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WINTER 2017 • NUMBER 6 genuine human flourishing. DOMINATION /dämə’nāSH(ə)n/ /də’minyən (IS NOT) DOMINION /də’minyən submission of the powerless to our will.

and imperfect. Following after God’s work of creating, sustaining, and and God’s work of creating, sustaining, Following after and imperfect. made to exercise rule in the form of dominion: delegated, providential providential delegated, form of dominion: made to exercise rule in the liberating all of creation, human beings exercise power with the aim of beings exercise power with the aim of human liberating all of creation, all the earth…” Called to share the Divine likeness, human beings were human beings were likeness, the Divine all the earth…” Called to share “Let us make mankind in our image; and let them have dominion over and let them have dominion over us make mankind in our image; “Let including just war casuistry, helps guide human beings back to the just helps guide human beings back to the just including just war casuistry, that feed our hunger for power, advantage, and glory through the forced and glory through the forced advantage, that feed our hunger for power, rule. Domination is characterized by self-centered acts of other-donation other-donation Domination is characterized by self-centered acts of rule. —we have been ruled by the lust to lust to —we have been ruled by the been afflicted by the libido dominandi The political-theological patrimony of the Christian intellectual tradition, The political-theological patrimony of the Christian intellectual care—responsibility—for the conditions of history, in history. Such care is Such care is conditions of history, in history. care—responsibility—for the with domination. Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, human beings have beings have Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, human with domination. through the work of government, human dominion is approximate, limited, limited, human dominion is approximate, through the work of government, peace, characterized by the presence of justice and order as oriented toward of justice and order as oriented toward characterized by the presence peace, characterized by other-centered acts of self-donation. This contrasts sharply contrasts sharply This acts of self-donation. characterized by other-centered exercise of our governing vocation. In our private and public lives, including including and public lives, In our private exercise of our governing vocation. Providence_winter17_cover.indd 1 exclusively on our reputation for good from which other moral the tension between order and maintaining order and justice goods flow, and that without justice. But that doesn’t mean in areas under our hegemony. stability other moral goods can- the answer is disengagement. This points toward why moral not flourish. leadership is in the national in- The Trump Administration PROVIDENCE terest. “The problem we face,” Closely connected to order, how- should consider a variety of WINTER 2017 | NUMBER 6 said Niebuhr, “is whether we ever, is justice. Power requires mediating solutions that are can put enough moral content prestige to be sustainable; so too on the table, including the cre- into our hegemony to make our order ultimately requires jus- ation of safe zones that would physical power morally suffer- tice. “[O]rder precedes justice recognize underlying demog- FEATURES able to our allies.” in the strategy of government,” raphy and provide a path for Niebuhr wrote, “but…only an stable post-conflict governance. Marc LiVecche The tension between order and order which implicates justice Such safe zones, implemented justice, between stability and can achieve a stable peace.” well, would offer the chance to REINHOLD NIEBUHR human rights, between states establish order in the midst of & THE PROBLEM OF PARADOX and individuals, lies at the heart Following Kennan and Niebuhr, chaos—even in geographically 4 of America’s quest for inter- a moral US foreign policy would discreet ways—that could lead national legitimacy. Nothing be prudent, consistent, forth- to new opportunities for justice. exposes that tension more than right, aware of its limitations, Joseph Loconte the question of military inter- and driven by the national in- What is not possible is a contin- vention. Is it better to tolerate terest. But if the national in- ued policy of inaction. Turning THE GREAT WAR & THE DAWN the reign of Bashar al-Assad terest desires the maintenance a blind eye to Syria tells the because he is a foreign sovereign of American power, our policy- world one of two things: either OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY and his ouster may lead to more makers must think hard about we are too weak to act, or we 16 don’t care about justice like we chaos and death? Or is it better “put[ting] enough moral content to overthrow him and hopefully into our hegemony”—not just claim. Regardless of the an- Kent r. hiLL save lives, understanding that moral language—to keep that swer, it will prompt a further the crisis inside Syria could get power afloat. decline in American prestige WILL CHRISTIANITY even worse? and will ultimately undermine SURVIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? The question is not whether our our power. And unless we are 26 Niebuhr would create a hier- foreign policy will be one that prepared to let someone else A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE archy, or at least a sequence, implicates justice, but where lead in this most ancient, most between order and justice. As and how we execute that jus- sacred, and most unstable part Marc LiVecche notes in his es- tice in a way that enhances, and of our planet, diminished power say for this issue, Niebuhr saw doesn’t undermine, order. is an outcome that is entirely a continual conflict between unacceptable. Portrait of Reinhold Niebuhr by Hannah Strauss, impossible-to-attain ideals and The question of Syria is not sim- ple. It is a conflict that presents Robert Nicholson is the execu- original commission, 2017. A pensive Reinhold other, possibly lesser, ideals which were possible to attain a host of bad actors and options, tive director of the Philos Project, Niebuhr considers the scene before him, surrounded at least approximately. Order, none of which seems likely to and co-publisher of Providence. by iconic images from the Second World War. While more possible than anything like bring about an immediate end ad orieNTeM will be a regular referencing historical events, horrific locations, and perfect justice, must come first. to the war. The polar options of feature offering commentary on the machinery of warfare, these images also suggest Like Kennan, Niebuhr believed nonintervention and full-scale the Middle East from a Western the focal points of Niebuhr’s internal conflicts as he that stability is itself a moral invasion are unlikely to balance prespective. wrestled with his own theological and ethical con- ceptual dilemmas. Immediately behind Niebuhr is an amphibious assault, with warfighters disembarking a landing craft and wading toward a shoreline already engaged with the fire, smoke, and din of battle. Above him, bombers swarm in deadly formation. Below are rendered scenes depicting the hated guard towers and dreaded gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Taken together, these scenes begin to describe the reach, the moral and political complexity, and the devastation of human conflict.

