OPINION:
My analysis is hardly objective, because former Governor Mike Huckabee is a friend of mine while President Barack Obama is not. My newly-born grandson embodies the love of his parents, one raised in a Christian home, the other Jewish. So don’t expect me to be neutral about previous or present Holocausts. But why am I telling you all this?
Simply because Mike Huckabee said something the other day that was mightily important, regardless of what else you might think about the present presidential sweepstakes. So what if his warning about the gates of the Holocaust was so stark that the pundits were saying it might be “divisive”? So what if the mainstream media corps de ballet running around as if their exquisitely coiffed hair and TV studios were both on fire? Despite their reflexive media tendency to attack Republicans while fawning over Hillary Clinton, here was a story they could not ignore. One man finally displayed the courage to stand up and say the unimaginable: That the treaty with Iran is a covenant with death.
Mr. Huckabee was quick to point out that he was merely repeating the same devout beliefs held by two other notable audiences: Jewish voters, who appreciate his support for Israel; and the Iranian mullahs, who cannot stop gloating over their victory long enough to halt their reflexive chants of “Death to America!” Nor are these death-threats merely idle Islamist rhetoric calculated to play well with the masses during Friday prayers.
On these same pages, Ambassador James Woolsey and Peter Pry correctly warn that even a single Iranian nuke carries the inherent risk of an EMP attack that would devastate our national power grid. If you think that unlikely, then you may have forgotten two things: That the Iranians are some of the world’s best chess-masters; and that such a strike would be an exquisitely appropriate retaliation for Stuxnet, the virus deployed by Mr. Obama against Iranian nuclear reactors in 2012.
But if you still doubt Iranian intentions, then recall the sobering testimony of General James Dunford, on tap to be the next Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman. During his confirmation hearings two weeks ago, Senator Tom Cotton – himself a decorated Iraq veteran – got General Dunford to admit that an Iranian specialty bomb – the “explosively formed penetrator” device – had killed as many as 500 American soldiers in Iraq. What makes the EFP so devastating is that its shaped charge is lethal enough to penetrate armored Humvees and even tank armor, making it the weapon of choice for the Shi-ite militias supported by Tehran. If you take selfies with rattlesnakes, then don’t be surprised when you get bitten.
While Mike Huckabee is regularly criticized by those intent on driving every vestige of religious expression from the public square, the real wonder is that he lasted even a single week in any American pulpit – even in the longtime Clinton fiefdom of Arkansas. We have become so politically correct everywhere in this country that evangelists like Rev. Franklin Graham regularly criticize cowardice in the pulpit. Because of a shameful confusion over the line between church and state, the pulpit is often loathe to provide straight talk to the congregation, even when the public policy choices involve deliberate choices of life or death.
If Iran is one such issue, then surely abortion is too, especially after covert cameras caught Planned Parenthood officials selling fetal body parts as if they were in a meeting of the Dachau Grants Committee. To avoid upsetting the congregation and to make sure that the butts-to-seat ratio supports our fund-raising committee objectives, far better to have the minister preach that we are “prayerfully pro-choice.” And if you paid the slightest attention to the recent Supreme Court ruling, then will your minister have the courage to preach what the Bible actually teaches about marriage and homosexuality? Or will the church limit itself to blessing back-packs in September, ringing bells in shopping alongside the Salvation Army at Christmas and praying “No offense!” as the latest Sacrament?
The issues of life and death runs through all these choices, so much so that last week our minister asked me if I was praying for our enemies.”Well, that depends. I certainly pray for our enemies as King David often did, mainly that God would smite them and save him the trouble.” “But what about ISIS,” he persisted. “Are you praying for them too?”
That was easier because I pray for them every day. That God will guide the aim-points of our pilots, the courage of our Special Forces and the wisdom of our Commander-in-Chief, who obviously fails to grasp the wisdom of doing unto others: hopefully before they do it to us.
Ken Allard, a retired Army colonel, is a military analyst and author on national-security issues.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.