On June 24, 1948, after having isolated West Berlin inside of the boundaries of Communist East Germany, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin suddenly cut off all road shipments into the city, essentially laying siege to it with the expectations that it could be starved into subjection and thus added to his expansionist regime.

 

In a daring and decisive response President Harry Truman ordered every available military cargo plane to the area thereby providing a lifeline of food and supplies to the beleaguered West Berliners. In many respects, the famous operation that became known as the Berlin Airlift represented the initial indirect “volley” of the Cold War.

 

Over the next four decades, the United States and the Soviet Union, vying for dominance on the world scene, engaged in one pitched battle after another on innumerable fronts. Yet throughout that entire time, incidents of direct military confrontation were almost nonexistent, since both sides feared the possibilities if any such engagement escalated to the point of involving either nation’s massive nuclear arsenals.

 

Nevertheless, virtually every meeting of the two superpowers, every cultural competition and every technological contest, represented a surrogate clash intended to establish dominance by one party over the other, while at all cost avoiding the direct use of military arms. As time passed the United States of America emerged time and again as the clear winner, thus eventuating the collapse of the USSR.

 

It is important to recognize the various “fronts” on which that war was conducted from the end of World War II until the Soviet downfall in 1988. From the technological battle signified by the Space Race (decisively won by the United States on July 20, 1969 as Astronaut Neil Armstrong planted the American flag on the surface of the moon) to the “line in the sand” of Reagan’s Grenada invasion, each stood as a milestone which could either foretell of America’s ultimate victory, or signal its eventual defeat.

 

Indeed, the “Cold War” was no less a war than the two Twentieth Century World Wars that preceded it. And though not as dramatic on the nightly news for sheer death and mayhem, its battles were no less significant.

 

Sadly, many in the country believed that with the end of the Evil Empire, life would somehow become inherently safe. Adages of the “Peace Dividend” were heard incessantly, with an underlying message being that somehow, no more threats to America or the Free World existed, nor would any ever arise again. And for that time of utopian carelessness, America and the Free World are now paying an enormous price.

 

Dire threats, from militant Islam to the burgeoning Chinese empire, to the resurrection of Communist dictatorships in South America, are rearing their ugly heads. Worst of all, in face of such dangers, American elitists remain unwilling to recognize them and thus leave the country comparatively ill prepared to deal with them in the manner that it was during the heyday of the Soviet threat.

 

The dark force of liberalism and “political correctness” are working tirelessly to reorder America in their image. If allowed to continue unchecked they will cripple America’s ability to thrive and prosper, since an America made over in the image of the left can do neither. And if America fails, the rest of Western Civilization will follow.

 

Those who sought to undermine America during the original Cold War as campus radicals and participants in the leftist fringe underground are doing it this time around as tenured professors, entrenched politicians, and “mainstream” media pundits. More than just making noise and calling attention to themselves, they now influence policy and invoke the power of government to implement their agendas.

 

Consider, as one stark example, the present energy situation. America needs to access the petroleum reserves within its jurisdiction if it is to have any chance of extricating itself from dependence to hostile foreign governments, but more than eighty-five percent of America’s oil fields have been locked up by the eco-lobby.

 

In a telling act of institutionalized indifference, the recently passed “Energy Bill” does nothing to open America’s natural resources for the strength and security of Americans. Instead, it contains politically palatable but pointless symbolism, such as the outlawing of incandescent light bulbs, and the imposition of fuel standards that can only be achieved by severely degrading driving safety.

 

The fact that Americans, after a bit of grumbling at the gas pumps, will simply pay more money and keep driving, is at once a tribute to the nation’s prosperity and a disturbing harbinger of the likelihood that they will do nothing to properly address the problem before it reaches critical mass.

 

Federal Judges, through reprehensible abuses of power, find and expand “constitutional rights” for every vile enemy of the United States, including combatants who were taken prisoner in armed conflict against this country. Those who pose a real threat to the safety of Americans, such as the “flying Imams” who were removed from a commercial flight as they conducted an apparent dress rehearsal for a hijacking, are granted legal power to inflict revenge on their victims.

 

The infamous Kyoto Treaty would have hamstrung U.S. industry while granting exceptions to increasingly industrialized foreign competitors. Along with various other UN resolutions intended to accomplish the same ends, it mirrored the work of the “unilateral disarmament” crowd who would have abolished America’s nuclear deterrence force and thus left us defenseless against a Soviet nuclear attack.

 

The Old Testament Book of Nehemiah served as testimony of God’s providential Hand on His people and their resulting strength. It recounts the wall around Jerusalem that was rebuilt in less than two months, and how neighboring leaders recognized the strength of those who had built it.

 

What message is borne to the rest of the world by the fact that, in six years after the 9/11 attacks, no new towers have been built since any attempts to do so invariably become mired in “pc” squabbles? Just as disgraceful is the nation’s inability to recognize and support Americans and American greatness as exemplified by the abysmal “monument” to Flight 93, which has become a symbol of appeasement and concession.

 

Even more essential to the future than the physical symbolism of shining monuments, the towers resurrected, or even the continued prowess of America’s economic engine, the moral, cultural and spiritual roots of the nation are in grave need of restoration.