Did you know that on June 23, 2024 (the Eastern Orthodox Pentecost Sunday), on a beach in Sebastopol, Russia, US cluster bombs killed 4 civilians (including 2 children) and injured hundreds?
It should be noted at the outset that cluster bombs are considered some of the most brutal weapons ever invented in modern warfare. They were outlawed at the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Cluster bombs explode in the air and release large numbers of “bomblets,” spraying an entire area, killing and maiming most everyone present. They are meant to exact a heavy toll on an imposing infantry.
However, you might imagine the havoc they wreak when they land on a local market (as they did when NATO dropped them on a market in Nis, Serbia), a housing area, or a beach in Russia.
Another inherent danger of cluster bombs is that some of the bomblets fail to explode on impact (this happens when the bomblets land on wet or soft ground, such as a beach in Russia) and become de facto landmines. These bomblets may explode later, like when a child mistakenly picks one up, or someone unwittingly steps on one.
The reason why many Americans did not hear about this attack is part of a more significant problem that I intend to unpack in this and subsequent posts.
The Media and the US war machine
What is interesting is that when Russia dropped cluster bombs on Ukraine, it was headline news across the US. (see details in Norman Solomon, War Made Invisible).
On March 1, 2022, the NYT ran a front-page article on Russia’s use of “internationally banned cluster munitions.” The article noted that Russia was not a member of the treaty, but it omitted the fact that the US is not a treaty member either.
Moreover, according to a Congressional Research Service report of Mar 9, 2022, the “US and British forces used an estimated 1.8 million to two million submunitions during the first three weeks of combat in Iraq in 2003” (War Made Invisible, 58).
Why is it that when the US employs such vicious weaponry, we hear very little in the mainstream American media, yet when Russia employs them, it is headline news?
The Decline of the Western Evangelical Church
Last week (July 11, 2024), I began a series of Livestreams on why I believe that the Western Evangelical church (which is my tribe and why I am limiting the conversation to the evangelical church) has gone astray.
The degree to which the church has gone astray is certainly a matter of debate. I do not deny that many godly Christ-followers and even some great churches in the Western Evangelical tradition are doing beautiful things for the kingdom.
I contend that, by and large, the greater Western Evangelical Church has gone astray from the Gospel and the Kingdom.
As I will make clear over the coming weeks (I plan to host this Livestream series most Thursdays for the next few months. To see the entire playlist for this series, click here), there are a number of reasons why I believe that the Western Evangelical Church has gone astray.
One reason, which I plan to address in this week’s livestream (July 18, 2024: The Gospel, the Kingdom, part 2), is that we do not seem to reflect Jesus very well. Jesus said, “All men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). And I dare say that this is often not a characterization of the Church in much of the West.
Second, I am concerned that the Western Evangelical Church has largely succumbed to the political and militaristic agenda of the West.
This assertion is undoubtedly much more difficult to assess, and I suspect it will garner more objections. Understood. That is why I will need weeks or more to address this point more thoroughly.
Power, wealth, and the failing of American Democracy
One of the areas in which I am convinced that we have gone astray relates to our embrace of power and wealth.
In my post last week, I suggested that the American democracy is in peril. I noted that PACs (Political Action Committees) have far too much influence in the American system. The result is that the will of the poor and the marginalized are often neglected (the poor rarely have the financial wherewithal to compete with the power of a well-funded PAC).
This means that the American democracy is failing because it has succumbed to power and wealth.
Now, I believe in Democracy and that the American system of democracy is one of the best. Well, ideally, it is.
The problem with any human system of government is that it can be co-opted. And I believe that the nature of humanity is such that every system will be co-opted at some point–just as every empire before us has fallen.
The beauty of the American system includes the fact that it has a built-in defense to help identify and hinder efforts to co-opt it. In particular, there is freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
What happens when free speech is threatened or, worse, when the press has been bought?
This might sound like an overstatement.
This is where an understanding of the book of Revelation comes in.
One of the critical features of the book of Revelation is its explicit declaration that the world’s nations (the Beast: Rev 13:1-8) are under the control of the Dragon (aka Satan)—see Revelation 12-13, especially Rev 13:2.
In addition, Satan is explicitly known as the “deceiver.” “The serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:8).
Consequently, if the Dragon (Satan), who is the deceiver, empowers the Beast (i.e., the nations), then we should expect deception (aka “propaganda”) to be a hallmark of the Beast’s work.
The book of Revelation adds a second Beast to the equation (Rev 13:11-18). In modern terms, the second Beast functions as the empire’s propaganda arm.
