Next year we are to bring all the soldiers home For lack of money, and it is all right. Places they guarded, or kept orderly, Must guard themselves, and keep themselves orderly. We want the money for ourselves at home Instead of working. And this is all right. It’s hard to say who wanted it [...]
“The Republican Party, which achieved its greatest vigor in this century during the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan, now seems in the sere and yellow leaf.” – Russell Kirk, February 27, 1991, the day before President George Bush declared victory with Operation Desert Storm. Scholars Bradley J. Birzer and Adam Fuller reflect on Russell Kirk’s [...]
Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone, In a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone. I had come down the chimney, with presents to give and to see just who in this home did live. As I looked all about, a strange sight I did see, no tinsel, no presents, not even [...]
Editor’s Note: The following letter by Major Sullivan Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island regiment was written on July 14, 1861, a week before he was mortally wounded in the First Battle of Bull Run. My Very Dear Wife: Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write [...]
The United States in Congress assembled after giving the most honorable testimony to the merits of the federal Armies, and presenting them with the thanks of their Country for their long, eminent, and faithful services, having thought proper by their proclamation bearing date the 18th day of October last to discharge such part of the Troops [...]
The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation in a television broadcast [...]
The American military promotes love of country, self-sacrifice, and courage. These latter two virtues, especially, are honed in wartime, and though war is always to be avoided due to its many attendant evils, there is no denying that it is a singular stage upon which great acts of sacrifice and stunning displays of courage are [...]
Dugway Proving Ground, UT Like an emerald dropped by Sinbad’s roc into the Valley of the Serpents, Camp James Wilkinson, amidst the sand, sparkled from the red sun that was setting in Nevada across the salt flats. The serpents were literal enough, since rattlesnakes crushed by wheels of military trucks lay dead every [...]
It was once observed, long ago, that “opinion governs the world.” And while that may be overstating things, it is true that the West’s opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin has wholly governed its policy throughout the ongoing Ukrainian crisis by allowing personal animus and a distaste for his brand of atavistic nationalist politics to [...]
On his headstone at Arlington National Cemetery are listed Dad’s most important commendations: the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Like most veterans, my father did not like to talk about the war, and so the significance of one of these citations remained a secret until ten years after his death. “Then there’s one thing [...]
Lone Survivor, the new film recounting an ill-fated search and rescue attempt in Afghanistan, has a tragic connection with my school, St. John’s College in Annapolis. Lt. Cmdr. Erik S. Kristensen, the Navy SEAL who led the bold mission and who died bravely along with many others in the daring operation, received a master’s degree from [...]
Think about the men of Lexington or the members of the First Continental Congress. Did they deliberate, did they shed blood, did they sacrifice so that our government—the first major republic in almost 2,000 years—could devolve in the same fashion, only much faster, than the last major republic? Rebellion is not necessarily secessionist in the [...]
This Veterans Day, I would encourage you to remember and honor veterans, but less because what they have done, and more because of what their service represents—that is, a space for robust civil society, and human flourishing. Our nation has been at war now for more than a decade. Since the first troops were sent [...]
I have always hesitated to comment on the state of our military culture. I have never served and, for a variety of reasons, seriously doubt I ever will be (or ever would have been) called upon to enter combat. But over the years I have come to know a number of military families reasonably well, and to [...]