More than that, we are in a new kind of war. We laugh at those who try to convince us. Laughing doesn’t make the truth go away.

We are now engaged in fourth generation warfare. This is a type of warfare in which at least one side uses non-traditional tactics and is composed of a non-governmental military force. We have moved from battles for territorial gains to battles for ideology. The battlefields cannot be confined to geographical regions.

Take for instance the shootings in Maryland. We begin to hear rumblings that perhaps this is the work of the same terrorist group that destroyed the Twin Towers. Is it? We do not know, but the fact that we even consider it means the battle has been engaged – and we are all combatants. It is a battle for our minds and our will.

This is a change for us. We still think in terms of third generation warfare. We figure if there are no countries hurling their armies at each other there is no war. We also limit the war to armies. Fourth generation warfare typically draws no distinctions between military and civilians.

This involvement of an entire populace in the conflict is new to us. Our young men and women have bravely gone to foreign shores to protect our homeland. For those who went, they gave their best and many gave their all. For those who sent, they gave their best – but they did not pay the ultimate sacrifice. Now, we find we are being called as we carry on our daily activities to “pick up arms” and place ourselves in the line of fire. We face the real possibility that we could give our all.

The enemy is not seeking to invade with troops and massed materials. The enemy does not have a single nationality or skin color. At this time, they do not wish to occupy our nation by force. They simply wish to weaken its resolve so they may continue to expand in yet weaker areas of the world. It is then and only then that they will turn to force their will upon us.

If we ignore the truth about the enemy we face, then we are already losing the war. If we are unwilling to own the fact that we are indeed facing a “religious war” – it is what they call it – then we will be taking steps backward in our battle. It is a battle that has raged for hundreds of years. The enemy is patient. We cannot think that we will defeat them with guns alone.

As I thought of the Maryland incidents and contemplated the possibility that this may once again be the coming of the battle to our shores, I was reminded of the people of Britain and the leader of their day, Winston Churchill. The courageous people of that island withstood more than we can imagine. It was, as Churchill prophesied it would be, their “finest hour.”

Britain saw itself as the apex of history. If England fell, so would freedom. While they sought the support of other nations, such as the US, they were fully ready and willing to go it alone if needed. Even as Hitler rained bombs upon London, those brave souls kept coming out of the shelters and made a point of continuing with their lives – not as normal, but with defiance and with bravery.

Rather than seeing us as the victims to be pitied; rather than seeking to appease upon foreign shores to avoid conflict on our own; rather than ignoring our place in history, perhaps we should take to heart the words of that old bulldog:

“I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties. . .”

Those words that follow seem too sacred to apply to our own circumstances. Yet, while our present situation does not carry with it the magnitude of the Battle of Britain, nor does our fourth generation war carve out so clearly a turning point it history; even so it is our day and it is our future. It was another war and another time, but we could well take a page from history and the courage of those brave Londoners.