Military, War, and Defense – Position Paper
By: Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
8/26/2023
Several fundamental principles and objectives summarize the United States’ policy, purpose, and position on war, the military, and defense. The specific policies and approaches will vary depending on the administration and the geopolitical context.
- National Security: The primary purpose of the U.S. military and defense policy is to ensure the national security of the United States and protect her interests at home and abroad. This involves maintaining a robust military capability to deter potential adversaries, defend against threats, and respond to attacks if necessary.
- Defense Alliances: The United States often establishes and maintains defense alliances with other countries to enhance collective security, promote stability, and address common threats. Examples include NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and various bilateral defense agreements.
- Promotion of Peace: While recognizing the necessity of military strength, the United States also seeks to promote peace and stability through diplomatic means, negotiations, and multilateral institutions. Efforts are made to resolve conflicts peacefully and prevent or mitigate armed conflicts.
- Humanitarian Assistance: The U.S. military and defense policy may include provisions for humanitarian assistance and disaster response, where military resources are utilized to provide aid, support, and relief during natural disasters or humanitarian crises.
- Counterterrorism: Given the threat of terrorism, the United States has focused on combating terrorist organizations and networks globally. This involves military operations and cooperation with international partners to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks.
- Non-Proliferation and Arms Control: The United States supports non-proliferation efforts and arms control agreements to limit the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. This includes treaties such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and arms control agreements with other countries.
It’s important to note that a combination of factors shapes U.S. military and defense policies, including national security interests, assessments of global threats, historical precedents, budgetary considerations, and political decisions made by the government and its leaders.
Nuclear War:
In the nuclear age, total war is unwinnable, as the devastation of nuclear war is unthinkable. But nuclear war is possible, given the fallibility and irrationality of humans. The lust for additional territory or fear of an enemy attack may lure the unwitting into a first strike. A credible/expected threat of a retaliatory strike is necessary to dissuade aggressors from attempting a world takeover by a first strike on America. There must be a strong expectation that such aggression would lead to self/national annihilation.
The hypothetical scenario of a first-strike nuclear attack on American soil is grave. It is important to note that any actual response would depend on the circumstances, the nature of the attack, the level of damage inflicted, and the assessment of the situation by the U.S. government and military leadership at that time. The response to such an attack would involve a combination of military, political, and diplomatic actions.
Historically, the United States has maintained a deterrence policy, which aims to dissuade potential adversaries from launching a nuclear attack by maintaining a credible and robust nuclear deterrent. Established policies, contingency plans, and the principles of self-defense would guide the specific details of the U.S. response to a nuclear attack.
The principle of “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) has played a significant role in the U.S. nuclear strategy. This strategy is based upon the expectation that the threat of a devastating retaliatory strike, even after sustaining a nuclear attack, would deter potential aggressors. The objective is to discourage any adversary from initiating a nuclear conflict due to the anticipated catastrophic consequences to the aggressor.
The U.S. government does not publicly disclose the specific details of its response plans for a nuclear attack to maintain strategic ambiguity. That is, not providing potential adversaries with information that could undermine deterrence.
In any case, decisions regarding a response to a nuclear attack would be made by the President of the United States, in consultation with military and civilian advisors, considering factors such as the level of threat, the credibility of intelligence, the potential for escalation, and the overall national security interests of the United States.
The goal of the U.S. response would be to protect American citizens, deter further aggression, and restore stability while also considering the broader international implications and the potential for diplomatic and political solutions to the crisis.
As US President, I would not initiate a first strike but would retaliate based upon considering the advice of my military and civilian advisors. The certainty of response is a critical element of deterrence.
A retaliatory response would likely kill vast numbers and could extinguish humanity. This is not God’s will for man to destroy all civilization, culture, and souls. But Satan and his demons are motivated to tempt, deceive, and seduce men into such a final orgy of self-destruction. The demons receive energy/power/life-force/spiritual credit from the unrighteous death/murder of every innocent victim. The Satanic forces are acting on the minds of men, tempting them to initiate the final solution.
As humans, as children of God, and as spiritual beings in a material world, we must resist the insanity, seduction, and force of evil by exerting an effective counterforce. I believe the solution to the problem of potential world destruction and the extinction of mankind is a worldwide embrace of the Gospel and Jesus Christ as the Messiah, Savior, and Lord of the Universe.