83 ESSAYS PUBLISHERS Mark Tooley Amitai Etzioni Robert Nicholson MORAL TRIAGE 38 EDITOR Mark Tooley Mark Tooley MANAGING EDITOR CHRISTIANS & AMERICAN EMPIRE 43 Marc LiVecche

Alan W. Dowd DEPUTY EDITOR A SHIELD FOR FAITH 46 Mark Melton SENIOR EDITORS Wayne A. Schroeder Keith Pavlischek JUST CALLING: Joseph Loconte THE CHRISTIAN BASIS ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR A CAREER IN PEACEMAKING 57 Susannah Black

Lubomir Martin Ondrasek CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Mark Amstutz JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN: Fred Barnes AN AUGUSTINIAN AT WAR 66 Nigel Biggar J. Daryl Charles Paul Coyer Douglas Burton Michael Cromartie THE BATTLE FOR MOSUL Dean Curry & THE END OF HISTORY 72 Alan Dowd Thomas Farr Mary Habeck Rebeccah Heinrichs Will Inboden REVIEWS James Turner Johnson Herb London Timothy Mallard Daniel Strand Paul Marshall PAR ADISE LOST: Faith McDonnell ON THE POWER OF NOSTALGIA Walter Russell Mead IN POLITICS Paul Miller Mark Lilla’s The Shipwrecked Mind 76 Joshua Mitchell Luke Moon Eric Patterson Matt Gobush Mackubin Thomas Owens PAR ADIGM LOST Greg Thornberry Richard Haass’ A World in Disarray 78 INTERN Logan White

LAYOUT & DESIGN AD ORIENTEM Joseph Avakian Robert Nicholson PRINTED BY MORALITY & THE CRISIS IN SYRIA 81 Linemark

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ISSN 24713511 Man Protected by the Shield of Faith, by Maarten van Heemskerck, 1559. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Source: metmuseum. org. Satan sits atop the globe on a rug, embellished with the seven deadly sins, hurling burning arrows at a praying man. The man is protected by a shield held by the personification of Faith, who also bears a Bible and cross. The favor must be continually returned: Faith herself needs a champion.

46 ESSAY

A SHIELD FOR FAITH Alan W. Dowd

ith just 1.3 million active-duty troops and about 800,000 reserve Wforces defending this nation of 320 million, fewer of us than at any time since World War II know someone who serves as a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine. Sure, most of us know about America’s military. It fights terrorism, rescues people after disasters, and does other stuff the media reports and Hollywood portrays. But knowing about something is different than knowing something. As such, most Americans are so disconnected from their military that it’s an abstraction.

For anyone who cares about freedom from want, and “free- the U.S. government concluded freedom—especially freedom of dom of every person to worship after combing through Nazi re- conscience, the freedom to wor- God in his own way—every- cords, but “considerations of ex- ship or not worship—the U.S. where in the world.” pediency made it impossible” to military should be anything but do so in one fell swoop. Instead, an abstraction. In a world where FDR spoke during the high noon Hitler employed a policy of might makes right, it is the U.S. of godless tyrannies. gradualism—lying to church military—not international trea- leaders about the Nazi program ties, presidential speeches, UN Nazi Germany exterminated and then lying about church resolutions, protest marches, Jews, waged war on the Church, leaders to the German people; Wall Street, or Wal-Mart—that and turned its leader into a abrogating laws protecting re- protects us from enemies who messiah. As historian Gerhard ligious independence; seizing would either stamp out all faiths Weinberg observes, Christianity control of church institutions; or force submission to one faith. and Judaism “were removed declaring certain denomina- We dare not think about it, but simultaneously” by the Nazis.1 tions illegal; fomenting violence the line separating us from such against church leaders; sending a dark age is terrifyingly thin. In 1938, the Nazis destroyed anti-Nazi church leaders to con- Those 2.1 million citizen-sol- 300 synagogues and arrested centration camps; murdering diers not only stand on that line; 25,000 Jews. A year later, Hitler church leaders.2 they are that line. began to deport Germany’s Jewish population to Eastern Imperial Japan, too, elevated its Europe, where his war on re- emperor into a god, making it EVERYWHERE ligion would crescendo. By the easier for his high command to Eleven months before the attack end of the war, Hitler had mur- justify anything and everything. on Pearl Harbor, in a speech dered 6 million Jews. detailing “unprecedented” By the late 1930s, as Princeton threats to “American security,” “The destruction of Christianity University’s Sheldon Garon de- President Franklin Roosevelt was explicitly recognized as a tails, the regime was regulating shared his vision of “a world purpose of the National Socialist religious activity; ordering reli- founded upon four essential movement,” Nazi leader Baldur gious groups to correct “discrep- human freedoms.” FDR’s Four von Schirach explained. The ancies between their teachings Freedoms included freedom Nazi regime desired “a complete and the imperial myth”; and of speech, freedom from fear, extirpation of Christianity,” as subordinating all faiths to the

