Most every living American has been equipped with a natural distaste either for the now deceased Soviet Union, or today's Russia. Many baby boomers recall crouching under school desks in bomb drills. The threat of a nuclear exchange between the two super powers was indeed a reality. Since Bolshevik Revolution and the grotesque assassinations of the last Godly Tsar, Nicholas II along with his wife and children in 1918, the once mighty Christian land of Rus decayed under the deadly and immoral rot of Godless communism.
While now predictably post-Christian, albeit the Protestant strain, America rightly recoiled at our natural enemy. The recollection of Khrushchev's “We Will Bury You” speech at the United Nations fueled the sentiment of the Soviet bear being the personification of evil.
And it was. Beginning with Josef Stalin, one atheist dictator after another did his best to exterminate all vestiges of the former Russia as being the Christian land it once was. The carnage of Christian martyrs who fell under the Soviet sword (or gun, or starvation) far exceeded amateurs such as Hitler. Most of them remain unknown to anyone, save for our Creator.
To his credit, Ronald Reagan identified communism as the threat, and proceeded to bankrupt the bankrupt ideology. His successor witnessed the symbolic collapse of the Berlin wall Reagan had ordered torn down. Inside the red borders began the rebirth of the once great Christian land. The Soviet Union was dead, gone out of business without anybody firing a shot.
Unfortunately, what did not die alongside was the lingering notion among America that Russia was surely just another incarnation of the Soviet Union. In this present day, even “conservative” talkers like the clueless Dan Bongino still refer to Russia as a communist land, utterly unaware of the transformations that have taken place under an actual Christian president (Imagine that!)
America has morphed, rather obviously into a god-less nation and this was predictable, for the natural end of Protestantism in its myriad of forms is atheism. This is because the essence of Protestantism is rational, analytical and on its Pentecostal and Charismatic fringes, emotional. Included in the evangelical wing is faulty eschatological view of Russia as the evil red bear, destined to make war with the (actually) God-less state of Israel.
It's all so terribly shallow, but its adherents are devoted to a deadly view. This is because in the current state of world affairs, the blossoming land of Russia and its Christian roots may offer the best hope for mankind. Inside its borders, the Gospel (the actual Gospel) now flourishes, unhinged and unabated. Indeed, it is ironically America that is the potential mission field for actual Christianity, something we don't have a whole lot of these dark days.
Enter now a robust gaggle of neocons who extend into both American political parties. Convinced Russia remains evil, they seek to either bring Ukraine, once a part of Russia, into NATO, or send American troops and equipment to the renegade nation, to unbelievably assist in a potential war with the nation led by a clear-eyed, mentally sound and determined president, who does not enter into a dialogue assisted by a team of sycophants who place a script in front of him, so he'll know what to say. And were his fingers ever to hover over The Big Red Button, they would not be all trembly from dementia.
Odd that our leaders cannot be bothered with the goings-on at the Rio Grande. But the Ukrainian border? Well now buddy, just you back off or we'll....we'll, do something.
That something includes a first-strike nuclear option, fomented by our Joint Chiefs of Staff and muttering such possibilities into the vaccinated ears of the mentally compromised president. The notion Joe Biden could – could – initiate a nuclear exchange with Vladmir Putin should chill every American to the core. Instead, the Bonginos, Ernsts, Wickers, Grahams and Kennedys of the world evidently salivate over the idea of finally getting it on with the Bear.
Except now, the Bear is a Christian.
And America ain't, Dan.
Few bother to ask why in the world should we care about a Russia-Ukraine conflict, and that is the question. What it isn't is any of our business. Neither country represents a threat to the United States and if there were ever a time America needed to tend to her own biscuits, this is it.
I mean, really. What do you believe Putin would do at the southern American border, were he our president?
Alas, this is America, and war is our racket. We've abandoned Afghanistan and the rocket's red glare has barely worn off after what – four, five months – before we start looking around for the next war. But Russia is not Afghanistan, or Kuwait, or Libya, or Iraq. Any initiation of conflict by the United States would surely be met with a force none of us has ever seen.
Well, what of crazy Bernie? Has he weighed in on the situation? Being more comfortable with the glories(!) of communism, Bernie may well relish the opportunity to vanquish a largely Christian land.
And make no mistake. Ultimately, that is what this is all about.
It's thread-clinging, I know. But historically, old hippies were always anti-war. Any war. This would be prime time for the old commie hippie to rise, shine and embrace his 60's era roots. He could take his president and his party(s) to task and howl loudly about how we must back off and get back to other matters, such as universal basic incomes, open borders and government health care for all.
It could be a historic moment for the senator from Vermont. Will Bernie save America? Maybe he actually could. Of course, he won't.
But he could.
Lord have mercy on us all.
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