In my other articles and books, I argue why the choice of Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is correct. In this analysis of war, military, and defense, I wish to elaborate on how that obeisance/worship/dedication of our national and world psyche to His service would effectively preserve national survival/security and defense.
The Gospel of Christ is a message/teaching/lifestyle of mercy, love, service, temperance, hope, and faith. The mystical portion of the Gospel, the salvation by believing in Christ and the transformation of the heart/soul/mind/spirit by that commitment, offers the hope of escape from the trap of our human emotions, drives/hungers, thoughts/traumas/memories, and nature/habits.
If God is a God of love and wants every soul to love Him, and that love is expressed by loving neighbor as self and following His Law, then God is a good God. He has created this creation for men to experience a relationship with Him to satisfy His need for love. The laws/ways/will/commands of such a God are good, and the end of implementing such laws is world peace.
Men have worshipped other gods, other moral systems, and caricatures of God’s holistic will for man in each moment. Men have worshipped the gods of prosperity, peace, welfare, equality, tolerance, choice, love, convenience, freedom/liberty, personal sovereignty/autonomy, intelligence, and authority… All such goals/ends/virtues are excellent and necessary in their place and time, but when applied universally, when given the status of highest principles, which govern life and all circumstances, these virtues become vices and idols that men worship above the will of God in each moment.
In this commitment to follow Jesus, as Lord of my/your/our lives, we are committing to follow God’s will and way in every moment. This will, and way is determined/guided/learned by implanting the words of the Bible in our heart. Psalm 119:11: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” The words of the Bible are general; they have many applications and meanings, but by diligently studying The Word, by implanting it in our hearts, we have planted a seed, given the Holy Spirit a string to pluck which can resonate in circumstances when He leads, and when we ask. Prayer is the process of asking, and meditation is the process of listening to His voice.
As a nation, we must boldly commit ourselves to a life guided by the principles of Godliness, instituting in government Biblically informed laws-justice-administration, applying these principles to the individual-family-group interpersonal relationships, and using the Word of God to guide oneself in disciplined diligence in the work and study of honesty, cleanliness, integrity in word and deed.
As we sanctify ourselves individually, as we learn to interact peacefully-equitably, in a Godly manner, with our fellow man in family-friendship-work-society-government, we will create an environment of cooperation and synergy, a resistanceless economy capable of production to support our retirement/leisure/recreation, our charitable support of the homeless-poor-fatherless-lame-ill, and extend missionary-mentorship-material support to those less fortunate-blessed beyond our shores. God wants us all to prosper, be healthy, live in peace, and experience the joy of living in His world.
The great commission is found in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
This should be our primary foreign policy. We should be exporting the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, teaching men to observe His commandments/will-way. By living the way of God, every individual is at peace, and every individual is at peace with his neighbor, and every individual is at peace with God. There is no other way to world peace than through Him, following His Word, and working diligently in this world to bring order to the chaos that proceeds inexorably by entropic decay.
In our present day, our primary obstacle to instituting a world of peace is the worship of other gods. We have been seduced to bow to the gods of gender, sexual orientation-gender fluidity, fornication/adultery/free love/hooking up/prostitution/man-boy-love/S&M/, abortion, and choice. In pursuing the satisfaction of our passions, we have wrongly judged what should be called “love.” We have been sedated, seduced, and invaded by the demons/spirits we have opened ourselves to by our worship of the gods of drug use/Pharmakia (alcohol-tobacco-pot-opioids-uppers-downers-psychedelics-designer…). We have worshipped the gods of chance/gambling and condemned those caught in its vice to a life of poverty, broken relationships, and lives. We have worshipped the gods of false virtue in our support of the mentally ill/homeless/drug addicted by allowing their street camping-begging and allowing criminals to invade and steal without consequence. We have worshipped the god of multiculturalism, and with it the panoply of world religions, and discriminated against the Christian who rightly stands upon John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
In this verse, Jesus affirms He is God the Father’s exclusive path. He declares himself as the only way to the Father. There is no other religion, no other god, no other mediator between God and man. It is a statement about the central/unique role of Jesus in providing salvation and access to a relationship with God the Father. Faith in Jesus and accepting His sacrifice on the cross are essential for reconciliation with God and a passage into eternal life.