47 cult of the emperor.3 As Paul Egyptian Christians; Johnson adds in Modern Times, razed, desecrated, and Japan’s masters turned Shinto plundered ancient Chris- into a state religion that encom- tian churches; shelled passed emperor worship in the Christian homes; target- military and in schools. Shinto ed Assyrian Christians was thus transformed into “an for abduction; and cruci- fied Christian children as endorsement of a modern, to- young as 12. talitarian state,” and “religion, which should have served to • ISIS has given Christians resist the secular horrors of the a choice to convert to Is- age, was used to sanctify them.”4 lam, make payments to remain Christian, or face Put it all together, and it’s no execution. In a haunting surprise that FDR called on the echo of how the Nazis branded Jews, the ISIS American people to come to the death cult marks Chris- defense of something they took tian-owned properties for granted: religious freedom. with the Arabic equiva- (ن) ”lent of the letter “N ENEMIES for “Nazarene.” • The European Union re- “Every major war the United ports that Christians and States has fought over the Yazidis (a Kurdish reli- past 70 years has been against gious tradition that blends an enemy that also severely aspects of Zoroastrian- Sumatra, Kuwait and Kabul. Yet violated religious freedom,” ism, Christianity, and they are at war with those who University of Texas professor Islam) “have been killed, would force people to submit William Inboden observes.5 slaughtered, beaten, to Islam, with mass-murder- Indeed, the one common de- subjected to extortion, ers masquerading as holy men, nominator between the fas- abducted and tortured” with those who, in Osama bin cists of the Axis Powers and by the Islamic State’s Laden’s words, “do not differ- the communists of the Soviet coordinated campaign entiate between those dressed in bloc, between North Korea and of brutality. As proof of military uniforms and civilians.” its savage piety, ISIS has North Vietnam, between the murdered thousands of Calling the Islamic State’s People’s Republic of China and Yazidis; forced 2,000 footsoldiers “unique in their the Islamic Republic of Iran, Yazidi women into sex between Moammar Qaddafi’s slavery; conducted a brutality,” President Barack Libya and Saddam Hussein’s systematic campaign of Obama dispatched U.S. troops Iraq and Slobodan Milosevic’s rape against Christian and warplanes to Iraq in 2014 Serbia, between Hezbollah and and Yazidi women; to protect thousands of Yazidis the Taliban, Islamic State (ISIS), imprisoned Christian and from extermination.7 Thus be- and al Qaeda, is that all of them Yazidi children as young gan America’s third war in Iraq were (or are) violently opposed as eight; sold children in less than a quarter-century. to religious freedom. into slavery; and perhaps most shocking of all, used Hunted down and trapped on While yesterday’s enemies gen- “mentally challenged” Mt. Sinjar, the Yazidis faced children as suicide erally forced their subjects to what Obama called “a terrible bombers.6 stop believing in God—or ac- choice: starve on the moun- cept some human substitute for tain or be slaughtered on the God—today’s envision a world These are just some of the rea- ground. That’s when America where everyone either submits sons the U.S. military is at war came to help.”8 U.S. Marines to their version of God or dies. with the Islamic State. However, and Special Operations forc- ISIS is the most extreme and the U.S. military is not at war es landed on Mt. Sinjar to coor- brutal embodiment of this: with Islam. After all, in the past dinate air drops and airstrikes. quarter-century, U.S. troops The Marines were planning and • ISIS has orchestrat- have rescued Muslims in Kosovo prepared “to pick everyone off ed mass-beheadings of and Kurdistan, Somalia and the mountain,” General James

