Orthodox Reflections

By Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

I try to avoid politics on the job and at parish coffee hour. So many topics are needlessly divisive. Division in a professional or parish setting is not a good thing. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with that sentiment. Some people really do think everyone is entitled to their opinions, regardless of time, place, or setting.

Just before Memorial Day, I was at a meeting with a group of company executives. One of the senior ones is a particularly opinionated megachurch Evangelical. He was born to a rich, well-connected family, but talks incessantly about how hard he worked to get to his current position. To quote an old saying, “He was born on third base, but thought he hit a triple.” He is diehard MAGA. In his mind, Trump is God’s chosen goy leader sent to serve the Children of Israel who are God’s Chosen People.

During a session on the anticipated economic fallout of the Iran War, he shared the following opinion: “We need a ground war immediately to put this thing to bed. Iran has to be crushed, and only boots on the ground will do that.”

Evangelical pastors joined Rabbis in “blessing” a 22-foot high golden statue of Donald Trump at the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami. The figure is called “Don Colossus.” Nothing to see here, really. Not at all disturbing, cultish behavior. My co-worker, a very senior software executive, thought this was awesome by the way.

Normally, I try to let things like that go. This time, I just couldn’t. I looked him in the face across the table and asked, “Which of your three sons is going to stand next to mine in that invasion?”

His face went white. He knew my son is in the military in a combat arms MOS. In fact, he had sent him a nice gift to celebrate the occasion of his commissioning as an officer. It was kind of my co-worker at the time. The fact that a ground invasion of Iran could easily involve someone’s son in the meeting, however, seems to have totally slipped his mind. Not knowing what to say, he suddenly felt the need to take a bathroom break. When he returned, it was time to go on to the next agenda item. Nothing more was said on the topic. Either in the meeting or at dinner that night.

This executive has three sons. All of whom graduated from “elite” schools with tuition fully paid in cash from family money. All of them are in their 20’s, and are currently using daddy’s and grandaddy’s connections to climb different corporate ladders. I know all three of them personally. Not bad kids, as far as the snotty, generationally wealthy go. None of them has ever once considered joining the military. Their father would never dream of it, either. Military service is for the little guys. Not for them.

My co-worker is not alone in being out of touch with what it means to be a military family in the Age of Trump. Let me explain to you how things really are for us.

First, some background. When you have a son in uniform, you have certain expectations of the federal government. First, you expect that any war to which he might be committed is actually necessary for the defense of the United States. Second, you expect that we have a system of checks and balances. If the President (or whoever actually runs this country) commits to an unnecessary foreign war, then you trust that Congress will step in to stop it. Third, you expect that those in power actually care about your son’s life and the lives of his comrades. Fourth, you expect that the U.S. military is well-funded, well-trained, and well-led. Finally, you expect that the military of a nation with a Christian heritage will not order your son to do things in combat that will destroy his soul.

Prior to Trump, these were the expectations military families comforted themselves with. In the Age of Trump, these have all been fully revealed as nothing more than delusions. It’s not just Trump, of course. Objectively speaking, most or maybe even all of these expectations have not been valid for a long, long time. Maybe they never were. However, prior to Trump we could at least pretend. For better or worse, Trump has completely ripped the mask off to reveal the true, hideous face of our Military Industrial / Foreign Policy Complex.

Under Trump, it is no longer possible to lie oneself into a sense of calm. Trump’s war with Iran has nothing to do with protecting the United States, nor even protecting vital interests abroad. In fact, the war harms us in every possible way. Trump’s war is wrecking the U.S. economy, ballooning our already unmanageable national debt, getting our military killed and wounded, wasting military assets, and all the while deteriorating our global leadership position. It is an unmitigated disaster. A disaster no one is lifting a finger to stop.

There is talk of restarting active war against Iran, and even of invading Cuba. There are no “checks and balances.” Trump has said he is bound only by his own morality, such as it is. Everything we see out of Washington confirms this. The military are executing orders as issued, even when doing so means committing actual war crimes. While a few individuals in the Trump Administration have resigned in protest, the institutions of government are all compliant with Trump’s directives.  Congress is offering no oversight, being unwilling to either legally approve or stop any war. Our representatives in Washington just sit there, collecting fat paychecks and massive campaign donations from the Epstein Class, while Trump does whatever he wants.

My son and his buddies are betting that they will soon be fighting in Cuba. Is Cuba close to a nuclear weapon? How can citizens of a “constitutional republic” find themselves passively sitting around waiting to find out where “their” military will be deployed into war next? 

Our system of governance has degraded to the point that one man, or the men behind him (Who knows at this point?), can unilaterally commit my son to combat any place and any time the mood strikes. You can call this system whatever you like, but don’t pretend this is somehow a functioning constitutional republic. Easily 60% of Americans do not support the Iranian War, but their opinions are completely irrelevant right now. So much for “consent of the governed.”

