Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000

RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.

Countrymen,

ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT

Responding to this.

A parallel phenomenon exists in theology: the only persons who can legitimately do theology and reform the churches are those currently on the front line religiously, meaning, the genuine monastics (the persons the public will never hear about) — not the academics or church leaders (columnists, analysts and consultants/experts in the literary/think-tank orbit) and not the theologians of an earlier and non-comparable operational environment (Vietnam-era soldiers, for all our gratitude to them, in the military and diplomatic orbits).

This President is not understood because he thinks so incomparably, so incomformably with the supposed canon of past experience, as well he must.

For past experience does not contain a precedent for him or any of us with respect to the situation we face.

The McCaffreys and Schwartzkopfs and many other West Pointers of the Vietnam era do not grasp the situation today but they think they do, which is both prideful (arrogant) and hubristic (centering the self and world on the self).

In my experience with West Pointers, only the WWII veterans — and there are some here, including one who graduated in the year of my birth (’43) — and some of the Korea veterans sense the novelty of the modern situation and therefore the need to let the modern commanders find their way, as they did in their situations in WWII and Korea.

Our United States Army is the finest institution in our nation, actively and successfully coping with VUCA (Volitility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity).

From the start — about 10 years ago when I realized the Arab and African witchdoctors were serious about global hegemony by violence (as if!) — my gut said that the nearest comparable conflict for us would be the Civiil War Between the States.

Gut has always told me this is a world civil war. If the President and his circle are deficient at all it is in realizing that this is the case.

Thank God they realized it is war (not crime). But calling it terrorism does not adequately identify it. And saying, as some recently are, including in the active Army, that the terrorists do not have a program other than terror is also inaccurate.

They definitely do have program. It is world hegemony by and for their tribal witchdoctors (soi-disant clergy) and terrorism is the means to that end.

But the full context of the activity is world civil war.

It is a small numerically but adamant demonically demographic of the body of mankind which is essaying to conform (actually deform) that entire body to its wishes, that is, to radically destroy the modes of living that have been tested as desirable by the majority of mankind, including man’s executive agencies, the nation states.

This is civil war against the telos, the inner drive towards meaning and fulfillment, of the dimensions of spirit and history.

Arab and African tribal witchdoctors — self-proclaimed as clergy — want to shatter the spiritual and historical unity of the modern world by replacing it with their partisan tribal tyranny.

Then there are the Iranian so-called ayatollahs, also self-proclaimed as clergy. Their animus is nationalistic imperialism, blending socialist and fascist elements, but mostly fascist.

Our Army, in combined and coalition forces, will establish democratic governing structures in Iran as well.

Now, on the US Civil War Between the States parallel: the African and Arab tribal witchdoctors are trying to make the cultures of their birth, Islamic cultures which historically are anything but humanity-dividers, secede from the community of nations, the multi-national community.

Note, the phrase international community is not used because there is no such thing, there being no single international — meaning supra-or trans-national or even intra-national — executive, legislative or judicial structure, nor will there ever be.

The phrase international community is used by the circles who use it to indicate a supra-or trans-national tribe of tribes, projecting in cloud castles that it has those three governmental structures already!

Whereas, the purpose of the struggle today is to transcend tribalism — partisanship — of any sort, large or small, with national — not supra-or trans-national — federal structures responsive to voters and, more specifically, to the protection and propagation of human values.

Intra-national governmental structures will come and go, appropriately, but these will never replace national sovereignties.

The only trans-national structure is the structure of being, in which all life participates and by which all life is judged, want it or not.

So the parallel with our Civil War Between the States is more than superficially apt. I would argue that it is typologically identical while operationally on a much larger and far more lethal scale.

The nations are aiming to prevent tribes from seceding from the essential constellation of fact: One God, One World, One Race, One Caste.

Like all civil wars, this one can only be violently won because the urge to secession — aka tribalism, partisanship, faction — is the very definition of violence, as these evil bastards — and their journalistic, academic and ecclesial supporters — demonstrate so clearly.

Decadence means separated into parts and pieces. Its opposite and antidote is wholeness, reunion, especially of power and meaning.

Stop Criticizing Operation Iraqi Freedom

Criticism of these guys and/or their Commander-in-Chief by retied and former armed forces personnel is carping in ignorance. What our active military personnel and civilian leaders face is nothing like what our Operation Desert Storm and Vietnam heroes faced.

So many of our Vietnam and Desert Storm heroes just do not grasp present realities — e.g., Schwartzkopf — the list is very long. They think from their experience, which is 99% irrelevant.

The situation today is unprecedented in our nation’s experience and, moreover, in any historical record which is generally considered reliable.

The nearest corollary is our Civil War Between the States — which significantly and rightly was referenced by some within a day or two after 9/11. But even that is only a distant nearest corollary.

Apart from the world civil war recounted in the Ramayana — which is far from generally accepted history, although it is actual history — our situation is fundamentally incomparable. As a result, everyone in leadership positions is doing the best they can to wing it, as systematically as possible, on the best use they can see to make of the doctrines and resources at their disposal.

How long will it take to make OIF a success?

As long as it takes, there is no substitute for victory over these evil bastards. It is them or us in their minds and therefore must be in ours.

This question is from an earlier era, when we were dealing with a modestly rational enemy. That is not the case here. These are suicidal fanatics, many of them. Others are certified psychopaths (Zarqawi), Baathist restorationists (who keep out of loss of their lives) and ordinary criminals.

Look what disruption they, who do not fundamentally even get along among themselves, can cause with relatively minor expense and effort, here and elsewhere, especially with their endless petrol dollars, that you and I are giving them with our life-style.

The troops themselves, especially senior Officers of my experience, say bitterly that they are not supported by those who subvert through political carping the command structure that supports them.

The senior commanders believe in their mission and in the reasons that decided it. So do their soldiers.

To carp those reasons, and their personal senior civilian representatives, or to worry our serving military at all with home-front irresolution, is to subvert our troops. That is how they feel in more pithy words than that to me personally, repeatedly.

A measure of this reality is how many soldiers who have returned from a deployment in OIF (1) want to return to OIF and (2) are astonished at the banality of the lives of Americans at home.

Update 1: Putting Women In Combat Is An Even Worse Idea Than You’d Think

Update 2: Murphy’s Law: The Realities Of Defense Spending

Update 3: Attrition: The Incredible Shrinking U.S. Army

Update 4: Special Operations: What Makes It All So Special

Update 5: 6 Reasons Why Starship Troopers Is The New The Art Of War

Update 6: Army Creates Security Force Assistance Brigade and Military Advisor Training Academy at Fort Benning

Update 7: How Desert Storm Destroyed The US Military

AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA