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The Islamic State is targeting Christians in the Middle East - and these Americans are doing something about it

March 18, 2015
Wilson

Writer

It's no secret that ISIS is targeting Christians in the Middle East as they seek to build a caliphate. Last night, Glenn was joined by Matthew VanDyke and Johnnie Moore, both of whom are working to protect Christians who live in the Middle East and are coming under attack by radical Islamists.

Glenn: I want to introduce you to Johnnie Moore. He’s been on the program before. He’s a friend and just a really solid guy. He’s the author of Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard . I want you to get this book. This book was just sped up by HarperCollins, right?

Johnnie: Yeah, that’s right.

Glenn: Just sped up because the crisis is getting so bad in the Middle East, and as it says here on the back, “Has a Christian Holocaust begun?” The answer is yes, it has. I was just talking to one of the head guys at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. I’ve never had a Jewish person say this to me ever before and especially from Simon Wiesenthal. He said, “Glenn, please, will you do me a favor?” I said, “Sure.” He said, “Will you stop talking about the persecution of Jews?” I was stunned, and I said, “Anti-Semitism is through the roof.” He said, “The Holocaust is happening now.” I don’t think he used the word Holocaust.

He said the real persecution right now far more than the Jews is the Christians. We’ve got to stand behind the Christians right now. This is what your book talks about.

Johnnie: Yeah, I mean, Glenn, this is a once-in-a-thousand-year crisis we’re witnessing in the Middle East. We have Christian communities that have thrived for nearly 2,000 years. Jesus himself gave the gospel to Thomas. Thomas takes the gospel to Iraq. I mean, this is the place of the birth of Christianity, and we’re watching the full-scale elimination, Nazi-style tactics.

Glenn: Literally Nazi-style tactics.

Johnnie: Literally Nazi-style tactics, I mean, incomprehensible things, and literally most people that are watching this think this came from nowhere this summer. This has been going on since 2003. They’re not starting something, they’re finishing it.

Glenn: Okay, I want to bring somebody else into the conversation. Matthew VanDyke is a guy I cannot wait to meet in person. He is the founder of Sons of Liberty International. Now, this is a nonprofit organization that uses donations to provide resources to local militias in their own defense against ISIS. Let me start with you, Matthew, on this because I have several questions for you, but let me start here. What is it that you have seen, and why is it you’re doing this? I can’t hear. Do we have his audio? Go ahead. Go ahead, Matthew. I think everybody else can hear you.

Matthew: Christianity is under threat of extinction in Iraq. There’s been a large diaspora of the Christian population, and this is really all or nothing for them. They’re either going to be able to provide for their own defense and convince their people to stay or we’re going to see the end of Christianity in Iraq. My motivation for this is Christianity in Iraq as well as ISIS killing two of my friends, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and me looking for a way to make a contribution and fight against ISIS.

Glenn: So, what is it you’re doing?

Matthew: I formed a company called Sons of Liberty International. We’re not technically a nonprofit organization for various reasons, but we operate on nonprofit principles. We’re revenue neutral, and we rely entirely on public support for our funding. So, people go to the website, sonsoflibertyinternational.com, and play an active role in the war on terrorism. They can give and have a tangible effect on the ground in this fight. The situation with Christians is desperate. We’re in a hurry to help them. We just finished training a battalion of them to defend their lands against ISIS, and the work continues. Really the only thing holding us back now is limited funding.

Glenn: Okay, so Johnnie, put the address of Sons of Liberty down so if anybody is interested…there it is. If you want to donate, you can donate there. Johnnie, tell me, what are the things that are happening that you talk about in the book that people would be surprised to know?

Johnnie: Well, the front page of the ISIS magazine in October was St. Peter’s Square right here in the Vatican, and ISIS superimposed a flag atop the Egyptian obelisk at St. Peter’s Square. They put the ISIS flag there. You know, this isn’t like some accidental thing. This is intentional. Every single time Baghdadi has spoken, every single time, everything he has written, he says 100% of the time that they’re marching all the way to Rome.

What’s really interesting about Baghdadi is he took charge of this organization, ISIS, which was then called the Islamic State of Iraq, in May 2010. His first church bombing was in October 31, 2010. Almost as quickly as he took the reins, he went after these Christian populations. In that particular situation, I mean, he, you know, has these guards dress as security guards. They show up inside this Catholic church in Baghdad, Our Lady of Salvation. They killed 50 people, and they assaulted another 70. There’s so much blood that the blood was splashed on the walls and on the ceiling of the cathedral.

That was in 2010. Since that time, every single church in Iraq and every single church in Syria has built bomb walls around their churches to protect themselves. They’re like sitting ducks. I mean, this is what’s so important about what Sons of Liberty is doing. About 14 days ago, ISIS came in a 40-vehicle convoy, clearly, clearly an ISIS convoy, 40 vehicles. They attacked ten Christian villages along the south of the Khabur River in Syria. They kidnapped 300 Christians.

Now, tell me, if the United States government and the European governments are very serious as they say they are about getting rid of ISIS, how did a 40-car convoy of ISIS heading towards ten unarmed Christian villages not get blown to smithereens? It all happened with the whole world watching, and, you know, there’s Christian after Christian after Christian, pastor after pastor beheaded. Their wives and children have been put on slave markets, I mean, everything you could imagine.

