Who Will Fight For America?

After decades of not instilling a patriotic belief in our children, we have young people who do not think anything is worth fighting or dying for

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

President Ronald Regan

Remarks on the 40^th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion

I have written multiple times (On this site and others) that the United States does not need a draft for its military service. But what does the country need from its people? A population that is loyal to the nation (not necessary to the government), and willing to serve when needed.

The greatest example of this patriotism would unquestionable be World War II. Millions of men fought on the lines while their wives, sisters, and mothers ran the factories that fueled the war effort. Even if you could not fight, you did something. Collect scrap metal for war production, assist in hospitals. My grandfather was a barber by trade, and well into his 40s when the war started. His contribution was guarding a munition plant at night.

I thought of this after reading a National Review column on the attitudes of our more younger generations, Gen Z (Born 1997-2012) and Millennials (Born 1981 to 1996):

As part of a recent survey of attitudes toward Russia’s execrable invasion of Ukraine, the polling firm Quinnipiac asked Americans whether they would stay and fight if the United States were invaded by Russia.

This point needs to be made again. The question is not would you serve to assist a nation we have a treaty obligation to, or to a foreign territory of the US, but the US proper (Think Red Dawn, the 1984 original, not the pathetic 2012 revision). The numbers are depressing.  

The results make sobering — and often disgraceful — reading. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans said that they would “stay and fight,” with 25 percent indicating that they’d run away. Among independents, those numbers are 57–36. Among Democrats, they’re in negative territory, at 40–52. Among 50- to 64-year-old men and women, the stay/leave numbers are 66/28. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, they are 45/48. Or, to put it another way: A majority of the prime-aged Americans whom the United States would need were such a crisis to arise imagine that they would flee if that crisis ever came.

With the Republicans, purportedly the most patriotic group of people in the nation, you have one in four saying they would not fight if the Russians came over the Bering Straits, they would ROTC (Run off to Canada, assuming that’s an option). Understandable it gets worse with the “independents” (A lot are liberals but not man enough to say it) and Democrats. But any of these numbers should be troubling.

Since the 1960s at least (especially since the 1980s), as liberals have taken over the education systems across the country, they stopped teaching things that are critically needed for a healthy society. A common language (English); A common history; Civics, so a young person can understand their roll in a functioning civilization, and Reinforcement of love of county, including learning the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag (Emphasized by saying the pledge daily during school) and the National Anthem.

The closest thing this county has to a non-secular religious event is the National Football Championship. What was a great display of patriotism and an immense exhibition of meritocracy, the Super Bowl, is now infected with wokeism. The NFL is more concerned with “oppression” and “struggle,” putting millions into black radical groups like BLM. It is also playing the “black” national anthem, Lift All Voices and Sing after the Star Spangle Banner.

Back to the schools, the public-school systems (And unfortunately more of the private and religious schools), once a great achievement of the cities and states, are failing in every category. Before we taught English, now it’s “language arts,” and in mathematics, the most exact of sciences, arithmetic et all is called racist, sexist, etc. But what is being taught the American Experiment is completely illegitimate, that we stole everything that makes up the United States from the Indian tribes. The fact the Indians fought among themselves for land and people, for some reason, doesn’t make it into new history.

Put all this together, is it any surprise our more recent generations don’t believe America is worth fighting for? One of the many chilling threats made by Barrack Obama was, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” I guess being the most prosperous, free nation on earth was too much for him. But again, it comes back to the schools. We need to take control of the schools again, from the school board level and up, to ensure our kids are taught real history, actual math, real science, and civics and civilization, so they are assimilated into a functioning society. If not, we will see the American Experiment rot and collapse within itself.

 

Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.

Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.