Who Did Their Duty to the Republic

By |2023-06-02T11:47:54-05:00May 28th, 2023|Categories: Foreign Affairs, Memorial Day, Military, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

Today I honor the men and women of the United States military who have sacrificed their lives while doing their duty to the Republic. For them, and their families, I ask God to bless them and keep them. And for the fallen of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army [...]

Decoration Day, Memorial Day, & Fallen Heroes

By |2023-05-28T21:45:17-05:00May 28th, 2023|Categories: Civil War, Memorial Day, Military, Peter A. Lawler, Timeless Essays|Tags: , |

Memorial Day originates with the Civil War as “Decoration Day.” Southern women took up the task of decorating the graves of what turns to have been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of their fallen heroes. Theirs was highly civilized work—a duty maybe more Greek and Roman than Christian. So I’ve been criticized for saying that [...]

Visiting the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

By |2022-05-24T17:44:42-05:00May 24th, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Cold War, Military, Nuclear War, Senior Contributors|

The barely-populated area of the Great Plains where the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is located is beautiful and peaceful—thus adding, in some strange, ironic, and disturbing way, to the surrealism of weapons designed there to end the world as we know it. We got up early, and we drove nearly two hours to see [...]

A War Hero’s Life: A Tribute to My Father

By |2024-03-04T17:21:34-06:00March 23rd, 2022|Categories: Heroism, Memorial Day, Military, Stephen M. Klugewicz, Timeless Essays, Veterans Day, World War II|

On January 25, 1945, the Battle of the Bulge ended. But not until a decade after my father’s death did I uncover the fact that he fought in what one historian has deemed the greatest battle in history. Cpl. Joseph D. Klugewicz won a Bronze Star for his actions against the Nazis that winter. But [...]

“Manufacturing Militarism”: The Author’s Perspective

By |2021-08-24T18:43:36-05:00August 24th, 2021|Categories: American military, Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Military, Senior Contributors|

Propaganda has both short-term and long-term consequences. In the short term, propaganda can influence people to support particular policies, even if those policies cut against their best interests. In the long run, propaganda erodes democratic foundations. The Imaginative Conservative's Brad Birzer interviews Abigail R. Hall, co-author of "Manufacturing Militarism," which Dr. Birzer reviewed in these [...]

Women in Combat & the Death of Chivalry

By |2021-08-08T21:51:01-05:00August 9th, 2021|Categories: American military, Culture War, Feminism, John Horvat, Military|

In the name of equality, the exclusively male draft could soon be discarded. Imposing the draft upon all young American women is a logical consequence of a new “woke” armed forces oriented not for war but inclusion and diversity. The American military has always had recourse to the draft in times of emergency. Through this [...]

The Korean War and the Nuclear Bomb

By |2020-12-30T07:54:42-06:00December 29th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Military, War|

While the United States used nuclear weapons against Japan in 1945, she did not use them against North Korea in 1950. With vanishingly few geopolitical—or even partisan political—guardrails to keep her from doing so, why did the United States not drop the bomb in the later war? At 10:15 at night on September 6, 1950, [...]

Remarks at the West Point Graduation Ceremony

By |2020-06-16T13:45:02-05:00June 16th, 2020|Categories: Donald Trump, Military, Presidency|

The Army exists to preserve the republic and the strong foundations upon which it stands: family, God, country, liberty, and justice. What has historically made America unique is the durability of its institutions against the passions and prejudices of the moment. When times are turbulent, what matters most is that which is permanent, timeless, enduring, [...]

In Defense of Those Who Protect Us

By |2021-05-15T21:00:38-05:00June 8th, 2020|Categories: Conservatism, J.R.R. Tolkien, Louis Markos, Memorial Day, Military, Timeless Essays, Veterans Day, Virtue, War|

We must respect the difficulty and danger of the jobs of those who protect us and stop willfully blinding ourselves to the unpleasant realities around us. Let us defend, support, and celebrate our police and our military; without them, our world would be a far more perilous place. This semester, I am happily exercising one [...]

“A Fanfare for Paratroopers”

By |2023-06-04T20:14:15-05:00August 22nd, 2018|Categories: Audio/Video, Military, Music, World War II|

During World War Two, the famed English conductor Eugene Goossens, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, commissioned various American composers to submit patriotic pieces to celebrate the Allied war effort against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Eighteen compositions (including one by Goossens himself), brief fanfares all, were submitted and were played over the course of [...]

Andrew Jackson & the Republican Fear of a Standing Army

By |2021-03-14T14:55:07-05:00June 5th, 2018|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, History, In Defense of Andrew Jackson Series by Bradley Birzer, Military, Presidency, War|

To the end of his days, Andrew Jackson harbored suspicions about the United States employing a standing army. A standing army was a waste of a country’s resources, and even more so, a danger to the liberties of its people. To understand Andrew Jackson, his thought, his policies, and his legacy, one must understand the [...]

Go to Top