Massive Military Murder - The Fruits Of National Sin
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ August 11, 2010
I began college in 1947 with hundreds of returning WWII veterans. These men survived the world’s bloodiest conflict; over 60 million civilians and soldiers were killed. Almost without a hiccup, in 1951, I graduated into a military draft for another war, the Korean War. The cadre at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, came direct from the toe blackening cold of the 38th parallel where 37 thousand young American men lost their lives and 92 thousand were maimed. In total, this forgotten war was responsible for the deaths of a quarter of a million soldiers and two and a half million Asian civilians.
In 1953 I was again a civilian and there was bright hope for a successful business career. United States was home to the largest manufacturing capacity in the world, we were the freest and wealthiest nation, we had the largest and most prosperous middle class, the best universities, the best medical care, the best highway system, the best form of government and the most diverse, amenable, and interesting population. It was a great time to be young and to be a citizen of the United States of America.
Little more than five and a half decades later we are in the midst of an economic depression; we are nine years into an imperialistic Middle East war; our industrial capacity has been moved to China; our wealth is being dissipated by taxes and inflation; the middle class is being sacrificed to “free trade”; our universities have fallen into a political correct fantasy world; medical care has deteriorated, our highway system is in ruins; and; unlimited, inappropriate immigration has created scores of foreign enclaves that speak different languages, worship different gods and behave in different ways. Unrest is rising and our government is beginning to turn on its own people.
As the recession grinds on, the employment data coming from official sources is about as accurate as the propaganda that supported GATT, the WTO, NAFTA and CAFTA, treaties that contributed heavily to the dilemma in which our nation is now mired. In his book “Hopes and Prospects”, Noam Chomsky writes, “The term ‘Trade” is a euphemism for turning human life over to unaccountable state-supported private tyrannies. And finally the ‘agreements’ are not agreements, at least if people are considered to be part of their societies: the treaties are generally opposed by the populations and therefore have to be established mostly in secret, or under ‘fast track’ provisions that provide the state executive with Kremlin like controls, with congress given the right to say yes (and in principle no, but without serious discussion or information), and with the public virtually excluded thanks to media complicity… In the phrase ‘North American Free Trade Agreement’ the only accurate words are ‘North American’.”
While our controlled media tells us things are getting better, astute analysis and published statistics conflict with the rhetoric.
I am writing this piece in New England where my wife and I are visiting family. We journeyed here from Florida on badly decaying highways, through hour long traffic jams; and ubiquitous, irritating semi-trucks hauling foreign products formerly made in America.
Our first visit was with one of Patty’s high school friends, employed by a local aluminum casting company for over 45 years. Ten years ago the company employed 30 workers; today there are three in the factory and she is alone in the office. Her husband, who a couple of decades ago was a skilled operator of a sheet steel finishing machine, has now been unemployed for over a year and has joined the “discouraged workers” club.
We stopped to visit with one of my former business associates, the owner of a machining company whose business has shrunk from 130 employees to 40. He is shipping products to China for an American company now located there and has kept some of his employees by servicing gun manufacturers who are busy.
In New England, hundreds of small manufacturing operations have been severely downsized. These were businesses that supplied products to manufacturing operations that have sought cheaper labor in China, Mexico, or elsewhere. No one seems to know what has happened to the displaced workers.
United States has lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. The CIA World Factbook puts the U. S. labor force at over 154 million. Princeton economist Alan Blinder believes another 40 million jobs are at risk in the next 10 to 20 years. Eighty-four percent of U. S. employment is in the service sector and a third of those jobs are vulnerable. Blinder believes the 3 million Americans employed in accounting and bookkeeping may become our next jobless citizens.
The scrupulously avoided truth is that globalization, as the world’s oligarchs have constructing it, involves pitting American workers who require $20 an hour jobs to maintain their lifestyles against Asian workers whose lifestyles are improved at $.50 an hour. American workers are gaining nothing and losing everything!
We are staying at a Motel located a mile or so from the burgeoning ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Company which is the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate. The motel caters to ESPN employees and associated sports figures along with a variety of business people. We met several who worked with computers, an employee of a large cooperative grocery, insurance personnel, and a couple of fine looking college football prospects waiting to be interviewed. No one involved in manufacturing.
I spoke with a smart young woman who was employed by one of the major elevator companies. I thought I had found a manufacturer but, alas, most of the elevators are made in Mexico and her work was with computers. She believes the economy is improving.
Federal charts list the number of government employees in 2003 as 2.6 million Federal, 1.4 million Military, and almost 19 million working for State Governments. According to these figures, about 23 million U. S. workers are employed by some governmental agency. Hundreds of thousands of these workers have been and will be laid off.
Nearly one and a half million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, 2 percent more than in 2008. Those that are in the bottom 40 percent of income earners own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth. Over a million and a half U. S. properties were foreclosed in the first half of 2010. Compared to last year, China recorded a 140 percent increase in their trade surplus. One analyst claims the U. S. has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007. We now have close to 10 million Americans who are unemployed without unemployment checks. Read statistics here.
