ExSoldier

Matthew Bracken is a close personal friend of mine and he left me speechless when he put me in the list of acknowledgements for the book! Here is a review (not by me):

Treason From The Left
The Exception Magazine ^ | May 29, 2009 | Nelson Hultberg


Will America survive the upcoming years as a "sovereign nation," or will the hideous dream of a one-world government be our fate? This is the paramount issue facing America in the 21st century; it transcends all other concerns.

Conservatives believe devoutly in the "sovereignty" of America as a fundamental requisite for the preservation of freedom and justice in the world. Those of liberal persuasion do not. To those on the left, America's fundamental cornerstones of a limiting Constitution, decentralized government, capitalism and individual freedom are the causes of war, poverty, exploitation and chaos. World order rather than individual freedom is what the power elites of liberalism seek; and they intend to do away with the founding principles of our country to achieve it. Their New World Order has no place in its plans for a sovereign America.

Thus national sovereignty is The major point of conflict between the forces of freedom and statism today. In the conservative vision of things, the leftist view is 180 degrees wrong. War, poverty, exploitation and chaos are not caused by individual freedom and limited government. They are caused by the arbitrary law that liberalism and central planning are based upon. Fomenting globalism and the merging of all countries under the yoke of centralized world government are not solutions to anything if freedom is our goal? But hubris moves the one-world liberal elites, not rationality. They are men of zeal in pursuit, not of truth, but of absolute power over their fellow men.

In Foreign Enemies and Traitors, Matthew Bracken has created a brilliant Atlas Shrugged like narrative of how this issue of "national sovereignty" might play out amidst the economic meltdown now consuming us. Conservatives throughout America will take to this tale like the colonists took to Tom Paine in 1776. And so also will libertarians, even though many of them are not enamored with the idea of the "nation-state." They will still be drawn to the individualism and patriotism of the story.

Bracken, I would guess, is a Jeffersonian conservative who traces his philosophical lineage back to John Locke rather than Edmund Burke. This means he has libertarian leanings to mix politically and culturally with conservative inclinations. He believes devoutly in the nation of America as the sublime hope for mankind, which necessitates a strong military and its judicious (rather than indiscriminate) use to maintain the nation's survival. Being an ex-Navy Seal, it is natural that he appreciates and reveres such an institution. But he also believes in a strict interpretation of the Constitution as a watchguard over our government and military. The Constitution is our North Star to guide and protect us -- but only if our leaders have the integrity to treat it as the literal document it was intended to be and faithfully uphold the oath they have taken to it. To fail to uphold this oath is treason to our country and everything for which she stands.

These two issues of national sovereignty and our leaders' faithful upholding of the Constitution transcend all our other concerns. They will determine if America survives as a free and distinct entity in the upcoming years to act as a shining beacon of liberty for the rest of mankind. In the absence of such a beacon, the lights of freedom and limited government will surely be extinguished as humanity slips back into the brutal collectivisms it has known for 5,000 years.

It is with these themes as philosophical backdrop that Foreign Enemies and Traitors tells its tale. As the story begins, the Second Great Depression (what Bracken has dubbed the "Greater Depression") rages throughout America. The country is splitting up geographically with several secessionist movements in response to a radical leftist administration recently ushered into power in Washington. But the country has also been struck with a horrific earthquake that levels Memphis, TN and the surrounding Mississippi River valley. This causes massive panic made all the worse by hordes of refugees, pillaging war lords, and the inevitable reversion to barbarism that such societal collapses bring.

In response to the chaos resulting from the economic depression, the secessionist movements and the earthquake, America's new President, Jamal Tambor, has invited "foreign troops" under the aegis of U.N. control into the country to try and suppress the rebels and establish a powerful centralized government again under Washington's grip.

Foreign troops on American soil?! "Inconceivable" will be the sentiment of almost all Americans today. But think again. America and the world have been moving toward a blurring of national sovereignties for many decades now. It wouldn't take too much of a crisis for an American President to opt for bringing in foreign troops to suppress rebellious states who choose to break away from the despotic stultification that Washington insists upon promoting. Because America's military would almost surely balk at firing on fellow Americans, it would be the only choice that a globalist President would have if he wanted to maintain the Federal Government's hold over the country.

Mr. Bracken thrusts into this mix of ideology and socio-economic tumult a cast of heroic characters with names like Boone Vikersun and Phil Carson (think Daniel and Kit if your historical memory is sluggish) -- to fight a guerrilla war in, of all places, the state of Tennessee against the overweening powers of a grotesquely corrupt Washington. Pure gold! Boone and Carson in the 21st century fighting for the Republic.

The female lead, Jenny McClure, is a winsome, feisty teenager -- just waking up to the cruelty of an adult world turned upside down -- and about as courageous as humans get. Upon reading of her trials and how she measures up to them, the emotion felt is twofold: immense awe and the hope that if life's tribulations ever presented such dilemmas to ourselves, our reactions would be equally as spirited in manner.

The book's galvanic plot is tension-packed and unfolds with startling surprises right up to the end. Numerous scenes occur throughout in which courage, patriotism, and honor come into play in such emotionally riveting ways as to bring a physical tingling sensation to the back of one's neck.

Further complicating events is a clash of governing philosophies between a "new" Constitution illegally rammed through in a panicky Constitutional Convention and the "original" Constitution which spawned America from the beginning and was the law of the land for 125 years until collectivists began degrading it with Mad Hatter's logic in the 20th century.

Overlying all this is the defense backbone of the nation -- our military forces -- and what side they must choose in this epic clash between the treasonous forces of the new-world order in Washington and the loyalist forces of freedom amidst the patriotic states. The former trumpets the new Constitution and its implementation, while the latter fights for the original version and its restoration. Which Constitution do we uphold? The military's leading generals must decide which to defend, and it makes for a crackerjack story that will keep you reading late into the night as Bracken's trio of Americanist heroes -- Boone, Carson, and Jenny -- are drawn into one escapade after another to defend the rebellious states and attempt to take the country back from a quisling President and his perverse entourage of socialist apparatchiks.

Bracken writes vividly and integrates all the subtle nuances of today's leftist media / academy brainwash into the dialogue. His grasp of their pernicious semantic twistings is impeccable. Moreover the didacticism of the book is written into the scenes perfectly. No long-winded lectures to take away from the pace of the story; but numerous pithy and powerful expressions of what freedom, the Constitution, and America are all about come forth from his characters.

Foreign Enemies and Traitors is the final volume of the author's freedom trilogy based on the three seminal issues of gun control, immigration, and national sovereignty. It could be one of those "turning point" books of American history. If the man in the street is to become aware of how America is being destroyed, it must be through salient fiction efforts such as this. I only hope that someone like Glenn Beck or Patrick Buchanan will read it. It is a book that would explode on the charts if they started promoting it. Of course, the political left will come down on this tome like a blitzkrieg to try and kill the message of its talented author if widespread popularity starts coming his way. But that goes with the territory when one writes of patriotism and honor in an era that worships acquiescence and popularity.

This is a book that all freedom-loving Americans will enjoy immensely -- not just because it is a cogent political accounting of what America's problems are and what the military's proper response to the constitutional implications must be, but also because it is a splendidly written, scintillating story. The author has combined the two areas of "message" and "plot" together in a most persuasive and entertaining manner. Move over Tom Clancy.

Nelson Hultberg is Executive Director at Americans for a Free Republic.

Enemies Foreign and Domestic Web Site

__________________
Former Infantry Captain; 20 yrs as an NRA Certified Instructor; Avid practitioner of the martial art: KLIK-PAO.

Fred

I love Matthew's work. I'm about one third of the way through a pre-ordered sighned copy. I recommend starting at the beginning and read all three. Great novels.

__________________
There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. - General Smedley Butler

Romans 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].

