Not to suggest the oligarchy ruling class is any better for the average Russian, but after the fall of the Soviet Union and communism, religion and biblical values at least made a powerful resurgence and now play a vital role in the region. As a result, values, or the perceived lack thereof, serve as a cudgel on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Western values – whatever they are at the moment, inexplicable and forever morphing – are directly fueling the world’s escalating and volatile geopolitical conflicts.
To be clear, Vladimir Putin is no saint. However, we’ve made it an easy lift for him to leverage what he calls “decadent Western values” against us and seize moral high ground with other world powers and his citizens alike. That includes the influential Russian Orthodox Church.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week:
“In Moscow, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, blessed Russian troops and proclaimed the war in Ukraine a metaphysical conflict between the faithful of God and a ‘decadent West.'”
Regardless of what our culturally naïve political class indignantly insists, it was perceived a moral imperative for Putin and his religious allies to take back critical territory along his border that for a century was a part of the Russian state, lest it too become a “decadent,” card-carrying, missile-carrying member of NATO with a president chosen and groomed by the U.S. (talk about “foreign interference”).
Ukraine’s corrupt oligarchy has thrown in with “decadent Western values” so completely that its newly sainted president dances in high heels and drag when not sitting for Vanity Fair features. No wonder he’s proven such an iconic hero to the modern left – and such an enemy of the Orthodox Church.
But it’s not simply him, or even Putin’s bitterness over being used as whipping boy in a failed attempt to blame someone else for losing a presidential election. Putin perceives a clear and present danger from the leftist West – the “decadent” and corrosive abandonment of any and all traditional values.
From his perspective it would be like ignoring a fast-metastasizing cancer. Waiting was not an option.
Still, war is hell, and innocents are being brutally crushed in Ukraine as we go broke prolonging their suffering. The nightmare unfolds in living color 24/7, even if not materially different from ongoing conflicts in Africa that go uncovered by Western media.
But regardless of what we think of his war, shoring up Russia’s autonomy and centuries-old cultural identity was a timely, now-or-never proposition for Putin, further painted into a corner with threats of regime change.
America’s abject weakness and humiliating capitulation in Afghanistan wasn’t lost on Putin. Nor was the sad fact that our sitting president is beholden to his family’s benefactors to include Ukrainian oligarchs and the CCP. He also couldn’t help but notice our dangerously divided nation with a generation of American-flag-loathing ideologues.
His timing was perfect. As it will be for China when it makes its long awaited move on Taiwan soon. America will then be forced to choose between multiple theaters of engagement, otherwise known as a “world war.” Or as arrogant, globalist leftists like to think of it, “the Great Reset,” a golden opportunity to instantly reduce population and war profiteer. Fallout shelters are being built for such nihilistic elitists as we speak.
Another intentionally dangerous foreign policy blunder is getting ready to unfold just this week. Washington knows well this is not the China of 1997 when Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan. It’s never wise to saber rattle and poke yet another sworn nuclear enemy in the eye unless fully prepared to use the saber.
And don’t overlook that Nancy Pelosi may be the worst possible representative from the U.S. to send into such a volatile, culturally sensitive conflict. Beijing’s values diametrically oppose those of San Francisco’s. Washington may as well spit in their eye and insist it’s raining. China’s “red line” may actually be one, and the Speaker is stomping on it like a petulant child.
Meanwhile, America appears determined not only to provoke its nuclear enemies, but to further shove “decadent Western values” down the throats of ancient cultures who will fight to the death for the sake of deeply held beliefs and cultural identities.
That certainly includes China, who aligns with the progressive left only on the issue of abortion (in their case, forced, and deeply admired by progressives). It also includes Russia, Iran and much of the Middle East, for starters. Dangerous alliances are also forming with nuclear India and its 1.2 billion people, the majority Hindu and relatively secure in their “gender identities.”
I shouldn’t have to remind our political class that residing in the 10/40 window, between 10 and 40 degrees north, live 5.26 billion people. And not a single massive nation state pretends to embrace progressive’s utopian vision of a global culture that redefines everything, including the definition of a man and a woman.
Compare that to America’s relatively paltry population of just 331 million, only a small portion of which are secular progressives who believe they’re entitled to rule the world.
Speaking of the Middle East, America’s hopeful savior from its self-induced energy crisis, we continue to work overtime to codify our reputation as “The Great Satan.” Many understandably mock us while redistributing our relinquished weapons.
Because of this dangerous geopolitical dynamic and loss of moral high ground, look for increasing militant pushback of America’s arrogant if not bewildering post-modern worldview. It’s a poison pill most world powers refuse to swallow, even if we are determined to commit cultural and national suicide.
Someone once said “All global conflict is spiritual at its core.”
It may indeed be a “metaphysical conflict” the way I read the book of Revelation. But we need not deliberately hasten our own demise. Thankfully, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is also still in the Owner’s Manual, “If my people, called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
It’s surprisingly formulaic – and completely up to us.
Fellow Americans, we are down to a single saving hope to preserve our once “Nation Under God” as a free and prosperous land and force for good rather than evil: Revival. Otherwise, I’m sorry to say all bets are off. And our day of reckoning is closer than we think.
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