The Conservative Christian Lie about Obama and the Military

That the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama was an “obomination” there is no question. During his presidency I wrote of his radical associations, his life spent in the service of racial preference, his aberrant Christianity, his cultural Marxism, his dictatorial ambitions, his warmongering and militarism, his “signature health care law,” and his desire to further redistribute Americans’ wealth.

It would be hard for Obama’s record to be any worse than it is. Yet, some people still feel the need to lie about Obama’s record. Obama’s actions were so bad and so bad so often that it is incredible that anyone would have to resort to lies about Obama in order to impugn him.

Especially when the liars are conservative Christians.

I get a lot of e-mails from conservative organizations, many of them Christian ones. In a recent e-mail I received mention was made about welcome changes that President Trump has made, including “an order to rebuild the U.S. military, which has been devastated by eight years of the Obama administration.”

If the author had said that the military was devastated by Obama because of women in combat, the observance of LGBT Pride Month, homosexuals allowed to serve openly, or the military paying for gender-confused soldiers to take hormones, then I would agree with him. But the author has swallowed hook, line, and sinker the lie—peddled by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative lovers of the military—that the military must be rebuilt because Obama has gutted it.

This is something that must be addressed because it is an opinion shared by many conservative Christian lovers of, defenders of, and apologists for, the U.S. military.

Back in 2009, I pointed out that Obama’s first defense budget (for fiscal year 2010, which began on Oct. 1, 2009) was $20 billion higher than Bush’s last defense budget. Obama’s first defense budget was said by then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to provide “the balance necessary to institutionalize and finance our capabilities to fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years ahead, while at the same time providing a hedge against other risks and contingencies.”

From the Historical Tables of the official Budget of the United States, here are the outlays for defense for the eight budgets of George W. Bush and the eight budgets of Barack Obama:

Fiscal year               Defense Spending in millions

2002                         $348,456
2003                         $404,733
2004                         $455,813
2005                         $495,294
2006                         $521,820
2007                         $551,258
2008                         $616,066
2009                         $661,012
2010                         $693,485
2011                         $705,554
2012                         $677,852
2013                         $633,446
2014                         $603,457
2015                         $589,564
2016                         $604,452
2017                         $616,981

The DOD is currently spending over $600 billion a year. I wish I were that devastated!

But regardless of the amount of money the U.S. government spends on defense, it needs to be pointed out that it is Congress that ultimately determines how much will be spent on defense every year. Republicans have controlled the House for the last six years of Obama’s presidency and the Senate for the last two years. Since defense spending has decreased since fiscal year 2011, shouldn’t Republicans be criticized for “devastating” the military?

Conservative Christians are so devoted to the military that it has clouded their judgment and led them to hold unholy opinions.

The association they have with the conservative movement is unholy. The admiration they have for the military is unholy. The thirst they have for war is unholy. The callous attitude they have toward killing foreigners is unholy. The idolatry they manifest toward the state (when it is controlled by Republicans) is unholy.

The U.S. military spends almost as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. The military budget needs to be cut, not increased. Too bad Obama didn’t devastate the military.

I have not addressed the fact that real defense spending, as pointed out by economist Robert Higgs, is over a trillion dollars a year and should have nothing to do with GDP.

And neither have I touched on the topics of the U.S. military being a force for evil in the world, the U.S. military undertaking much more offense than defense, and the U.S. military being an unholy institution that Christians should avoid like the plague. These subjects I have written about numerous times in hundreds of articles, many of which are collected in the books War, Christianity, and the State and War, Empire, and the Military.

If Obama has devastated the military in any way it is because he continued and escalated the senseless wars began by George W. Bush.

Hey Christians: Put away lying (Ephesians 4:25). “Thou shalt not bear false witness”—even against Obama.

*This article was originally posted at LewRockwell.com

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