48 economic, educational—of guaranteed to all. No religious or- Nazism. ganization shall receive any privi- leges from the State, nor exercise To prevent the rise of another any political authority. No person manmade messiah, General shall be compelled to take part in Lucius Clay (military governor any religious act, celebration, rite of the U.S. sector of Germany) or practice.”12 and other Allied military leaders worked with handpicked Johnson observes that Germans to ensure that the MacArthur’s constitution trig- postwar constitution guaranteed gered “a revolution from above” and protected religious free- and broke the “mesmeric hold dom: “Freedom of the person the state had hitherto exercised shall be inviolable… Freedom over the Japanese people.”13 of faith and of conscience, and freedom to profess a religious or The Cold War philosophical creed, shall be in- The Cold War was often cast violable. The undisturbed prac- as a struggle between godless tice of religion shall be guaran- communists and defenders of teed,” the Basic Law declared.10 religious freedom—and under- standably so. On one side of the Postwar Japan Iron Curtain, there was religious Similarly, Japan’s post-imperial liberty, freedom of conscience, constitution, which guaranteed individual expression; on the Amos later confirmed, in what equal rights, education reform, other, total control of thought would have been perhaps the free speech, and religious liber- and expression and belief, the largest humanitarian evacuation ty, bore the unmistakable fin- obliteration of the individual. in history. But that turned out gerprints of an American gener- to be unnecessary: U.S. C-17 al: Douglas MacArthur. “Within Consider the Soviet Union’s ap- and C-130 cargo planes dropped his first weeks in Japan,” Ray proach to, and treatment of, re- pallets of food for the Yazidi Salvatore Jennings of the United ligion. An enemy-of-my-enemy people, while F-16s and F-18s States Institute of Peace writes, ally during World War II, the dropped ordnance that ended “MacArthur ordered and then Soviet Union rejected religion the ISIS assault. In the span delivered on an impressive ar- altogether, purged those who of seven days, U.S. air power ray of reforms,” including a ban refused to genuflect to the state, delivered 114,000 meals and on the “government-sanctioned and elevated government above 35,000 gallons of fresh water religious cult of Shinto.” James all else. Lenin, founding father to the Yazidis. America’s mili- Dobbins notes that the U.S. mil- of the Soviet Union, viewed tary saved an estimated 40,000 itary government “focused on religion as “a powerful and Yazidis, who were attacked sim- removal of all traces of emperor ubiquitous enemy,” Johnson 14 ply because of their religious worship (State Shinto) and mili- writes. By the end of 1918, the beliefs.9 tarism from the classrooms and government had nationalized curriculum.” In pursuit of that all church property. By 1926, The operation to protect the goal, the U.S. Army sent teams the Soviet state had murdered Yazidis is only the latest exam- to school districts to ensure that 1,200 bishops and priests; shut- ple of the U.S. military’s role in emperor worship was no longer tered most seminaries; closed defending religious freedom. To a state-enforced practice.11 down all but a handful of par- see others, we can look back to ishes; and banned the publi- World War II. MacArthur then formed what cation of religious material.15 Jennings calls “a constitution- Virtually the entire clergy corps Postwar Germany al convention” of U.S. military of the Russian Orthodox Church Following victory, the U.S. mil- officers and civilians that deliv- was liquidated or sent to labor itary and its closest allies were ered a new constitution to the camps in the 1920s and 1930s. deeply involved in rebuilding Japanese people. “Freedom of “By 1939 only about 500 of over German society by address- thought and conscience shall not be 50,000 churches remained ing the causes—religious, cul- violated,” MacArthur’s constitution open,” according to the Library tural, political, institutional, declared. “Freedom of religion is of Congress (LOC).

49 Although Stalin, in the grimmest Indeed, how America handled erased and another 2 million days of World War II, permitted the awesome power of the atom were displaced—most of them the practice of religion in order spoke volumes about America. Bosnian Muslims. The low point to rally the Russian people, the Thanks to the U.S. nuclear mo- came when Dutch peacekeepers post-war era quickly proved nopoly in the first several years in the laughably misnamed UN this openness to faith was a of the Cold War, the only thing Protection Force stood aside, merely a short-lived, expedient preventing America from eras- Pilate-like, as Serb militias sur- response to an existential threat. ing the USSR was America’s rounded the so-called safe hav- As evidence, consider that in conscience. That was enough. en of Srebrenica and liquidated 1953, Stalin ordered more than As President Ronald Reagan ob- 7,000 Muslim men. a million Soviet Jews deported served decades later, “Had that to Siberia. They were spared nuclear monopoly been in the Only after Washington assert- only by his death.16 After Stalin, hands of the communist world, ed itself in late 1995, by bring- the Khrushchev regime carried the map of Europe—indeed, the ing American military might to out “a violent six-year campaign world—would look very differ- bear, did Milosevic’s war come against all forms of religious ent today.” to an end. A U.S.-led peacekeep- practice,” the LOC adds. ing force then entered Bosnia to Only after Lenin’s regime had enforce a partition, protect and Moreover, Moscow’s war on fallen could Russian lead- separate different ethnic-re- religion moved beyond Russian er Boris Yeltsin declare, “The ligious groups, and monitor borders and into occupied world can sigh in relief. The idol postwar borders. Eastern Europe. In Soviet- of communism, which spread dominated Poland, priests everywhere social strife, ani- A similar formula worked in were under constant surveil- mosity and unparalleled bru- Kosovo, an Albanian-Muslim lance; many were beaten. tality, which instilled fear in enclave formerly in southern Religious holidays were abol- humanity, has collapsed.” Serbia. Milosevic’s terror squads ished. Children from church- rampaged through Kosovo in going families were denied The Former Yugoslavia late 1998 and early 1999, purg- acceptance into colleges.17In There were many dimensions to ing 850,000 Kosovar Muslims Hungary, as Baylor University’s the civil war that tore Yugoslavia and killing thousands more. Philip Jenkins writes, “Christian apart in the 1990s—and there Again, it wasn’t diplomatic com- clergy and laity were murdered were villains and victims on muniqués or UN sanctions that in the thousands.” All across all sides—but a primary cause changed Belgrade’s behavior communist Europe, he writes, was the ethno-religious cam- and protected the Kosovars, “Christians suffered horrific paign originating from Slobodan but rather a U.S.-led air ar- persecutions”—forced labor, Milosevic and his henchmen mada. After Milosevic came to torture, concentration camps— targeting Bosnian and Kosovar the peace table, U.S. and other under Soviet-backed communist Muslims. NATO peacekeepers flowed into regimes.18 Kosovo. When Yugoslavia began to de- Washington had wanted to scend into the abyss in 1991, In both Bosnia and Kosovo, bring America’s troops home a European diplomat de- American troops protected after the defeat of Hitler, but clared it “the hour of Europe.” churches and mosques alike. they stayed behind as America Washington took the hint. It They escorted Serbian Christian extended its security umbrella would be a fateful decision. As kids to school in the morning across the Atlantic, thus pre- historian William Pfaff notes, and Albanian Muslim kids to the venting Moscow from dominat- “In the Bosnian crisis, the same school in the afternoon.20 ing the whole of Europe. What United States didn’t act, so ev- Churchill said in the first decade eryone failed to act.”19 The Taliban’s Afghanistan of the Cold War would be true After it came to power in 1996, until the end. “But for American Relying on diplomacy, words, the Taliban ordered Hindus nuclear superiority,” he sighed, and sanctions, the Europeans to wear special identity labels, “Europe would already have were unable to protect the in- destroyed ancient statues of been reduced to satellite status nocents. In that long hour when Buddha, summarily execut- and the Iron Curtain would have Europe tested its soft power ed those belonging to oppos- reached the Atlantic and the against Milosevic’s hard pow- ing sects of Islam, depopulat- Channel.” er, some 200,000 people were ed areas controlled by ethnic

