By Capt Tom Burbage, US Navy ret, USNA ’69

Words may be the new battlefield as they have subtle meaning that can motivate the new “armies” that seem to be redefining the term enemies.

The best example is the difference between Awake and Awoke. People are either Awake or Awoke and it is interesting that these two words, separated by a single letter in the alphabet, may define the new boundaries of combat.

If you declare you are neutral, you are by definition “Awoke”…. willing to follow the lemmings over the cliff. If you are “Awake” you recognize that the lemmings are a false idol.

We all knew people from the “Greatest Generation” that gave everything to keep the American experiment alive. Many were our parents and our role models and we often recalled their contribution as a key part of our development as young adults.

Over a half century after the World War, we all knew friends that were killed or caught up in 9-11 and saw our “next generation’” volunteer to jump into the fray. After 9-11, our streets were lined with American flags and young patriots flooded our recruiting stations because it was a visible threat to our nation and our way of life.

More Americans were killed on 9-11 than were killed at Pearl harbor, an event that brought us into a World War. Since those two major events, it is ironic that we have endured no national threat. Some incidents requiring military responses, yes, but our shores and families have never been threatened, until now.

Our generation experienced a unique slice in American History, dealing with two very different threats to our nation. Both influenced our lives in many ways. We overcame both and lived on to enjoy the freedoms we often take for granted. Our generation now looks at the state of our nation through the same lens. That might be a big mistake. 

We are now facing a much more insidious, hard to define, internal threat with the same potential outcome to destroy our freedoms and way of life.

This new insurgency is what our enemies have long predicted…. that it is possible to defeat the mighty US without firing a shot. The counterculture has made quiet inroads over our lifetime, expanding without resistance through social media and liberal schooling.

Our generation was a contributing factor through our permissiveness that allowed merit to be secondary to feelings, a concept that also facilitated the current dilemma we face.

The enemy today is not “over there”, does not wear a strange uniform or follow the general rules of conflict as we have always known them. There is still plenty of that going on in the world today that we need to be concerned about. Instead, we are now also confronted with a new ideology focus which seems to act like an insidious cancer from within.

Like that disease, the problem often goes undetected but eventually starts to influence critical elements of life. Detected early, it can often be resolved or at least delayed, providing a few more years to enjoy life. Like many of our generation, when faced with a life-threatening medical diagnosis we don’t understand, we search out a source of knowledge that can “make the miracle happen”.

It rarely does, particularly when we ignore the symptoms and write them off to “the aging process”.  Today, our social fabric has been infiltrated with a mental virus, and our generation has allowed unconstrained teaching paradigms to infest our schools.

The toxic combination of unacceptable school curricula and a highly partisan political agenda have truly divided our nation. We seem to have warring tribes between those that treasure our history and way of life and those that seek to destroy it. The result is just as threatening as any conflict we have faced in our history.

The most perplexing question is…why does anyone want to go down this path? One of the laws of nature has always been that “the forces of evil are fully funded”, a factor that needs to be fully investigated.

One of our great challenges will be the recruitment of the next generation of military leaders and our volunteer forces. In an environment of radical learning based on Marxist principles of disunity and hatred can we expect our best and brightest younger generation to still carry that patriotic DNA that Americans have always had? If not, can we restore it in our Service academies and other accession processes? Based on human nature, we may have a very reduced chance to motivate our society to respond in defense of our national interests.

So, how do we fight this with incomplete knowledge and a divided nation?  Storm the beach?….what beach? Hand to hand combat? who’s hand?? Motivate our young patriots and send them into battle…. where is the battle? Who is the enemy? Is it he/she/or some other self-identifying pronoun?

We can spend all of our time chasing political ghosts or we can pull our heads out of the sand and recognize we are in a very dangerous time for our Constitutional Republic.

If we don’t identify the threat, stop the insanity over the rejection of what made us the greatest nation in the world and rise up, we are, in fact, giving into the cancer and hoping for a peaceful ending to a life well lived.  And…hoping that our kids and grandkids survive.

Or…we can come off the golf course and stand up for our lifelong contribution to who we are as a nation.

Too many made the ultimate sacrifice to surrender our national identity to be less than the best. Many of us are enjoying the fruits of the sacrifices of the young patriots that joined the fight voluntarily after 9/11.

Would those individuals want their life back to enjoy the lives we have today? Would that large community of “young patriots” with disabling injuries feel the same? No question they would.

Would the same group watch us give our country away to something very less than what they gave their commitment to?

We have an obligation, as our oath so eloquently defined,” to preserve and defend” the Constitution of the United States.

Never forget that oath when all around us try to ignore it.

It’s time to choose what side we’re on.

About the Author:

Capt. Tom Burbage is a Naval Academy graduate, former Navy Test pilot and industry leader. He is working with a group of concerned individuals to change the focus of our military and specifically our Service Academies.