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

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.