Source: Pew Research

On the White House South Lawn before departing for China, Trump was asked to what extent “Americans’ financial situations” were motivating him to make a deal with Iran. Trump’s response?

Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.

It isn’t just ordinary Americans Trump doesn’t care about. It is abundantly clear that Trump has no more concern for American servicemen than for their civilian families. After all, they signed up didn’t they? They are peasant volunteers, so why should Trump worry about getting them killed, maimed, or psychologically destroyed? They asked for this, didn’t they? American military and civilians alike, we are all just sheep for Trump and his cronies to shear for their own gain.

Before Trump, presidents at least pretended to care. They didn’t, clearly, but at least you could fool yourself into believing they did. No one, not even Trump himself, pretends he cares. Trump would not hesitate to send my son to die. He would lose not a wink of sleep over him coming home in a flag-draped coffin. Nor would he care if, by pursuing his own financial gratification, he rendered my family homeless through his economic malfeasance. A malignant narcissist of his magnitude is incapable of caring. The American system of government is so degraded, so debauched, that no one else with any power apparently cares either.

The Army is broke. Not just financially, but also doctrinally. On paper, the military budget at 1.5 trillion dollars has never been higher. Most of that money, however, goes to high-priced, shiny weapons systems. Not to our small cadre of ground forces. They struggle to maintain mission readiness amidst severe budgetary constraints. It is easier to launder money when buying things worth millions per copy, rather than the humble equipment of a rifleman. In Pentagon budget battles, grunts don’t rate.

U.S. combat soldiers are the lowest budget priority at the Pentagon. What a great feeling for families of soldiers who are skipping essential training and preparation due to budgetary constraints. 

Doctrinally, the U.S. is only now starting to cope with drone warfare. The U.S. is fielding a military designed to fight Germans and Japanese in WWII. That model is obsolete, as Russia, Ukraine, Iran, and Hezbollah have proven. Cheap, ubiquitous drones have changed warfare as we know it. Our lack of preparation for modern warfare is the worst kept secret in the world:

A new report released by the Center for a New American Security’s (CNAS) Defense Program finds that the United States is unprepared to defend against present and future drone threats that have eroded decades of American air dominance.

In Countering the Swarm: Protecting the Joint Force in the Drone Age, Stacie Pettyjohn and Molly Campbell parse a decade of defense spending, analyze recent combat operations in the Middle East, and highlight insights from a U.S.-China wargame. The authors call on the Department of Defense (DoD) to swiftly develop counter-drone capabilities or risk suffering significant losses in future conflicts.

For most Americans, the potential for “significant losses in future conflicts” is just a line out of a news article. When one of those potential losses is your son, this takes on a whole different dimension. American leaders speak incessantly about how great our military is, and how prepared we are to face any potential threat. Those of us close to the military realize that this is simply not true. We are buying the wrong weapons for the wrong wars, and coupling that with the wrong war fighting doctrines. No one in a position of authority in the U.S. seems to be unduly troubled by this state of affairs. Not as long as the Defense stocks keep climbing, at any rate, and a compliant news media is willing to print government propaganda.

If committed to a foreign war, my son could come home in a box. He could come home physically maimed. As an Orthodox Christian, however, I am equally concerned that he could come home physically intact but with a crushed soul. America, Christian pretensions aside, fights wars by deliberately targeting civilians, and through the frequent use of torture to extract information. The American military also plays fast and loose with its own rules concerning how it treats U.S. military personnel. These are simply facts. Engaging in heinous acts leaves a mark on the souls of the men on the ground. They come home shells of who they were. PTSD is not just caused by the stress of combat. It is often correlated with guilt over what a soldier has done by following orders that should have never been issued.

The quote below is from a combat veteran of Iraq deployments. Blast injuries left him with TBI, chronic pain, flashbacks, and night terrors. Above all, it left him with what he terms “moral injury.” We can’t just thank men like him for his service and pretend everything is fine. It’s not fine. Thank God he found healing in Holy Orthodoxy through a spiritual connection to Saint George.

At no time will I ever advocate for a draft. However, the one good thing the draft did was spread the burden of military service among a wider number of men and their families. We have a population in the U.S. of an estimated 340 million people – give or take. On active duty, we have an estimated 1.35 million personnel. Another 800,000 or so serve in the reserves and the National Guard. The percentage of the American population facing possible combat is approximately 0.6%. Especially with gas prices and inflation occupying the minds of most average Americans, it is easy to forget them and their families as they are such a tiny minority.