But the world does not accept Jesus Christ as God. His name is uniquely used in profane oaths – a natural expression of the demons that implant thoughts and words and stimulate passions in our hearts and minds. The world loves to worship/naturally worships the gods of this world. The spirits/gods are ubiquitous/they are everywhere. Any object, passion, person, or activity can be fashioned and elevated into an idol/a god. We then worship and serve it as we pursue satisfaction by serving it/seeking to satisfy its lusts/to fill its emptiness and satisfy its hunger. But that natural worship, that endless/unsatisfying pursuit of filling the hunger of these gods, will bring destruction – as the spirits desire – as they appropriate the life of man for their use in powering their effects/temptations/thoughts of man and other satanic miracles (smiracles).
The passions/hungers of the human/animal heart are inborn, and they each cry to be fed. The hungers of man call out for worship/focus/obsession, and satisfaction. The worship of these modern-day (actually ancient) gods is destroying our culture and economy and will eventually propel us into self-powered destruction.
Each of these gods, these animal hungers, drives us to perform their worship rituals. Each of these manifestations is a branch on the tree of evil – eliminating them will not save us. The root of evil is the rejection of the Words of the God of the Bible. This world of duality, God pulling us to deny the flesh and follow His way, and the gods of animal hunger opposing His way, is as it was designed. God created the creation as a crucible, a test for each soul. We can choose to love God by following His commands or to worship the flesh/other gods and pursue the satisfaction of the animal hungers. Those who choose to deny the flesh and substitute His will and way for his own will be adopted into His family.
This has relevance to life, to domestic and foreign policy/economy/politics, to the conduct of government, the implementation and execution of our defense of the nation by our military, and the conduct of war. We are a nation of laws and culture. As a nation, we must adopt a culture of Godliness and respect/honor/worship the God of the Bible that we codify in our laws. The culture of Godliness leads us to individual, family, tribe, locality, state, national, and world peace. If we fail at any of these levels, the seeds of discord can spread, magnify, and eventually blossom into nuclear Armageddon. The time of championing gender politics, personal sovereignty politics, racial politics, class politics, and politics about religions… above the politics of the God of the Bible has passed. The stakes are too high. We must adopt the Bible as our standard of morality, guide to interpersonal relationships, and as map of the spiritual world. We should not bow to the god of multiculturalism and avoid speaking the truth that the Son, the creator of the universe, incarnated into this world, and He died without sin, making His death unwarranted. He did not owe His life to Satan in payment for the contract of the pleasure of sin. His death, the credit of His death, is available to each of us to claim as payment for our justly deserved death for our sins/our violation of any of God’s laws.
Every religion has some good/Godly points of doctrine. To the extent that any world religion is in a point of agreement, it should be acknowledged and celebrated as doing the right thing. But capitulating to an ecumenical doctrine emasculates the message and renders us eternally subject to the divisions that are the seeds of discord and eventual destruction.
Given the cataclysmic consequence of nuclear war, all future wars must be conventional.
* Since the atomic age, we have experienced several significant wars: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. We have not won a war since Korea – and even that war is not officially complete.
* Numerous military special operations have been conducted in Grenada, Panama, Libya, Afghanistan, etc.
* Due to alliances and defense agreements, we have hundreds of bases worldwide, with major bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.
These are all entangling alliances. If we follow the letter of the law, the exact specifications of these treaties of mutual self-defense, we could be drawn into conflict in situations that do not warrant such a response. Thus, as President, I will withdraw from all treaties and alliances. I will instead cultivate communication and coordination of policy with foreign nations. As a nation committed to Godliness, we will not tolerate a bully, an empire taking over small nations. But such an intervention will not be reflexive. Every situation will be evaluated on its own merit. Is the invaded nation a Godly nation? Is it a nation committed to elevating Jesus as Lord in its culture and laws? Is it a nation committed to self-defense, allowing and requiring every able-bodied adult to be armed and ready for self-defense? In such a case, if the nation’s spirit is such that it is committed to its own survival and allowing the people of its nation to live in the Liberty of Christ, then such a nation deserves the support of the nations whose God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our job is to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth by our acts as individuals, groups, and nations. Otherwise, let those who worship other gods fight among themselves for dominance and subjugation of their lives under the rule of the god of this world.
I believe we should use our worldwide bases as points of influence in the country of every nation in spreading the Gospel. We should be a military of Christian soldiers. A proactive worldwide bowing of the knee to the Lordship of Christ is the cure for war. We should pursue this policy aggressively and unapologetically. We should all bow our heads and bend our knees to the Prince of Peace.