March 19, 2015
I don't often read books that are considered top sellers, but for Christmas I bought several copies of Killing Patton for friends and my husband, people who tend to read that type of books. My husband hadn't spent much time reading it and I figured I could read it before he got back to reading it. After all, didn't want it to go unread after I spent money on it. LOL!
Even though I was a history/political science major in college, I can't say that I knew much about WWII other than what I have seen in the movies and from glimpses of things I've picked up over the years. Reading this book is like being given a fresh perspective on the world's condition in 2015. I trust the Lord has a very specific purpose in my reading it. I have almost no stomach for violence and my husband knows I don't knowingly watch movies that have much violent content. As a babe in arms, my folks went to see South Pacific and got to the theater before the first movie was over. Some of you will remember they often had a war movie on before the second feature which was the prime feature. Such was the case that night. Despite the fact that I was in my father's arms, I was so wiped out by the war scenes that I screamed and screamed. And still so affected by the end of the war movie, I seemed to have found everything in the beginning of South Pacific to be terrifying including when the main actor was singing and walking through the corn field.
So my sensitivity to the brutality that is recorded in Killing Patton is rather heightened along with the prediction of the future of relationships with Russia that are so clearly defined in the book. This brings me to make a few points which the book has stirred in my mind:
ISIS or ISIL is not a new phenomenon and it's savagery is little different from what I read that the Germans and the Russians did during WWII, and which sadly, on some occasions American soldiers also did. As we listen to the news today, I realize ISIS is little different from many of the Middle Eastern soldiers fighting against ISIS or what other armies throughout history have done in war. They are fighting for supremacy and such at attitude always justifies the use of whatever necessary force or brutality to secure personal and military supremacy. When you combine that with the religious fervor that is present on both the Sunni and Shia sides, nothing is outside the real of possibility.Such an attitude opens the door, no matter the nationality, to the forces of evil to come in and inhabit a person and feed them with the insatiable desire for conquest both of individuals and nations at any expense. Maybe I am a latecomer to this knowledge, but to be frank, I had not seen the ISIS issue as a common aspect of humanity which we are now seeing also in the Iraqis and Iranian forces battling ISIS. We have already seen some of this in the Syrian forces with their use of gases and other type of control mechanisms used to destroy the power of human resistance. It doesn't take much to look back through history as I have been doing to see this isn't anything new, though today perhaps is more publicized and ultimately affecting much more of humanity due to the modes of travel and communication we have in the 21st Century. As I reread what I have written, I wonder when I realize that an American military leader might be similarly disposed to deal with the American people if they were to rebel and threatened the supremacy of the ruling powers of this nation and/or global economy.
Another point which reading this book has stirred in my understanding is something General Patton said; "Keeping our forces intact. Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to these people. This is the only language they understand and respect. If you fail to do this, then I would like to say that when we have had a victory over the Germans we have lost the war." He was of course referring to the Russians, for he understood that even as now,"they were relentless in its quest to control as much of Europe as possible, with Stalin taking full advantage of Dwight eisenhower's timidity. The Russians are seizing more land, and more people are coming under their occupation." (page 260 Killing Patton) And we can see today that this is true, and that even today in the face of the timidity of the West, that the Russian bear is creeping into much of the area that it formerly held, led by a man who headed the KGB during the Cold War, an agency known to do the most vilest of atrocities to those who it disliked or that it distrusted, behavior which still is being engaged in today in the secrecy which only such totalitarian leadership can maintain.
Another thing I found to be most intriguing was the comparison that Patton made of himself to King David. While Patton was very much of a vulgar man in many ways, arrogant, and self-centered, he had a standing dependence upon The Almighty as he referred to Him, regularly seeking His direction and help in time of battle. And according to this book, and Patton's journal, the Almighty regularly was involved in the battles that Patton engaged in, not always in the way Patton expected! Some of the military strategies that were so successful were often given in specific and full detail in dreams which Patton attributed to The Almighty.
How this stirs me in amazement at the nature of our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Patton regularly relied upon the Lord, cried out to Him, shared his heart with Him, and not just the good stuff but much of the behavior which he himself knew was not godly he shared with the Almighty. And Patton made great enemies of those that had goals other than the success of the overall success of the Allies. While Patton was an egotist and wanted the honor that he thought he deserved, he wasn't a compromiser and paid a high price for being a man who spoke truth. That isn't to say he didn't lie at times, for which there were always some consequence which he acknowledged at times.
As I read this book, I was also amazed at the similarity to the news broadcasts/media of the time of WWII and what we have today and the lack of "truth" that comes forth. I realize that much of politics is like sausage, you don't want to see the process by which it is made. And the end product is what most human beings want to hear, not the ways that it was achieved or lost.
So what are my conclusions as I come to the end of this commentary? The time of the enemy is drawing close to an end and there is an acceleration of his plan to establish a global kingdom on this earth. And much of what we are seeing around the world today is the fulfillment of that goal that isn't going to be so different from the areas where the enemy of our souls got hold of governments and powers in days past, except it will be on a much wider, more global scale. Similarly there is an acceleration of the refining of the Sons of God for their role in the Kingdom of Heaven for its rule and reign upon the earth one day. As darkness increases so does the value and ability to see even a small light in the increasing darkness.
God's Kingdom was neither in the Allies or Axis camp during WWII, nor is it ISIL or Iraqis or Iranian or USA or Russian. The Kingdom of Heaven is within His people and they will shine as lights wherever they are and will stand as Light even amidst organizations that may embody the depths of darkness. And as we move on into the closing of this age, it behooves us as those who are called by His Name, to consider the ways of the Lord. For they surely are not the ways most of us as human beings have come to practice throughout history. It is our nature as humans to criticize those who violate truth: men such as FDR who gave away much of Europe in compromise with the Russians, a price we are still paying today with a weak Europe. We readily criticize government officials who are timid for one reason or another in the face of the onslaught of a religious fanaticism that is destroying lives around the world.
Yet, what are we as men and women who live in and dwell in Christ Jesus to be doing? How do we proclaim Truth without criticizing and attacking those who differ in motivation and awareness from us? I have been reading and rereading Jeremiah. He didn't criticize the kings. He spoke only the Word of the Lord. He spoke what God said God was going to do. Sometimes I wonder if we (I) hear the Word of the Lord good enough to be confident that we (I) even know what God is doing? This comes to a really sticky point when we talk about Israel today, so divided is the "understanding" of the plan and purpose of God in relationship to Israel among even devout believers in Jesus Christ. Yet, how much of it is our human understanding, even our "biblical" understanding and not the insight and "word of the Lord" as spoken and revealed to our hearts by Holy Spirit?
As I close I call upon the name of Jesus, and ask You, Father, that You give each of those who read this post a hunger to hear from You, and the desire to share their own heart with You, the good bad and the ugly, that You might "know them", and empower them to lay down every aspect of their own understanding at the cross of Jesus Christ, that Your Word might find entrance to their minds and they might gain Your understanding to the praise of the name of Jesus that they indeed might shine as Light in a dark and evil world. Amen and Amen!
His servant,
Meri Ford
Meri Ford
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