CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 3, 2022

To kill a nation

This election year begins with a great deal of concern about what Russian President Vladimir Putin might do with Ukraine and what Chicom President Xi Jinping might do with Taiwan. Interesting? Yes, but are the "vital interests" of the United States at stake in either place? No!

And even if the United States had a vital interest in the preservation of the status quo ante in Ukraine or Taiwan, ever since the Obama Administration the U.S. does not have the military power to be effective in either place. President Obama pledged "To take American down a peg or two," and he did it. Recall, the Benghazi debacle (September 11, 2012) and the subsequent sacking of over 200 warrior-class admirals and generals and their replacement with touchy-feely, social-justice admirals and generals? There’s you answer.

That said, the United States and the entire world have a vital interest in preventing the Mullahs in Iran from possessing nuclear weapons. Israel aside, nuclear weapons in the hands of a bunch of irrational haters of all peoples who are not Shiite Muslims is a threat to the existence of life on Planet Earth as we know it.

Fortunately, the United State still has enough naval, airpower, and missile power (but not foot soldiers) to smash Iran like a bug, even underground. Ergo: Iran is where we have a vital interest and Iran is where our military can still make a difference. The question is: Does the Biden Regency* have the will to act in time?

Terrifying as all this is the worst threat the U.S. faces is internal. It is a threat to what makes America, America. A nation-state consists of three elements: Geography, Culture, and a Political System. For decades all three of those elements of nationhood have been under attack from within. Geography, too? Yes, if you prevent a nation from using its natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, and other minerals, you have effectively killed a nation’s geographical advantages.

Of course, and perfectly obvious is the Cancel Culture Movement’s attack on the folk ways, mores, and history of the United States. Yet, to kill a culture requires control, either legal or fraudulent, of the Political System.

So, the question for American voters at the polls come this November is: do they want a political system under the control of those who openly profess hatred for America and who censor all opposition? Or, do they want a more open political system in which all points of view can be debated and then voted on in free and fair elections?

Think back since the presidential election of 2008 can anyone think of any of these three elements of nationhood that have not been under constant attack, either direct or indirect?

History does not provide any examples of Great Empires -- not even Grecian, Roman, Persian, Han, Mongol, Ottoman, Russian, or British -- that were killed off by their external enemies But History is replete with Great Empires killed off from within by internal disputes, moral decay, and their inability to deal adequately with the ravages of various plagues. Rome being a prime example. Covid, anyone?

Happy New Year, anyone? That remains to be seen.

*Regency: When someone governs in place of another.

Suggested reading: "Global Coup," Archbishop Vigano’s Christmas letter to the American people, December 18, 2021; Dismantling America by Thomas Sowell, 2010; "The New Blue State Confederacy,: by Victor Davis Hanson, in American Greatness, November 22, 2021; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960.

©2022. William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com