50 minority groups, turned soccer Afghanistan “is still hampered imprisoned by the hundreds. It stadiums into mass-execution by violence and harassment was a regiment of U.S. Marines chambers, burned people alive, aimed at religious minorities… that set them free.27 And as in killed and jailed aid workers, the constitution establishes the Balkans, U.S. troops in Iraq banished girls from schools Islam as the official religion.” helped protect mosques and and women from public plac- However, in a country where pilgrims as they traveled to re- es, and dispatched their reli- Muslims comprise 99 percent ligious festivals.28 gious police to hunt down and of the population, the recog- imprison foreigners who talked nition of Islam as the official One need not support the Bush about Christianity. Afghans who religion is neither surprising administration’s invasion of helped Christian missionaries nor distressing. What is dis- Iraq and mission creep in faced the death penalty.21 It’s no tressing is the fact that “[t]he Afghanistan, or the Obama ad- surprise that the Taliban made Afghan constitution fails to ministration’s pullout from Iraq common cause with what was protect the individual right to and drawdown in Afghanistan, then the world’s most violent freedom of religion or belief,” to recognize that the U.S. mil- and vicious terrorist organiza- according to the United States itary built for the Afghan and tion: al Qaeda. Commission on International Iraqi people a bridge back to Religious Freedom (USCIRF).25 civilization—and an opportunity Thanks to the U.S. military, This is especially dispiriting to learn the ways of political and Afghanistan is no longer un- given the amount of blood and religious freedom. der the control of the medieval treasure America has sacrificed Taliban. As the late Christopher in Afghanistan’s rehabilitation— Hitchens wryly noted upon the and especially worrisome given ESSENTIAL fall of the Taliban: “The United the role religious intolerance Of course, most fundamentally, States of America has just suc- played in Afghanistan’s descent. the American military protects ceeded in bombing a country the religious freedom of the back out of the Stone Age. This Saddam Hussein’s Iraq American people. deserves to be recognized as an Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for achievement.”22 almost 24 years—longer than This notion would surprise Hitler controlled Germany, lon- many of the Founders, who The U.S. military campaign ger than Tojo dominated Japan. worried about standing armies in Afghanistan, like the war During Saddam’s reign, neither threatening liberty. Their wor- against the Axis, was not pri- the Iraqi people nor their neigh- ries were understandable giv- marily about religious freedom; bors knew a day of peace. His en the history they knew. But it was about defending the na- wars scarred Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the intervening centuries have tional interest and defeating Saudi Arabia, and Israel. His shown the U.S. military to be the nation’s enemies. Even so, internal terror decimated the unique in its self-restraint, def- 15 years after the ouster of the Kurdish minority in northern erence to civilian authority, and Taliban regime, Freedom House Iraq and the Shiite majority in commitment to democratic in- reports that “Religious freedom southern Iraq, transforming the stitutions. Rather than a threat, has improved…faiths other than cradle of civilization into a giant America’s troops—pledged to Islam are permitted.” Christians, torture chamber. And his cult defend not a man or a party or Sikhs, Hindus, and Baha’is have of death deformed the country. a creed or a nationality, but a served in government. Hindu, It’s estimated that Saddam mur- constitution—have themselves Buddhist, and Sikh places of dered 600,000 civilians, which proved essential to maintaining worship are opened. Some 6 means tens of thousands of Iraqi American freedoms. million Afghan children are children were orphaned by his now in school. About 2.5 mil- pogroms and death squads. Sometimes the threat posed by lion Afghan girls are attending Saddam became their father the enemies of religious free- school. This is good news.23 and god. “With our souls and dom—and the need for defend- our blood,” Iraqi children were ers to protect that freedom— The bad news is that the Afghan required to pledge at school, is more obvious than others. state has little writ beyond “we sacrifice for Saddam. We World War II was one of those Kabul. Christians are permitted will sacrifice ourselves for you, times. Indeed, on D-Day, FDR to worship only “in small con- O Saddam.”26 Children who re- openly asked God to protect gregations in private homes.”24 fused to join Saddam’s youth America’s troops as they “strug- According to Freedom House, paramilitary organization were gle to preserve our Republic, our

