To kick this off and make it simple: I support Israel’s position. I do not personally recognize a “place” called Palestine (not that it would matter either way). I refute the narrative of a Palestinian genocide and it seems simple, bordering on the mundane, to denounce a terrorist organization that did what it did on October 7th – an organization which uses hospitals and schools to mask its underground facilities like cowards – using its own citizens as a humans shields. These are not the acts of a just and righteous cause.
To be objective, what’s happening physically, geographically, in Israel has zero effect on my life. Zero. I cannot directly point to any part of my personal life, my way of life, my individual freedoms… nothing that has been impacted by the vile, disgusting, heinous and inhuman acts of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent conflict. So in a sense, what’s happened in Israel isn’t really my problem.
However, when the ideals and principles of the terrorist organization that propagated this perverse ideology begin to infect my country, the state I was raised in (Ohio) and the state I live in (Utah)… then I begin to care quite a bit more.
So, I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and they mentioned an acquaintance was going to be taking part in a pro-Israel rally (led by Christians), as a direct mirror to a pro-Palestinian / Hamas rally. I asked my friend what this acquaintance was hoping to achieve? Did they have a strategic objective?
The response was simple. Nothing other than to stand up for what is right and give courage to others who may not have it. No mental masturbation. No obsessing over a plan. Just action.
We’re about ten days (at the time of this draft) past the anniversaries of the Battles’ of Lexington and Concord. The patriots who died that day might have been asked the same end-goal question by others as they rushed to commit themselves to the ideals of a free nation they would never live to see. Perhaps their action inspired others to take up arms as well (we know it did). What if they had listened? Thank God they did not.
Examples of courage like the Shot Heard Round the World, my own family’s legacy of service spanning from Vietnam back to the Revolutionary War and having a patriotic family in general are exactly what influenced me to serve my country. I knew from the age of 9 that I would serve. I knew I wanted to matter. I needed to do something to earn the freedoms we’re all born with. Selfishly, I wanted to walk into any room and never stand next to other men who had answered the call; always wondering if I could have too.
And this brings us to today. Depending on the source and / or type of information you choose to ingest you see increasing numbers of protests in support of Gaza and Palestine…and Hamas. Granted, all news sources amplify their narrative to sell views and copies, so that must be taken into consideration.
Listening to people shout pro-Hamas statements. Listening to them refer to Hamas as freedom fighters. Hearing people say they are pro-Hamas; some going as far as to say ‘we are all Hamas”… an organization whose founding tenets are death to America and death to Israel (and LGBTQ especially).
It absolutely baffles me. The mental gymnastics it must take for a person to “logically” get to a place where they can believe that – I’ll never understand it. Even worse, either the cognitive dissonance and / or intellectual laziness this must take. It tells me these people do not have real problems. Tucker Carlson made a comment on a recent Joe Rogan podcast:
The marriage of ineptitude and high self-esteem are really the cornerstone of our times right now.
I also have to ask (and we all should), where have all these pro-Palestinan and Hamas folks been hiding, up to Oct 6th? Where did they come from? Who’s funding this? Cui Bono?
I also believe in free speech and the right to peaceful protest. I never want anyone to have those rights taken away. If they can be taken away, they are no longer rights, only privileges or tools to be leveraged.
Along the lines of free speech, I was re-visiting a book this week that I read countless times as a kid: Carry on Mr. Bowditch. There is a paragraph in the story where a passage from The Essex Almanac is referenced in support of free speech. The paragraph in Bowditch reads as follows:
The press is dangerous in a despotic government but in a free country it is very useful, so long as it is free… If we argue against any branch of liberty just because some people abuse that liberty, then we argue against liberty itself.
This statement is as true today as it was when it was written in a pre-revolutionary period of history, while still under the yoke of British rule.
Regardless, I will also take these people seriously. When people / organizers call for the death of all Jews; when they call for the intifada and a socialist revolution in the USA in the same breath, I listen. We all should. When these things are said, it makes things quite simple for me.
This is an infection. It is an invasion. Insidious and vile. I do not believe that thoughts and words equal violence. People can say whatever they want – Read Brandenburg v Ohio if you want to understand that better. However!
My position is this: If you say these things, You are my enemy. If you think these things in the dark, alone, but never say them, still, you are my enemy. You are the enemy of everything I hold dear. You are the enemy of what I believe; what I spent my life protecting.
Therefore, if you seek this kind of revolution; if you want to re-imagine America and work to achieve that outcome, your revolution will end where my property line begins. This is not a threat, it is simply a statement of fact.
I’ve written about 800 words up to this point. What I’ve written isn’t complex or nuanced. It’s not even that insightful honestly. Contrarians and “critical thinkers” will say…”but what about this…” And that’s fine. This is not a thesis. It is intentionally simple because the problem at my level is not overly complex. I support a person’s right to think, say, believe and live however they want to. I simply believe our nation is under attack from within, by ideologies which are antithetical to the founding of this nation and I will take that seriously.
So I ask each of us: Are you fortified in your intellectual exercise to take a position and hold it? Our nation is under attack, and while it may not take the same form as it did in 1775, it is our steadfast conviction, no different than Concord and Lexington, which will be required to excise this infection.
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Peyton Knippel is a retired Tactical Air Control Party Specialist (TACP). He spent time as a conventional TACP, TACP Instructor, and 17th Special Tactics Squadron TACP, supporting 2/75 Ranger Regiment. Peyton has eight deployments to Afghanistan going back to Dec 2001 w/ 10th Mountain Division and one deployment to Iraq during the surge. Peyton retired in May of 2020 and lives in Utah with his wife and son. He is involved with veteran transition groups like The Honor Foundation and Elite Meet. One of his primary focus areas in retirement is helping other veterans retire / transition successfully.
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