In the hallowed halls of Ivy League Universities there is talk about international competition for services. We thought these jobs might create an American panacea but, alas, they too are vulnerable. The world’s oligarchs have set the stage for American workers in ALL fields to compete with Asian workers who are delighted to work for about 2 percent of the average American wage. The wealth robbing adjustment required for this transition is unbelievably severe and potentially deadly.
Now, gentle reader, you may wonder why a Christian writer would address these issues. The answer is that the devastation of the United States is a MORAL issue and Christianity is a moral religion. God promises peace and prosperity to those who obey His Commandments. That we are experiencing war and economic depression should set our pulpits on fire for repentance.
And why do I quote Noam Chomsky and Paul Craig Roberts? - Because there are few, if any, quotable Christians writing or speaking about these issues. Noam Chomsky is a Jewish academic and an avid truth teller. Paul Craig Roberts is a journalist and politician. He may have some sort of religious base but he fails to convey it in his truth revealing articles. Roberts is writing again (he would burst if he didn’t) but when he retired several months ago he wrote these revealing words: “I was associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal. I was Business Week’s first outside columnist, a position I held for 15 years. I was columnist for a decade for Scripps Howard News Service, carried in 300 newspapers. I was a columnist for the Washington Times and for newspapers in France and Italy and for a magazine in Germany. I was a contributor to the New York Times and a regular feature in the Los Angeles Times. Today I cannot publish in, or appear on, the American ‘mainstream media’.” Paul Craig Roberts is an exceptional writer and editor who paid a high price for exposing detrimental chicanery. Chomsky has been vilified and ostracized, my articles are often rejected by various internet sites that refuse to acknowledge truth or find portions of it too shocking to publish.
Churches and various Christian ministries that depend on donations for their sustenance are always hampered by the opinions of their supporters. I am greatly blest for I am beholden to no one. I do not write to gain access to a website, to gain an audience by publishing shocking facts, or to become a popular writer. I am not a 501C3 corporation and do not depend on donations. Jesus is my King and my Savior, He is the ultimate Truth and my job is to bring His reality to His creation. I quote pagans because Christian leaders forsake truth for popularity. It is this failure to zealously address the exact issues of our time that makes the Christian Church irrelevant.
The spirit of Norman Vincent Peale’s book “The Power of Positive Thinking” has permeated our society and the Christian church. Peale was immensely popular. His book sold millions of copies. It was on our kitchen table when I was young. My mother read it and sought to apply it to her life. Christian churches preached it and exploited it. It is still with us. Church services are positive and non-confrontational. They are success oriented and seeker friendly. And all the while our nation decays around us. It was heresy when Peale presented it and it is still heresy today!
This lying spirit of positive thinking has infiltrated our citizens who prefer the gilded mendacity of the press and media rather to the reality of frightening numerical facts.
The truth is that the number of unemployed Americans is increasing along with the number of foreclosures. We are mired in a recession and the way out is unthinkable. If we are to compete in world markets we must do so at Chinese wage scales and, at Chinese wage scales, millions of Americans will starve.
The tragedy is that in spite of many warnings the American electorate voted for the politicians that have been responsible for the death of our republic. The following quote has been posted on the internet for sometime. It is wrong on a couple of counts but right on its main theme. Obama is not a fool – President Obama is a tool and the solution to our dilemma is not political but religious. "The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."
When the writer speaks of the “vast confederacy of fools” his description is right on the mark. The reason we Christians are lied to, manipulated, propagandized, rebuked, denigrated, banned, and scorned is that we do not really believe in the religion we profess. We are more interested in devising theologies that eviscerate the Bible than we are in obeying the God Who wrote it. We prefer to have God bless us with healing and gifts rather than blessing Him with a zeal for His hegemony.
In the early stages of my Christian life I considered myself a Christian Conservative and defended President Richard Nixon. I thought of Noam Chomsky as a Communist and since Communists were atheists I put him and his vast knowledge aside. For a number of years I distrusted intellectuals and scorned books. I believed Christianity would not stand up to mental scrutiny. I was wrong but I had lots of company both then and now. Atheists, agnostics, and humanists of various varieties can and do speak and write truth. When His servants fail to pronounce truth God uses those who will. However, atheists, agnostics, and humanists can only provide human solutions. Christians are vested by God with the ONLY effective antidote to our social ills.
America has the government it deserves. When Christians finally wake up they will understand that the political solution they are seeking will continue to evade them until a true repentance begins in the churches of America. God cannot bless pride. He cannot bless America as long as we boast of our superior military killing machine or in the grandeur of our nation. He cannot bless a disobedient church that supports a disobedient political system. Physical resistance to oppression will not save America. America deserves oppression, our sins have earned it. When our hearts are broken, then redemption will come to us.
“For Thou desirest no sacrifice, though I would give it: thou desirest not a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit: a contrite and a broken heart, O God Thou wilt not despise.” King David
Al Cronkrite is a free-lance writer from Florida. He can be reached at fmsinfla@hotmail.com