Hopyard

We have lots to concern ourselves with, but this one is hardly the paramount issue facing us.

Indeed, if we take care of the other business we need to attend to such as:

1) energy independence
2) population control
3) food and manufacturing production capacity
4) health and quality of life issues

other potential threats against us will never materialize.

If we let these thing go ignored, we will face all manner of hardship and deprivation; and sovereignty issues will be the least of our troubles.

If we continue to weaken ourselves by not attending to business (as we have not for the past 30 years), we'll give up the national ghost.

Nothing will be taken from us, we will simply have rolled over and become an impoverished nation; sovereignty won't matter because they'll be not much left to hold on to.

A nation that builds nothing, makes nothing, imports its necessities and exports its agricultural produce is the very definition of undeveloped. No country should be willing to do to itself what we have already done to ourselves.

Maybe we will wake, get some luck, and get back to being a first rate economy with a first rate production capacity and more limited need for imports. Thankfully I'll not be alive long enough to see what will happen if we don't straighten some things out.

HotGuns

Doesnt sound like tin foil to me. Given recent events and the way things are progressing,it sounds pretty spot on actually.

__________________
AR. CHL Instr.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson

ExSoldier

Just got off the phone with Matt and sent him a link to this thread. Maybe he'll weigh in.

__________________
Former Infantry Captain; 20 yrs as an NRA Certified Instructor; Avid practitioner of the martial art: KLIK-PAO.

Hopyard

The comic strip character in Pogo famously said: "we have met the enemy and he is us."

If we don't straighten ourselves out, keep looking for imaginary external threats instead of real ones, and refuse to focus on actually solving our real problems, we will be unable to continue as a strong nation with a vibrant people. And yes, then we will fall under the influence or control of others.

If all we do is look out and scare ourselves with what we see, and also fail to see the things which we ourselves can improve--then improve them-- we will go down the tubes.

My objection here is the use of the word "paramount" to describe what seems like a fairly far fetched concern. We do have more immediate problems to solve. Let's focus on these. Because, when we do, we will remain the strongest and won't need to concern ourselves so much with exterior threats.

edr9x23super

We won't have to fabricate any threats, or worry about solving problems. Just take a look at the world around us, and one can readily see that the "war to end all wars" is beginning to play itself out right in front of us.

With all of the saber rattling going on with Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Venezuela and all of the other dictatorships in the world, War is coming big time. The difference between WWII and today is several of these countries have nuclear weapons now which are game changers. North Korea is test launching ICBMs as we speak. Iran is very close to having nuclear weapons if they don't have some already. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and the Taliban forces in the regiion have been testing our resolve repeatedly. I feel that within the next year or two they will succeed in destabilizing Pakistan and taking over. While our attention is focused there, Either Iran or North Korea will probably do something stupid that will set everybody off, then the fight will be on.

Just imagine a North Korean Nuke exploding on the west coast. Or Jerusalem getting one from Iran. Perhaps paris or London getting hit, and all of it happening within a few days. Think about how that will change the world?

People will wish George W. or someone like him was back in the oval office, I promise you....

__________________
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined". - Patrick Henry

SelfDefense

It is this naivete that defines both liberals and libertarians. The external threats are real, all too real, as the recent tests of nuclear weapons and missiled by North Korea demonstrate. The domestic feel good nonsense is meaningless compared with or enemies acquiring missiles and nuclear technolgy. At the same time Soetoro is canceling missile defense programs. Soetro is the most dangerous leader in the world. He is destroying the United States both externally and internally.

It is not a matter of scaring oursleves. The kumbaya crowd does not want to know the truth; they can't handle the truth.

Your list is easy:

1) energy independence-- a bogus concern. The free market dictates the price of energy. We have sufficient oil/coal/nuclear energy to last an indefinite amount of lifetimes. The issue is the liberal political hacks that WANT us dependent on our enemies.

2) population control-- Huh? We have murdered over 50 million Americans in the last quarter century.Is that population control enough? Shall we kill the old and infirm through nationalized health care, too?

