Remembering
James Robison

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The Brew: War Party Groupthink Over Ukraine Is Crumbling. Could Peace Break Out Soon?

By John Zmirak Published on February 21, 2025

I was at a summit of conservative Christian leaders a few years ago. I won’t name any names, or hold any of those very good people up to scorn. But I can’t help remembering one issue that seemed to unite them: the need to stand up to Russia and fund the war in Ukraine, and maybe (if need be) send our own troops over there. They spoke up for this so powerfully, you’d have thought it was specifically demanded in Christ’s own words: “Verily, I say unto you: Ukraine must be defended in her territorial integrity, yea unto the very last oblast of her 1960 borders.”

When I disagreed, and suggested that this was a foreign conflict in which the U.S. had no vital interest and which risked a world war with Russia, one pastor accused me of appeasement, citing the carve-up of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Another called me a “pacifist,” which to me is a fighting word. I was a little shocked to see these men, who mostly believed that Joe Biden had in fact stolen the White House, marching in lockstep behind his fumbling, provocative foreign policy.

So I got a bit emotional, I’ll confess. I challenged them:

How many of you were on board with George W. Bush and his Iraq War? Remember all those ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that threatened Manhattan? The claim that he was behind 9/11? What about those promises that our troops would be greeted with flowers, that the oil revenues would pay for the war, that we’d build a pro-American democracy over there? How about the Iraqi Christians, who got ethnically cleansed or killed, 700,000 of them or more, while our troops stood by and did nothing?

At that they fell silent.

“I warned Christians against that war, and nobody listened. They got played by our elites, the way you’re getting played right now,” I said, and then I shut up.

Trump Has Shut Off the Tinny Radio That Was Blasting War Propaganda

I wonder what those prominent pastors think about the Ukraine war right now. I bet that they’ve changed their minds, because Donald Trump (God bless him!) has changed the conversation. With the help of people like Tucker Carlson, Mike Benz, Steve Bannon, and other dissenters from the War Party’s mindless drumbeat, Trump has brought back taboo ideas like “negotiations,” “trade-offs,” and even “diplomacy.” No longer can you silence rational discourse with slurs like “Putin apologist” or “Russian asset,” not since Tulsi Gabbard beat those smears and got confirmed as Director of National Intelligence. Not when J.D. Vance’s ringing challenge to corrupt, woke European leaders is still ringing in everyone’s ears.

Instead, sane people are pushing back. They’re remembering that every foreign rival isn’t Adolf Hitler, that the Nazis were actually exceptional in their relentless and aggression, which is why they took their enemies by surprise. The Nazis didn’t act like normal aggressive powers, which carefully calculate profit and loss and accept rational trade-offs. That’s because the Nazis were a nihilistic cult determined to conquer Eastern Europe and exterminate 80 million people, then colonize it with Germans. That goal was so fantastical that even though Hitler endorsed it in his writing and speeches, nobody really believed he was serious. He was, and when his plan failed he was willing to see Germany itself obliterated — even gave orders to burn the whole place down in the last days of the war.

Thankfully, most of our rivals and even our enemies aren’t so apocalyptically possessed. Stalin wasn’t. Khrushchev wasn’t. And Vladimir Putin isn’t, either. More and more Americans are realizing that, and saying it.


More importantly, Vice President J.D. Vance is pushing back, hard, against the manufactured consensus of our corrupt elites on the Ukraine war, and speaking with all the clarity and sanity Pat Buchanan has offered over the decades. Here Vance is responding to yet another “appeasement” alarmist:

For the first time since 2021, I don’t feel like I’m watching the world sleepwalk toward war. God is good, indeed.

Even Muslim Leaders Are Feeling Shamed by Hamas

As the battered Israeli hostages slowly emerge, or their bodies get paraded through the streets, decent Muslims around the world are speaking up, and insisting that Hamas doesn’t speak for them:

If you appreciate The Stream archives, please consider supporting the outreaches of LIFE.

The Puritans Weren’t … Puritanical

Author Nancy Pearcey is taking on a historical smear, aimed at the passionate Christians who founded the first European settlements in colonial America, the Puritans. It’s nice to see Woke myths busted, isn’t it?

Did the Obama Administration Help Force the Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and His Replacement by Woke Globalist Francis?

Lifesitenews is raising again the questions posed in 2017 about alleged Deep State interference in the governance of the Catholic Church, asking the new Trump administration to finally investigate the actions of the U.S. State Department that may have influenced the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and his replacement by leftist, increasingly anti-American, Pope Francis. These questions need to be answered, and maybe DOGE will get to the bottom of it. Here are just a few:

  • To what end was the National Security Agency monitoring the conclave that elected Pope Francis?
  • What other covert operations were carried out by U.S. government operatives concerning the resignation of Pope Benedict or the conclave that elected Pope Francis?
  • International monetary transactions with the Vatican were suspended during the last few days prior to the resignation of Pope Benedict.
    Were any U.S. Government agencies involved in this?
  • Why were international monetary transactions resumed on February 12, 2013, the day after Benedict XVI announced his resignation? Was this pure coincidence?
  • What actions, if any, were actually taken by John Podesta, Hillary Clinton, and others tied to the Obama administration who were involved in the discussion proposing the fomenting of a “Catholic Spring”?

Want to know more? Catholic children’s advocate Liz Yore does. In this video she joins Lifesitenews’ John Henry Westen to pose even more pertinent questions.

Along The Stream

Later this morning, read Jules Gomes’ scrupulously reported story about social media star Fr. Calvin Robinson, who has courageously taken on British censorship and many other evils — but who might have feet of clay when it comes to the Jewish people.

This afternoon, be sure to watch the latest talk by Shane Idleman, on the perennial importance of the Holy Spirit, and His role in the life of every believer.

 

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.