Among the core duties of our elected leaders is the very straightforward concept of providing for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.

In other words, it’s their job to keep America safe from those who might mean us harm. Unfortunately, our elected officials take that responsibility about as seriously as they do the part about ‘paying the debts’ from that very same clause.

Hard on the heels of billions of dollars of military technology being abandoned and left in the hands of the Taliban during Biden’s disorderly retreat from Afghanistan, we are six months into Putin’s — what did Biden call it? — ‘minor incursion’ into Ukraine.

The Problem

Having done practically nothing to deter the fighting, and after realizing that airlifting Zelensky out of there wasn’t going to be an option, Biden and the Democrats made a point of throwing everything that wasn’t already nailed down into Ukraine’s fight with the Russians.

Their cause is a sympathetic one, to be sure, but like any other decision, it comes with certain attendant cost/benefit calculations. One of those calculations is now looming large.

Have we sacrificed our own combat readiness in the effort to support Ukraine in their war with Russia?

The Biden administration has drawn much of the over $13 billion in weapons systems and accompanying ammunition the U.S. has provided to Ukraine from existing arsenals, according to the WSJ. While the Department of Defense has declined to disclose the number of ammunition rounds in storage at the beginning of 2022, before the war in Ukraine began, it has taken few steps to replenish depleting stocks, sparking worries that the U.S. may not have the ammunition it needs for its own protection.
The level of 155mm combat rounds, fired by the howitzer weapons system, in U.S. stockpiles has become “uncomfortably low,” a Pentagon official told the WSJ. The U.S. has sent 806,000 rounds of the 100-pound explosives to Ukraine as of Aug. 24.
“It is not at the level we would like to go into combat,” the defense official told the WSJ. U.S.-supplied howitzers have seen extended use from Ukrainian forces since entering the conflict in late May, Fox News reported. –DailyCaller

There were signs of this worrying trend early on in the conflict, when Western Countries were having trouble keeping up with replenishing some of the various man-portable weapons being sent over to fight the Russian armor.

Canada pretty much gutted its own arsenal to supply Ukraine.

Speaking at CBC’s Power & Politics, Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand explained that the Trudeau government had exhausted its supplies of rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, grenades, ammunition, sniper rifles, drone cameras, and other military equipment sent to Ukraine. – TFIGlobalNews

With Democrats chronically under-funding our military, and firing thousands who refused the jab, can we be certain we are in any better shape?

Why This Matters

We have seen, at critical moments in our own history, what can go wrong if we find ourselves in a fight with a military that has not been sufficiently maintained or equipped. Korea is one obvious example.

There is a less obvious example from history from what can go very wrong if countries exhaust themselves financially and militarily. The Byzantine Empire (the remaining Eastern part of the old Roman Empire) fought a bloody war of attrition with the Persians in the early 600’s, degrading their military forces and emptying the coffers of both nations.

While the two great powers had spent themselves in a battle with one another, an upstart third power rose in their midst and eventually overthrew them both. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.

Does the first Islamic Caliphate ring any bells?

Today’s Equivalent To This Example

Russia has made it abundantly clear that they do not see themselves as fighting a war with Ukraine… they see themselves as fighting a war with NATO. This complicates any hope of a simple path to ceasefire with Putin.

If he is seen as fighting the great Western Enemy, it’s not a fight he can easily walk away from unless he can find some way to claim he gave NATO as good as he got.

He is unlikely to quit until he can claim a victory or else be handed a decisive loss. Either scenario means the war will drag on… burning more Western dollars and equipment with every passing day.

There is a danger in that scenario that the West doesn’t seem to be taking very seriously. It’s a danger analagous to the rise of Islam in the example above.

With NATO and Russia acting out the old rivalries of the 20th Century’s Cold War, another player has stepped onto the stage … one that has already been making moves in building it’s influence network and trying to take it’s place in the top of the heap as an unchallenged global superpower.

That player on the stage would be … China.

If we do not keep a careful eye on our own military readiness, that could provide exactly the window of opportunity Xi has been waiting for to make a move. Any big move he makes could be the kind that launches the whole world into a kind of global conflict not seen in generations.

Only, this time, America’s mighty manufacturing base will not give us the same lopsided advantage it has in the past.

Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass is a collection, from the book of Psalms, regarding how David rolled in prayer. I bet you haven’t heard these read, prayed, or sung in church against our formidable enemies — and therein lies the Church’s problem. We’re not using the spiritual weapons God gave us to waylay the powers of darkness. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of Christ’s Church and of our nation.

Also included in this book, Psalms of War, are reproductions of the author’s original art from his Biblical Badass Series of oil paintings.