But that is not all. We learn of a third entity in Revelation 17-18 (17:1-19:10). John says that he saw a Great Prostitute who sits atop the Beast (17:1-3). For the sake of simplicity, we might say that the Great Prostitute represents the material or economic side of the empire.
NB: It is, of course, more complicated than this. For a detailed discussion of the Beasts and the Great Prostitute, see my new commentary Revelation: A Love Story.
The Power of Propaganda
The role of propaganda in an empire should never be underestimated.
I mentioned in last week’s livestream on the Gospel and the Kingdom (July 11, 2024) that Hitler and the Nazis began their ruthless campaign against Jews, the disabled, and all they deemed unworthy of life with a systematic, calculated effort that hindered or limited objection.
The Nazis, of course, began their systematic dehumanizing of Jews by eliminating free speech. Consequently, when some began to want to voice their dissent, they were hindered by fear of the consequences.
It would have been easy in the early days of the Nazi regime for the people of Germany to conclude, “Sure, I don’t agree with it, but it’s not that bad.”
Once many within Germany began realizing what their government was doing, it was too late to speak up. Their free speech had been eliminated.
I have said before that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are among the things that make America great. We rightly condemn Russia, China, and N Korea because they lack free speech.
But what if our free speech has been hijacked, and we don’t know it?
America’s financial ruin
The American enterprise is in grave and perhaps irreversible danger because it is now $33 trillion in debt. Eventually, the interest on our national debt will exceed our annual budget.
With this in mind, it is even more bewildering that the US continues to wage seemingly endless wars. The US war effort, which can hardly be called “defense,” has increased to the point where the 2024 “defense budget” now exceeds $800 billion.
We might ask, “Where does this money come from?” But that would be the subject of a future post. Instead, what if we asked, “Where is this money going?”
The answer to this question is clear. In the first 20 years of this millennium, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrup Grumman earned $2.1 trillion in military contracts.
Furthermore, in 2020 alone, the CEOs of these five companies netted over $105 million.
What if I were to contend (and I am by no means the only one making such contentions) that much of the power of the US government has fallen into the hands of major corporations?
NB: This week’s Determinetruth podcast is part 1 of a two-part interview with Wes Howard Brook on the book of Revelation and the Beast. Wes has co-authored what I believe to be the finest book available on the Beast of the book of Revelation and its implications for today. (See Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwther, Unveiling Empire.)
Now, you might say that this is the American way. Capitalism fuels the American democratic system.
My concerns, however, include:
- Behind the corporate profits are the deaths of millions of innocent people.
- The American press is largely silent when our country kills civilians. Why doesn’t our media condemn the US? Do we find it interesting that our press is not quiet when Russia, China, and other enemies of the US kill civilians? Why, then, is it silent when it is the US doing the killing?
Freedom of speech in the US includes the people’s voice. How are we supposed to raise our voices when the US press does not report our war crimes?
This may sound alarmist. Perhaps that is because it is alarmist. I would contend that the facts suggest that the problem is far worse than we might ever have imagined.
A study at Brown University, in fact, concluded that the US post 9-11 efforts have resulted in over 900,000 deaths and that the war efforts have cost American taxpayers $8 trillion.
The Beast’s Propaganda machine
An example of the Beast’s propaganda machine and its effects in the US is evident in that the American Press barely mentioned the bomb that exploded on the beach in Sebastopol. I did a quick Google search, “US bombed land on a beach in Russia,” and only one result on the first page mentioned that US bombs killed Russians, and that hit was a private Substack article. No primary media sources implicated the US in the bombing.
The top two hits on my Google search claimed that “Russia blames the US.” Well, maybe Russia blames the US because it was our bomb that fell on the beachgoers.
The Reuters post was particularly suspect. The article mentioned, “For more than two years, the beaches of the peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, have been only one step removed from the raging battles of the war in Ukraine.” This seemingly places the blame for a US cluster bomb landing on a beach in Russia and killing 4 Russians on Russia’s annexing of Crimea!
The Reuters report ignored the involvement of the US when it added, “Fragments from Ukrainian missiles killed four people.”
The problem is that they weren’t Ukrainian missiles. They were US missiles.
Someone might say, “True, but the Ukrainians fired them.” Well, not really. Numerous military experts have confirmed that such sophisticated weapons as cluster munitions require the assistance of US personnel to fire.
“But Russia kills civilians too.” No doubt. My point is not that one side is good and the other is bad. My point is that both sides are bad. And War is bad. War kills people.
We should be weeping and crying out for an end to such violence.
. . . to be continued.
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