Christmas in the Military – USA Gov Policy

We are pleased to present this guest editorial from U.S. Army Chaplain Don Zapsic (ret.)

The Christmas holiday season presents a litany of challenges compounded by military service to remote areas of the world. I did not come fully to this realization until deployed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a military chaplain. The year was 2000 and the kingdom happens to be one of the most formidable places on earth when it comes to exercising freedom of religion with the exception of Islam. To complicate matters even more, there is not a single legally recognized church throughout the entire country.

So what is a forward-deployed Christian at Christmas time to do some 7,000 miles away from home when there is not an accessible church nearby? This problem is not unique to our present –day military. Enter in General George Washington, 1775. The Continental Army was not isolated from churches geographically. The difficulty lied in restricted church access imposed by the harsh conditions of war. Washington had to find a way to promote the free exercise of religion for his soldiers while meeting the demands of military necessity.

General Washington faced at least two difficulties. First, he needed to provide religious support to his troops without sacrificing strategic or tactical advantage. Secondly, after restructuring the Continental Army to provide consistent religious support for those who faced death on a daily basis, Washington needed to find a way to sustain it. On the first order of business, the commanding general successfully petitioned the Continental Congress to provide a dedicated chaplain corps to accommodate the spiritual needs of his soldiers. Easy enough.

The second task was not as simple since military leaders do not universally appreciate the value of fostering faith through religious observance. Then, as in now, not all commanders are on board when it comes to providing for the spiritual needs of those they lead. The word “commander” is used here because they are the ones that ensure that adequate time and resources are available for chaplains to minister within the command setting. Some have no use for religion and care little about the needs of those that do believing that another staff officer would better serve the command than clergy.

General Washington astutely recognized that a commander’s personal beliefs or lack thereof, could impede the religious freedom of his soldiers. It is one thing to ask a man to risk his life in service to his country and quite another to expect him to neglect his faith in the process. To do so would be to play God. Washington ordered his regimental commanders to promote and protect the fledgling chaplaincy by appointing chaplains of good character and standing to promote religious observance within their ranks (P. Thompson, The United States Army Chaplaincy (1978).

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Times have changed, but many things should never change. Just as sure as there is Christmas, there should always be chaplains as long as America exists as a free nation. Who can face death better than those who know that death is not the end, but just the beginning of eternal life in Christ? The prospect of facing death followed by nothingness in a six-foot hole does would not inspire me to readily lay down my life. And of the commanders that I had the privilege of serving with for over 24 years as a chaplain? I never met one who was not in need of the prayers and support of God’s people. Merry Christmas, one-and-all.

Illustration: “Washington kneeling in the Snow” by Arnold Friberg

Quick Analysis

Russia Expanding Aggression

President Putin is using more than one pathway to enter Europe and undermine the West. While most of the world watches the conflict he initiated in Ukraine, the Russian government is actively pursuing a second front in a little noticed campaign in Cyprus. Although the corrupt Cypriot government ended its issuance of “golden passports” in 2020, Russian intelligence is functioning quietly there to transform this EU country into a Russian beachhead of illicit economic activity aimed at penetrating the capitalist West, according to Paul Goble of the Jamestown Foundation. Cyprus is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor does it receive as much attention as those countries who are member states. That adds to its allure as a prime location for Russia to attempt to gain a European foothold. Last week a NATO report, cited in the European Daily Monitor, noted that Russian intelligence agents have been plotting to destroy European infrastructure across the continent to disrupt states supporting Ukraine. It further suggests that Putin’s immediate goal is to lay the framework for a future move against the security organization’s members. Hungary, in particular, is another country garnering Moscow’s attention as it opposes the Western response to Russian aggression. Russia is focusing its intelligence efforts on other European, non-NATO member countries in addition to Cyprus, including Austria, Malta, and Ireland. The NATO report suggests that Moscow has had success in disseminating the Russian political narrative in these states to advance its campaign against the West. The island of Cyprus is proving to be a good target for Moscow as it is an ethnically divided island that is part of the EU since 2004. Northern Cyprus, officially called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that is only recognized by Turkey. The division precludes it from joining NATO. As Goble suggests, “it offers Russia troubled waters in which to fish.” Over the last 20 years, he points out, Cyprus’ challenges have opened it to a massive influx of Russian citizens, who now comprise approximately 10 percent of the island state’s population. Over 2,900 residents are Russians who entered until the “golden passport” program that allowed wealthy or well-connected Russians to move to Cyprus. It also provided them with documentation to travel freely throughout Europe! Although less visible on the world’s radar than the war in Ukraine, Moscow is also being helped by Cyprus’ banks opposition to seizing Russian assets and its support in evading Western sanctions. Russia has placed tens of billions of US Dollars there for money laundering. It has been more than two years since a single Russian “diplomat” has been deported and, in fact, the Embassy has grown to over 300 staffers on this tiny island state of only 1.2 million people. The Russian embassy in Nicosia has advanced communications antennae on its roof and opened a consulate on the northern end of the island. Moscow’s Ambassador, Mura Zyazikov, is a lieutenant general in the FSB with no diplomatic experience. The FSB, SVR (Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service), and GRU are actively using the island as a base of operations against NATO Member states, Israel, and other Western allies. Moscow backs pro-Russian political parties who in turn influence Cypriot decisions on education, language, and other issues. “Dmitry Khmelnitsky of the Dossier Center says that its findings should be of concern not only to Cyprus but to the West as a whole. Those who ignore what Moscow is doing because Cyprus does not follow the EU sanctions regime are missing something critical,” says Goble. “Cyprus does not seek to get rid of Russian agents and does not interfere with their work,” Khmelnitsky concludes, “despite the fact that what the Kremlin is doing is so clearly visible.” This has an impact not only on the small island but on the EU, NATO, and the West in general. Earlier this year the Moscow Times reported that when the FBI became more interested in Russian business and oligarchs in Cyprus, at least 10 of the major Russian businesses operating there left. Despite the government of Cyprus’ vow to implement plans for new sanctions against Russia, it continues to ignore Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine and to shield the wealth of the 50,000 wealthy Russian citizens and oligarchs residing there. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay