MRFF Board Member and Ad. Board Members respond to snarky email titled “MRFF vs. the U.S military” from purported supporter “confused” by Mikey Weinstein not being anti-military and ponders if Mikey founded MRFF as a “small penance for [his] past life in uniform”

From: (name withheld)
Subject: MRFF vs. the U.S military
Date: March 18, 2023 at 10:54:58 PM MDT
To: Mikey Weinstein

Dear Mikey

I love what you do.  We had a brief back and forth one other time when I wrote to appreciate Ed Asner’s speech on your behalf, and included heaps of praise for your work.

But I’m confused by your long career in the Air Force, and the enthusiasm of all 3 of your kids to follow suit.

You’re obviously an intelligent, well-schooled, intrinsically moral and kind person. 

You obviously also are familiar with, probably steeped in, every dark corner of U.S. history.  From driving off the indigenous people , through non-stop wars, 750 military bases all over the world, millions of lives lost or destroyed (ours and theirs) billions of dollars wasted  — well, you know all this.

So why would you choose a career that supports this?  What is the military but marching and saluting flags, and learning to use weapons that will kill and destroy people who for the most part have done nothing to you or any of us “exceptional” Americans?

Once again, I truly appreciate your niche MRFF project.  Someone had to do it, and it’s likely no one would have taken it on if you hadn’t. Minimizing Christian propaganda is a noble fight and your tenaciousness is actually working!

I MIGHT have thought you took it on as a small penance for your past life in uniform (bedecked I assume with lots of stars and indecipherable bar code doodads — which I guess are honors of some sort?) except that you seem proud of it, and now 3 more Weinsteins are going to march and salute and become weapons experts so they can fight America’s “enemies” in one of the 80 countries we’ve plopped down our intrusive bases. (Ouch — I’m horrible.)

You’re a busy person and this is long, and snarky to boot. But I’m a huge fan and sincerely confused so I thought I’d throw it out and see if anything comes back

(name withheld)

---

Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere

On Mar 19, 2023, at 10:16 AM, John Compere wrote:

(name withheld).

Thank you for your expression of support, although qualified, for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation & its Founder & President, Mikey Weinstein. However, your obvious disdain for our American military & the patriotic men & women who voluntarily provide military service is sad & unfortunate.

May is Military Appreciation Month as designated by the US Congress. Attached for your information is my 2022 article on its history & significance. Please try your best to appreciate & respect your fellow Americans who serve our nation faithfully in the military service.

We Americans would not have the freedoms we enjoy today without the military & the loyal Americans who chose to serve our nation through the military (e.g. American Revolution, American Civil War, World War I, World War II, et al). As long as human beings remain a warring species, there will be a need for nations who desire independence & freedom to maintain a military for defense & a need for loyal citizens to provide military service. It is extremely naive to believe otherwise.

Most Sincerely,

John Compere
Brigadier General, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, US Army (Retired)
Former Chief Judge, US Army Court of Military Review & US Army Legal Services Agency
Disabled American Veteran
Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (composed of 85% Christians)

---

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member James Currie

On Mar 19, 2023, at 2:22 PM, James Currie wrote:

(name withheld),

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has asked me to respond to your recent email, and I am pleased to do so.

Frankly, your email presents me with a dilemma. You are in some ways a thoughtful person, as you seem to understand the vital role that MRFF plays in fighting for the freedom-of-thought of those men and women who serve our country in uniform. At the same time, you denigrate the very service that these individuals perform for our country. It’s as if you were two different people: one who is thoughtful and caring and another who hasn’t a clue about our country’s history and why we need a military establishment to guard our freedom.

I am a historian by education (Ph.D.), and such education undoubtedly provides me with a better understanding of our country’s history than you have. Our Army was formed in 1775, almost 250 years ago, and under the leadership of George Washington, this Army—with assistance from the French—eventually defeated the best professional Army in the world and gained our independence from Great Britain, thus starting us down the road that we have followed since that time. If I had to speculate, I would guess that we would not have remained British subjects up to the present, but without an Army in the field, there is no way to know just how long we would have been subjected to the ignominies of the British. I could take you through our various wars and point out the results of them, but I will offer as an example a war in which you may well have had a relative: World War II.

Most Americans understand the basics of this war: we joined with the British and French and Soviets and others to defeat the Germans and their allies, including the Japanese. If there has ever been a more purely evil government than that of Nazi Germany, I have no knowledge of it. The Nazis started by taking their own crippled World War I veterans from hospitals and killing them, then they proceeded to exterminate an estimated 6 millions Jews and others. These heinous acts were perpetrated by men and women who could not be stopped by reason or request. It took allied armies and air forces and navies and marines to defeat them and restore the world to peace. Some 16 million Americans put on uniforms during this war. You would apparently denigrate all of their sacrifices and suggest that they and all the others who have served in our military performed no functions other than “marching and saluting flags, and learning to use weapons that will kill and destroy people who for the most part have done nothing to you or any of us ‘exceptional’ Americans.” It is in this phrase that you reveal your total and complete ignorance of military history and of the necessity to rise up sometimes and throw back the evil as it is manifested by such movements as the Nazis. I would pose a couple of questions to you: Would you have preferred that we as a country not have created a 16 million-person military and have allowed the Nazis to continue the Holocaust? Would you have preferred that the United States hunker down behind the Atlantic moat and hope that the Nazis did not eventually decide to expand their empire?

Or, let’s move forward a few years, to the Cold War. Perhaps you do not have a good understanding of the forces that kept the Soviet Union in check after World War II. Perhaps you think that they were content simply to dominate Central and Eastern Europe and were not deterred by the troops we stationed in Europe and other places around the world. Perhaps you do not understand that our strategic military strength meant that the Soviets would not dare to attack us with their own strategic weapons. As it was, our military build-up eventually bankrupted the Soviet Union and allowed the countries of Eastern and Central Europe to gain their independence. Would you rather these men and women and children had remained under total Soviet domination?

You go out of your way to demonstrate that you do not understand how our government works. Assuming you vote, you have helped elect the people who make the political decisions for our country. These men and women—members of Congress and our two top elected officials in the executive branch—are the ones who decide how big our military is, where our military is deployed, and which wars we fight. The generals and admirals do not make these decisions, though they do tell these decisionmakers what is militarily possible. So, when you talk of the U.S. military “driving off the indigenous people [and fighting] . . . non-stop wars,” please be aware that it was your vote that indirectly made those decisions, as it was your vote (or the vote of your ancestors) that sent the military on its missions back in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, and it is these same elected officials who decide where to send the military today.

As for your comment about our military men and women being “bedecked I assume with lots of stars and indecipherable bar code doodads — which I guess are honors of some sort,” I can only shake my head at your blatant ignorance and disregard of the courage and sacrifice of those who serve. I can almost guarantee that you have never visited a Veterans Affairs hospital or VA rehabilitation facility and seen the legless veterans making their way down the hall as they attempt to learn how to use their prosthetic devices. You should be ashamed of yourself for writing such an email to Mikey Weinstein and MRFF and for casting aspersions on those few Americans who sacrifice to preserve our way of life. I only hope the scales will fall from your eyes at some point. But I confess not to have much hope or expectation that this will come to pass.

Col. James T. Currie, USA (Ret.), Ph.D.
Board of Advisors, Military Religious Freedom Foundation

---

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell

On Mar 19, 2023, at 3:57 PM, Mike wrote:

Hello, (name withheld),

Your letter is more than “snarky,” it’s insulting and dumb.

You’ve quite clearly conveyed your hatred for our country’s military and the history thereof while at the same time cutely pretending to be an admirer of Mikey and the work of the MRFF, attempting to carefully couch ugly personal insults alongside periodic laudatory comments.

This letter, had it been an article (and who knows your intent) would be the worst kind of yellow journalism. As a personal letter, it’s simply unnecessary, cowardly and stupid.

You’re welcome to your feelings, of course, but when you choose to assault the character of a good man and his family while attempting to disguise the vileness of your purpose by sugar-coating the ugliness of the attack, you, sadly, expose your own true nature.

One can certainly criticize America’s many misadventures, military and otherwise, but before puking out selected examples in an attempt to injure one who performed his military service honorably and proudly, you might try opening your little mind to a consideration of the millions off women and men who stood up, when called upon, to defend the ideals upon which this land was founded and continue to strive to see it live up to them.

Mike Farrell
(MRFF Board of Advisors)

---