I have a price list, a price list…so hard to even think about. It says Yazidi Christian girls, one to nine years old, $170. They kidnap these Christian families. They say in their literature they want to rape their wives and enslave their daughters. They behead the men. They’ve done it over and over and over again. There were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq in 2003. At best there are 150,000 left, and these are the Christians that have carried the gospel for 2,000 years.

Glenn: How many of them, do either of you know, Matthew, how many do we suspect have been killed?

Matthew: The number is not really known. The number of Christians even left in Iraq is estimated at 400,000, but that number is really not known either. You know, there’s so many missing and disappeared that they’re still counting, but it’s in the thousands.

Glenn: You know, I’ve heard about crucifixions. Is that true? Are they crucifying children? Are they crucifying people? Either of you know?

Johnnie: They’re overt in their literature that they are to do it, and there are pictures of them doing it and, by the way, tons of stories of them beheading children. I mean, I have one story in Defying ISIS, I, you know, literally have gotten so connected on the ground, I get emails and text messages from pastors and Christians in the region. This is the 21st century. There’s no barrier. They can communicate with you,

Glenn: Correct.

Johnnie: And one of these says ISIS came from village to village, and they stopped asking the parents if they were Christians because they thought it would be worse if they asked the children. So, this one particular village, this pastor sends me a text message, and he says, “ISIS is coming to my village. They’ve stopped asking the parents if they’re Christians. They’ve started asking the children. Every single one of the kids has said that they are, and every single one of the kids has been killed in cold blood. Please pray for me.” I don’t know what to say to these parents, and I don’t even know how to call myself a Christian, seeing the faith of these children—every atrocity you can imagine.

Glenn: Matthew, I have seen video of some of the survivors that have lost their house and lost everything and get across the border. They’re in these camps, I think it was in Jordan. I saw interviews with these children, and I could not believe the faith of these children. I couldn’t believe how they spoke of forgiving ISIS. It’s a totally different world. What do you see on the ground when you are there and you’re talking to these people?

Matthew: You know, they’re really distressed. You know, the resilience of them is remarkable. The courage of them is. The morale of them, the morale of the men we’re training, they’re highly motivated to defend their lands. Despite everything they’ve been through and the dangers and the horrific things that ISIS has done, they still want to stand up and defend Christianity in Iraq. The tragedy is a lot of the people that you see who cross the border are never coming back, and this is why Christianity is under threat in Iraq. A lot of the people who are refugees will not return to their homes. They feel like Iraq is never going to be a safe place for them, and that’s why the Christians are trying to organize for their self-defense to demonstrate to people that they can stay so that Christianity isn’t lost in the country. You know, it’s really an uphill battle.

Glenn: Let me ask both of you, and Matthew, I’ll start with you and then to Johnnie, and then we’ll take a break. When you’re talking to the people over there, what is it they say about us and our inaction or our blindness or silence?

Matthew: They’re very frustrated, and they don’t understand why all the talk is about supporting Sunni tribes and supporting the Peshmerga but not supporting them in their aspirations to defend themselves.

Glenn: Johnnie?

Johnnie: They told me they feel forgotten. They sent a message to Christians in the West that said, “You would have no Christianity in the West if it wasn’t for Christians in the East. Your church history is our church history, and what happened? Did you cut off the satellites? How did you know ISIS wasn’t coming into Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul? How did you know ISIS wasn’t coming in with their pickup trucks with their bolted guns in the back of it with the whole world watching? How did you not know that a city that has had tens of thousands of Christians for centuries would have zero left over?”

Glenn: But we’re not talking about…I mean, yesterday, yesterday, we were talking about ISIS, and behind me my staff had picked…one of the things that was rolling the tape behind me was after the execution. It was on the beach in Libya, and it was the sea blood red, just blood water. I stopped watching the show last night, and I rewound it and looked at it. I thought, “How is that not everywhere? How are people not seeing those things?” But in that same video, the banner up above said, “A warning to the people of the cross.” Our own media is complicit. Our own media is not telling the story.

Johnnie: Yeah, and they’re not doing it because it’s Christian, right? It’s religious, but what they don’t understand is that to ISIS, if you live in this country, you’re Christian. We’re a crusader nation in their mind, and so this threat against Christians in the Middle East is very much a threat against anyone in the United States of America because they all put us in this category. You rest assured if they had the opportunity to do it here, they would do it here.

Glenn: They will.

Johnnie: In fact, they are trying to do it here. In fact, they have tried to do it here. We had a beheading in the United States of America. We had police officers attacked on the subway in Brooklyn. We’re losing track. I mean, today we have an Air Force vet that gets arrested because he’s trying to get to Syria. Last night in Washington, D.C., we had a man charge into the cockpit of an airplane yelling “jihad.” The list goes on. We had an attempted suicide bombing in Washington, D.C., just the guy was a part of an FBI sting and got caught. This is happening, and you can rest assured if ISIS has their chance, they will take the Vatican. They will take over the Vatican. They’ll turn the Sistine Chapel into a prison. They’ll behead all the priests and put their heads on the Bernini statues all across there, and they’ll come here next. That’s why we ought to care about it. If our heart doesn’t pull us to care for these women and children, then at least our self-interest ought to do so, but we’re blind.

Glenn: Okay, so when we come back, I want to, Matthew, get specific on what you’re doing and how you’re training and specifically from both of you what we can do, because people feel helpless—this is too big of a problem. What can we do? When we come back.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.