The U.S. ruling elite loves an all-volunteer force. You can send them everywhere with no political backlash. Military numbers are small, and even the general public will tell you they asked for whatever they get because they volunteered. Source of X post.

Even our Orthodox priests and bishops tend to overlook us and our children, except on certain patriotic occasions such as Veterans Day. Yet, here we are. Day after day, Sunday after Sunday. Worried. Isolated. Praying fervently to not become just another statistic. Singing each line about “peace” in the Divine Liturgy as if we were talking directly to God.

My disillusionment made Memorial Day 2026 hit me worse than I can describe. While others were praying for the souls of the men who died in service to the U.S., I was busy praying that my family never receives a Gold Star. In the Age of Trump, I have prayed Psalm 90 (91) so many times I have it memorized:

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God,
in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the
perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies
by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays
waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand;
but it shall not come near you.”

So here is how I will wrap up. There are two things I will beg you not to do, and three things I beg you to do. The first thing is not to fall into the trap, mentioned above, of saying, “Well, they signed up to serve.” Men join the military for a variety of reasons. Patriotism, family legacy, education, job training, a desire to serve, an attraction to the military life of possible adventure. Many National Guard soldiers signed up to help their states in times of crisis.

You know what none of them signed up for? Fighting wars for Israel or any other foreign nation. Fighting wars for Trump’s billionaire donor base. Fighting wars that actually break our own economy. Fighting wars in which we target vital global oil infrastructure. Fighting wars to fulfill the twisted, globalist ambitions of the Epstein Class. Fighting wars in which we deliberately target Iranian school girls. Fighting wars to distract from embarrassing political scandals.

No one signed up for any of that.

Do us a huge favor and don’t pretend they did. Serving military have to be careful about expressing views contrary to government policy. As civilians, we can still speak freely. More or less. So don’t hand waive everything away by pretending they deserve whatever Trump decides to give them, just because they signed a contract at 18 years of age.

The second thing I beg you not to do is pretend we have an Orthodox, or even a vaguely Christian, monarchy. I am not opposed to a monarchical system of government. God, through His Church, crowns a monarch. His power, therefore, is bestowed by God upon him and his successors. He is accountable to God for all his actions, and is expected to rule in accordance with Divine Precepts. Yes, in an Orthodox monarchy, the King or the Emperor decides on matters of war and peace. But he does so under Divine Judgement, with the full knowledge that if he ruins his kingdom / empire then he is likely to die in the process. His progeny will likely die also, or at the very least, be stripped of everything as they flee into exile. A monarch does not have the luxury of short-term thinking.

There have been, of course, bad monarchs. In the most egregious cases, even Saints of the Church have stood in opposition to them. No earthly system is perfect, nor is any earthly system ever granted absolute power over the God-given consciences of men.

We don’t have anything approaching a monarchical system. Trump ostensibly rules based on the consent of the governed. He is a short-term office holder who cannot pass his office on to his own sons. Trump is part of a constitutional system that is supposed to keep his power in check, not empower him to invade the world at will. Trump is supposed to put the welfare of his nation first. Trump is supposed to defend the Constitution, which is a man-made document that is the sole basis of his claim to power. You may like this system, or you may hate it, but that is the legal framework under which our government is supposed to operate.

So kindly do not argue that because Emperor Justinian could declare war on his own authority, that President Trump is equally empowered. He is not, though in practice we are letting him get away with just that. Further, kindly put away all your Romans 13 arguments. In a purportedly representative system, which existed nowhere in the 1st Century when Paul was writing, citizens should not feel a duty to God to passively accept whatever an elected president decides to do. God didn’t pick Trump. Voters did. We have the right, under our system of government, to regret that choice and withdraw our support.

Three things I beg you to do. First, pray. Earnestly pray for our military and their families. Earnestly pray for peace, and the reclaiming of some semblance of Constitutional government. Issues of war and peace are too important for one politician to decide on the basis of his own “morality.” As part of your rule of prayer, find out who in your Orthodox circles has serving children and please pray for them by name.

Second, we have a scarcity of Orthodox resources supporting our military and their families. One organization that is trying to bridge this gap is the Faithful Centurion. Please visit their Website, reach out to them, and consider donating to their initiatives. If you have an opportunity to speak to our bishops, please let them know that Orthodox ministry to the U.S. military and military families should be a higher priority than it currently is.

Third, focus on the people and not the politics. I have strong opinions about what is happening, above all because current events in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East could put my son directly in danger. I don’t apologize for what I think. You may not agree with me. You may think Trump is doing all the right things, and is the greatest president in the history of the republic. You are entitled to those opinions, as I am to mine. We can still treat each other as fellow Christians, regardless of our differences. Military families are worried. Please be respectful of those feelings in love.