51 religion and our civilization, and free will and freedom, our en- to set free a suffering humani- emy demands sameness and ty…With Thy blessing, we shall submission, conformity and prevail over the unholy forces control. Even as the coalition of our enemy.” rolls back the Islamic State’s borders and breaks its caliph- This, too, is one of those times. ate, ISIS, al Qaeda, and their ISIS leaders have declared, jihadist brethren will remain “We will conquer your Rome, a threat. The reason: they take break your crosses and enslave literally Muhammad’s injunc- your women,” and warned tion “to fight all men until they Americans, “We will drown all say, ‘There is no god but Allah.’” 29 of you in blood.” ISIS materials When people like bin Laden and call for “jihad against the Jews, Zawahiri, Zarqawi and Baghdadi the Christians, the Rafida [Shiite fuse religious commands with Muslims] and the proponents of political and military power, we 30 democracy.” Their goal is to can only conclude that they are create the conditions for a deci- at war with the very notion of sive battle between the faithful free will, which is the foundation and faithless, and ultimately to of Judeo-Christian belief and construct a transnational the- indeed every ethical worldview. ocracy. In various places, in various ways, the U.S. military God has always put a high value stands athwart that dark vision on free will. In Genesis, He gave of tomorrow. Adam and Eve the choice to obey Him or not. In Revelation, ISIS has proven repeatedly that He explains that He knocks, these are not empty threats. In but the choice is ours to an- Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State swer. God wants people to be has executed uncounted num- free—free to choose His path bers of Christians, Yazidis, and “apostate” Muslims; replaced or another, free from Pharaoh steeple-top crosses with the and Haman and Caesar and black flag of jihad; destroyed Hitler, free from jihadists who Shiite mosques and Christian say there is no god except theirs, churches; and in a faint echo of free from tyrants who say there is no god at all. Instead of making people ac- Daniel’s, Christ’s, and John’s cept His view, instead of us- warnings about the desolation Moses’ interaction with Pharaoh ing force and violence to gain of holy places, turned churches converts, He practiced religious into livestock warehouses.31 In was, at least initially, about tolerance and modeled religious France, ISIS footsoldiers have religious freedom. Speaking liberty. Consider Luke 9. A assaulted the secular and the through Moses, the Lord de- Samaritan village refused to let sacred: a Bastille Day celebra- clared, “Let my people go so that Jesus stay there “because He was tion, rock concerts and soccer they may hold a festival to me heading for Jerusalem.” As one stadiums, a newspaper, a Jewish in the desert.” grocery, and a Catholic church, commentary explains, “Samaritans where they slit the throat of a Jesus interacted with pagans were particularly hostile to Jews priest during mass. In southern and polytheists, Jews and gen- who were on their way to religious Turkey, they attacked a Kurdish tiles, Greeks and Samaritans. festivals in Jerusalem” and often wedding service. In Saudi He had the power to make all “refused overnight shelter for the 33 Arabia and Yemen, they bombed of them bow to Him, but He pilgrims.” Jesus didn’t force them Shiite mosques; in Ankara, a never did. Moreover, Jesus lived to accept Him; He didn’t give them peace rally; in San Bernardino, among religious zealots and a choice to convert or die. In fact, a Christmas party; in Orlando, self-appointed holy men willing when James and John asked “to a gay nightclub. to kill to prove their piety.32 He call fire down from heaven to de- could have endorsed them or led stroy” those who dared not open While our civilization celebrates them, but He never did. their doors to Him, Jesus rebuked

52 where people can choose any Likewise, “[t]housands of reli- faith or no faith at all. gious believers and their families are imprisoned in penal labor camps” in North Korea, according EGREGIOUS to USCIRF. “Individuals engaged in clandestine religious activity The enemies of religious liber- are arrested, tortured, imprisoned ty are not quarantined to Iraq, and sometimes executed.” A UN Syria, and Afghanistan. panel finds in North Korea a “complete denial of the right to According to USCIRF, the freedom of thought, conscience Iranian government is guilty and religion.” At least 300,000 of “ongoing and egregious vi- North Korean Christians have dis- olations of religious freedom, appeared since the end of the war.37 including prolonged detention, torture and executions.” Representing some of the Christians in Iran are scourged Pentagon’s gravest worries, for drinking communion wine— these regimes—along with 80 lashes is the common pun- transnational movements like ishment. Iranian authorities ISIS and al Qaeda—may be “raid church services, harass the real “axis of evil.” Indeed, and threaten church members, Inboden sees a clear “correla- and arrest, convict and impris- tion between religious perse- on worshippers and church cution and national-security 35 leaders.” threats.”

Shiite theocrats and Sunni au- This is not to suggest that tocrats may have different in- America should go to war terpretations of the Koran, but against every enemy of reli- the results are largely the same. gious liberty, but neither should In Saudi Arabia, “not a single we beat our swords into plow- church or other non-Muslim shares, cut deals with Tehran, house of worship exists”; pro- avert our gaze from the gulags moting “unbelief” is a crime; in North Korea and China, draw textbooks “teach hatred toward a line of moral equivalence be- members of other religions,” tween Israel and Hamas, or His disciples and simply “went to promote violence “against breezily conclude, “the tide of another village.” apostates,” and label Jews and war is receding”38—especially Christians “enemies.”36 given that the enemy in this war There’s a lesson in this for indi- is still viciously fighting and still viduals and for nations: No one In China, according to USCIRF, violently opposed to religious should be forced to believe or “[i]ndependent Catholics and pluralism. not believe, and no one has the Protestants face arrests, fines right to force others to believe or and the shuttering of their not believe. “Our respect in the places of worship.” Tibetan EXERTIONS world declines in proportion to Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, The freedom to worship or not how vigorously we attempt to folk religionists, and Protestant worship, to believe or doubt, force others to adopt our point house-church attenders are sub- didn’t emerge by accident, and of view,” as theologian and au- jected to “jail terms, forced re- it doesn’t endure by magic. This 34 thor Philip Yancey observes. nunciations of faith and torture freedom of conscience is in need For evidence of this, look no in detention.” Freedom House of constant protection. John further than the enemy in this reports “hundreds of thousands” Keegan argued in his History war: The jihadists are fight- of religious adherents—many of of Warfare that “[a]ll civiliza- ing, quite literally, for a world them guilty of “simply possess- tions owe their origins to the where there is no faith but one. ing spiritual texts in the privacy warrior.”39 But more than that, The U.S. military is fighting for of their homes”—are sentenced all civilizations owe their con- precisely the opposite: a world to forced labor. tinued existence to the warrior.