3) food and manufacturing production capacity-- We manufacture far more food than we consume. Food is not a problem nor is manufacturing. Eliminate the unions and the ridiculous wages that menial workers make and it won't be cheaper to go overseas. But the unions are a political arm of the democrat-socialist party.

4) health and quality of life issue-- We have the best health care and quality of life than any nation on Earth. Our system is not perfect but it is adequate and successful. We should privatize health care and get businesses out of the insurance industry.

Hopyard

No one said external threats aren't real. The thread however was started over what I think is a somewhat imaginary threat; an unrealistic fear that there is a great international conspiracy to deprive us of our independence and subordinate us to some UN run conspiracy. That part smack of conspiracy theory to me.

As for the real external threats, we can't face them if we are not strong; and right now we are not strong. We are vulnerable to oil blackmail as just one example.

Maybe you were correctly taught in school that one of our real problems during WWII, a shortage of natural rubber (which then was in the control of our enemy, Japan), was "miraculously" solved by timely invention. That our strength to respond to our enemies came from our industrial base and its capacity to make steel and ships, and guns, and other armament.

What in the world is liberal or libertarian about wanting to have a country that is not dependent on its enemies for oil, and has the capacity to build stuff within an existing viable industrial infrastructure instead of a collapsing auto industry, and a marginalized steel industry.

Let's solve our problems instead of imagine our problems.

As for your comment on food, you are the one who is mistaken. We import huge amounts of our food from around the world. We are not self-sufficient.

As for population issues, do the math. We have approximately 6 million square miles (2K X 3K miles) land mass. And a population which is at least 3 X 10 (8). Try the division and see how many folks we have per square mile, how many acres of land there are per person, and then divide it by 2 to account for the fact that lots of land isn't useful for agriculture. And, that doesn't even get into the water resources issues which you should be aware of as an Arizonan.

As usual, your ideological viewpoint leads you to naive conclusions about our future ability to sustain ourselves. Fortunately, the problems are fixable. Unfortunately, we probably won't, due in part to the ideology of some as yourself.

SelfDefense

On that point we agree completely. The one world governmenters, the North American Union, and all the other nonsense we read about is simply wierd. How can rational people believe that Russia, China, The United States and other wealthy nations would ever give up their sovereignty to a putz like Soros?

We are as strong as ever. Obama is currently dismantling our defenses but at the present time we have proven missile defenses, precision weapons, a tactical nuclear arsenal, the highest technology weapons the world can develop and a fighting force second to none.

It is a myth to think we are not the strongest, most agile, and have the best military in the world.

[QUOTE}We are vulnerable to oil blackmail as just one example.[/QUOTE]

We have plenty of oil and coal. Enough to last for many decades without a single drop from our trading partners. People make a big deal about oil, but even the 'peak oil' crowd have been shown to be wrong.

Of course, that still exists. If we really had a crisis, which Obama is leading us towards, we will not be held hostage to overpaid union members. The unions will rightfully be crushed (think the air traffic controlers...) and America will do what needs to be done.

You are referring to the interference of the Federal government in issues that have no basis in the Constitution. Their meddling has caused problems that would not exist if the People would limit their power, as the Constitution mandates. We are dependent on no nation. We have the people, the resources, and the technology. That we are not a nuclear powered nation is the fault of a bunch of people that have no clue. Energy is cheap and abundant. It is not even an issue.

So you are a proponent of offshore drilling, coal mining and building nuclear power plants? Deep down you are a conservative!

We import food because of government regulations!

Exactly. There is no population issuel we have more than enough space. Try Hong Kong if you want to see what population density is all about. Or India.

We should encourage our people to be fruitful and multiply. God knows our enemies are goinf to win by demongrapics alone if we adopt your population control ideas. Isn;t murdering 50 million Americans enough? How many more shall we kill?

Limit government as the Founders inteded and the free market will solve all the problems. Government has no chance at all to solve any problem.