Over my morning coffee, I read reports that thousands of pro-Hamas demonstrators had encircled the White House chanting the usual tired slogans: “Globalize the Intifada,” or “From the river to the sea.” In the mainstream media coverage, one couldn’t help but notice the insistence on “normalizing” the event — in much the same manner as the “mostly peaceful protests” of the summer of 2020 — and one couldn’t help but suspect that if the demonstrators had been chanting something like “stop the steal,” these same media outlets would have fanned themselves into fury about the “end of democracy.”
It’s not a point I mean to belabor, not least because I suspect that, in the coming days, many of my fellow conservative commentators will make this and similar points about the hypocrisy of the media, the defacement of statuary in Lafayette Park, and the deeply frightening symbolism of the crowd’s drawing a “red line” around the White House. It will be hard not to draw parallels with Jan. 6 and wonder at the comparatively soft treatment that these “death to America” fanatics are likely to draw from D.C. and federal authorities. (READ MORE: A Message From Europe)
But I will leave all that to others, at least for now. After coffee and the morning news, I attended Mass, and this morning’s homily brought me up short, not just because of its theological message, but also because of what — I’m sure quite unintentionally — the Gospel passage had to say about the Intifada that has now taken root here in the U.S. The citation is from Mark 3:27 and, in the King James Version it reads as follows:
No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
The priest used this text to make an important point about how Christ protects us. I trust he will forgive me if I take the words and apply them in a more worldly context, one driven by the vision of Intifada at the gates of the White House. The parable may be taken in various ways. One is that of a stronger man breaking into the house, subduing the householder by brute force, binding him, and then looting the place. We see such scenarios played out weekly on our TV screens, although sometimes it’s not one attacker, but a gang of thieves.
One can also think of how such brutality affects the lives of others, for example, the neighbors who now live in fear of similar home invasions, or the women who fear the streets after dark. If that fear is coupled with a shortage of police officers or a failed justice system it becomes a solvent — one that dissolves the ties that hold our social fabric together. We understand all too well how this works, not just on TV, but in real life.
We’ve Lost the Will to Stand Up for Ourselves
My intent, however, is to apply the parable of the strong man more broadly, for the insight it provides into the larger issues of national security that confront us today. In a geopolitical context, one can think of Russia’s breaking into Ukraine, a prospective Chinese invasion of Taiwan, or, in the case of Israel, several gangs of violent criminals, Hamas and Hezbollah, egged on by Iran, an evil mastermind pulling the strings. The raw violence now on display — the brutality of the break-ins, the bullying threats at every turn, and the fantasy of global order that fed such silliness as a Nobel Peace Prize for Barack Obama — have now been exposed as bitter illusions.
Still, as we’re frequently reminded by those of an isolationist bent, it’s very unlikely that Russia, Iran, or even China would choose to take us on directly. They remind us that we have the world’s most powerful military, that our economy, supported by our vast resources, can flourish while the rest of the world goes to Hell, and that we remain insulated by two great oceans from the worst the world can bring. We don’t need friends or allies, we certainly don’t need them badly enough to put ourselves out on their behalf — besides, in one way or the other, they’re all undeserving or too weak and inconsequential to offer us anything in return. We are the “strong man” of the parable, and there is no one strong enough to subdue us and carry away all that we hold dear. (READ MORE: Trump-Style Candidates Rising in Europe)
Except — and this is the message of “Intifada at the White House” — the U.S. is no longer the strong man we thought it was. Sure, we still have the best ballistic missile submarines, we can swat away — albeit expensively — barrages of Houthi missiles, and our special forces operators can, if required, “fetch the devil from Hell itself,” or, at the very least, take him out with a drone strike. All well and good, but what do such powers avail us when, as a nation, we’ve lost the will to stand up for ourselves?
We lost our way a long time ago, as we allowed the hate-America crowd to take control of our institutions. For generations, it has been fashionable among our intellectuals and urban elites to mock the “deplorables,” those who cling to “their guns and their religion.” Believing in the good qualities of our nation and upholding the good that we’ve done at home and in the world has become a subject of mockery.
It’s commonplace in our entertainment today that the archetypical American heroes of an earlier generation are scrutinized for their faults, and that present-day villainy only resides with those at the bottom of the intersectional ladder. We no longer connect with the heroes of our past, nor do we understand how to recognize true heroism in the present. And we’ve lost the moral compass that might enable us to resist those who would do us harm.
We’ve watched for months as pro-Hamas demonstrators blocked our bridges, filled our streets, and occupied our campuses. Our authorities have offered, at best, a weak-kneed and weasel-worded response. Worse, instead of protecting our house and all that lies within, as the strong man of the parable would do, we’ve simply thrown open the doors and windows and invited the world’s miscreants to come in and ransack the place.
I know — there are surely many fine people flooding into the country, mothers with babies, hard-working family men, or refugees from brutal oppression. But when the doors and windows are flung wide open, as they have been by the Biden administration, then those who would destroy us have been given the run of our “house.” This certainly includes drug dealers, human traffickers, and all manner of young men who’ve brought the brutalities of their homelands to the streets of ours. But it also includes, unquestionably, terrorists of all stripes and the agents of all of our enemies. I wrote of this back in November, and again, more than once, in the months since. (READ MORE: November Is Coming and Biden Has Another Border Plan)
So as we read the news coverage, good and bad, of the anti-Semitic mobs screaming their hatred through our nation’s capital, let’s step back for a moment and ponder how it came to this. Let’s reflect on the parable of the strong man, and ask ourselves what it might take to regain control of our house once again. Now, before it’s too late — the clock is ticking.
James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counter-terrorism professional, working primarily in the nuclear security field. Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. His recent novel, Letter of Reprisal, tells the tale of a desperate mission to destroy a Chinese bioweapon facility hidden in the heart of the central African conflict region, and a forthcoming sequel carries the Reprisal team from the hills of West Virginia to the forests of Belarus. You can find it on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions, and on Kindle Unlimited.