53 “How many battlefields there assaults on religious liberty. Indeed, it means that when are on which that soldier has The purpose is not be to shame stateless groups like ISIS and fallen for our freedom and yours the enemies of religious liberal Qaeda try to dismember civ- and thus borne witness to the ty—for the shameless cannot be ilization, when regimes like rights of the person,” Pope John shamed—but rather to isolate Milosevic’s Serbia, the Taliban’s Paul declared in 1979, pointing them, challenge their enablers, Afghanistan, and Assad’s Syria to the Tomb of the Unknown and offer a platform to their cross the line, America should Soldier in Warsaw’s Victory victims. “A little less détente,” rally what Reagan called an Square. He then equated “the as Reagan declared during an “army of conscience” to defend soldier’s blood shed on the field earlier struggle for civilization, that space where our interests of battle” with “the martyr’s sac- “and more encouragement to and values intersect. rifice” and “the seed of prayer.”40 the dissenters might be worth a lot of armored divisions.” EXTREMES The intent here is not to glory What does that mean in the 21st Those who believe in God— in war. Rather, it is to remind century? and those who don’t—should be those of us who talk and write thankful for the United States about freedom, those who dis- It means using high-profile set- military. For without it, our pense and receive Nobel Peace tings such as the State of the world and our lives would be Prizes, those who take the free- Union, G-7, and UN Security very different. Had the Axis dom to worship or not worship Council to shine a light on those emerged victorious in 1945, for granted, that our freedom who have contempt for reli- the world order would have depends on what John Stuart gious freedom and other human been characterized by godless Mill called “the exertions of rights—the business-suit au- racialism and fascist totalitar- better men.” tocrats in China and Russia, ianism. Had the Soviet Union the monstrous regime in North outlasted the West in 1989, the The U.S. military stands as the Korea, the self-styled holy men world order would have been last line of defense for our re- in Iran. characterized by godless col- ligious freedom. It is a shield lectivism and Leninist totalitar- It means advocating for reli- for faith. That’s why so many ianism. And if the jihadists have gious and political freedom. of us are alarmed by the bi- their way today, the world order This presents a conundrum partisan gamble known as se- would be characterized by ruth- because, as historian Walter questration, which, in a time less conformity and theocratic Russell Mead notes, there is a of war and growing interna- totalitarianism. tional instability, has shrunk “tension between America’s role the reach, role, and resources as a revolutionary power and its God’s crowning creation cannot 41 of freedom’s greatest defender: role as a status quo power.” flourish under those extremes. the U.S. military. The way to bridge this tension is We are not made for those ex- to be a reforming power—ready tremes. Given the threats facing the to maintain the pillars of the United States, sequestration liberal international order built Alan W. Dowd is a senior fel- should be ended and defense after World War II, willing to low with the Sagamore Institute spending restored to a lev- support any effort to move in- Center for America’s Purpose, el commensurate with those ternal political systems in the di- and a contributing editor of threats. Some military analysts rection of this liberal order, but Providence. have suggested a return to the unwilling to support movements (Endnotes) post-World War II average of or groups that would steer a 1 Gerhard Weinberg, A World at War, 5 percent of GDP; some have nation away from this liberal p.899. urged 4 percent of GDP; few order. Even as we “encourage 2 Joe Sharkey, “Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler’s have recommended 3 percent and help the reform process,” Forces Planned To Destroy German of GDP (and falling), which is as Tony Blair explains, “we have Christianity,” New York Times, January where defense spending has to be clear we will not support 13, 2002; Office of Strategic Services, “The Nazi Master Plan,” July 6, 1945, hovered in recent years. systems or governments based web.archive.org. on sectarian religious politics… 3 Sheldon M. Garon, “State and In addition, leading policymak- Where the extremists are fight- Religion in Imperial Japan, 1912-1945,” Journal of Japanese Studies, Summer, ers should draw attention—re- ing, they have to be countered 1986. lentlessly and repeatedly—to hard, with force.”42 4 Paul Johnson, Modern Times,

54 pp.180-181. kantei.go.. ritual,” April 23, 2003. 5 William Inboden, “Religious 13 Johnson, p.730. 29 Carey Lodge, “ISIS video: ‘We Freedom and National Security,” Policy 14 Johnson, p.50. will break your crosses and enslave Review, October 2, 2012. 15 Glenn E. Curtis, Ed., Russia: A your women,’” Christianity Today, 6 European Parliament, Resolution on country Study, Library of Congress, July September 22, 2014. the Systematic Mass Murder of Religious 1996, cdn.loc.gov. 30 BBC News, “Islamic State’s position Minorities by the So-Called “ISIS/ 16 Washington Times, “How Stalin, on Christians,” February 27, 2015. the ‘breaker of nations,’ hated, murdered Daesh,” February 3, 2016, europarl. 31 Loveday Morris and Kareem Fahim, Jews,” August 16, 2003. europa.eu; BBC News, “Abuse ‘Rife “Iraqi Christians, scarred by Islamic in Secret al-Qaeda Jails in Syria,’” 19 17 John O’Sullivan, The President, the Prime Minister and the State’s cruelty, doubt they will return December 2013; Rukmini Callimachi, Pope, 2006, p.14 to Mosul,” Washington Post, October “ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rap,” New 18 Philip Jenkins, “Memories of 30, 2016. York Times, August 13, 2015; CNN, “ISIS persecution,” The Christian Century, 32 John 8:1-11. putting price tags on children, selling November 18, 2011. 33 NIV Study Bible, Kenneth Barker, them as slaves, UN says,” February 6, 19 William Pfaff, The Wrath of ed., (Zondervan 1995), p.1556. 2015; Faith Karimi and Greg Botelho, Nations, p.219. 34 Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never “ISIS putting price tags on Iraqi children, 20 Rick Scavetta, “U.S. troops Knew, p.246. selling them as slaves, U.N. says,” CNN, keeping a watchful eye as Kosovo 35 USCIRF, Annual Report 2014, February 6, 2015. recovers from deadly clashes,” Stars p.59; USCIRF, Did You Know…Iran, 7 President Barack Obama, Statement and Stripes, March 24, 2004 and Tom uscirf.gov; by the President on ISIL, September Hundley, “Kosovo’s Serbs Fearful Benjamin Weinthal, “Iran gives 10, 2014. Despite Huge U.S. Shield,” Chicago Christians 80 lashes for communion 8 Erin Dooley, “Obama: ‘We Broke the Tribune, November 10, 1999. wine as UN blasts human rights record,” ISIL Siege of Mt. Sinjar,’” ABC News, 21 Molly Moore, “Aid Workers Fox News, October 27, 2013. August 14, 2014. Recount a Time of Contrasts in Prison,” 36 USCIRF, 2014, pp.79-81. 9 Jennifer Hlad, “Breaking the Siege Washington Post, November 16, 2001. 37 UN OHCR, “North Korea: UN on Sinjar,” Air Force Magazine, October 22 Chris Hitchens, “The Ends of War,” 2015; Jim Michaels, “Marines had The Nation, Dec. 17, 2001. Commission documents wide-ranging prepared for major rescue on Mount 23 Freedom House, Freedom in the and ongoing crimes against humanity, Sinjar,” USAToday, October 7, 2014; World: Afghanistan, freedomhouse.org, urges referral to ICC,” February 17, 2014, Benjamin W. Stratton, “Misawa pilots 2015; Kenneth Katzman, Afghanistan: ohchr.org; John L. Allen Jr., “The war save Iraqi civilians, earn 2014 Mackay Post-Taliban Governance, Security and on Christians,” The Spectator, October Trophy,” Pacific Air Forces, December U.S. Policy, CRS Report for Congress, 5, 2013. November 8, 2016. 14, 2015. 38 President Barack Obama, Remarks 24 Katzman. 10 James Dobbins, et al., America’s by the President on the Way Forward in 25 USCIRF, Afghanistan, uscirf.gov/ Role in Nation-Building from Germany Afghanistan, June 22, 2011. sites/default/files/USCIRF_Tier2_ 39 John Keegan, A History of Warfare, to Iraq, RAND, 2003, p.xix, pp.8-9, p.16; Afghan.pdf. p.xvi. Basic Law for the Federal Republic of 26 David Ottaway, “In bid to 40 Pope John Paul, Address in Germany, bundestag.de. shape postwar Iraq, US goes by the 11 Ray Salvatore Jennings, “The Road schoolbook,” Washington Post, April Warsaw, Poland, June 2, 1979. Ahead: Lessons in Nation Building from 6, 2003. 41 Walter Russell Mead, “Was Hillary Japan, Germany and Afghanistan for 27 Agence France Presse, “Jailed Iraqi Clinton a good secretary of state?” Postwar Iraq,” children run free as Marines roll into Washington Post, May 30, 2014. USIP Peaceworks, No. 49, April 2003; Baghdad suburbs,” April 8, 2003. 42 Tony Blair, “Iraq, Syria and the Dobbins, p.44. 28 The Washington Times, Middle East,” Office of Tony Blair, June 12 The Constitution of Japan, japan. “Shi’ite pilgrims a million strong revive 14, 2014.

55 Shiloh: A Requiem

Skimming lightly, wheeling still, The swallows fly low Over the field in clouded days, The forest-field of Shiloh— Over the field where April rain Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain Through the pause of night That followed the Sunday fight Around the church of Shiloh— The church so lone, the log-built one, That echoed to many a parting groan And natural prayer Of dying foemen mingled there— Foemen at morn, but friends at eve— Fame or country least their care: (What like a bullet can undeceive!) But now they lie low, While over them the swallows skim, And all is hushed at Shiloh

Herman Melville

The Battle of Shiloh took place 155 years ago, over a pair of days in April, 1862. This con- temporary sketch by Henry Lovie, which appeared first in “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper,” shows the Shiloh log church from which the battle took its name. Wartime photograph, Signal Corps, U. S. Army.