Note from Stewart Rhodes: This site is a work in progress. Over the next couple of weeks we will be adding content daily, including both written and video testimonials, and eventually a more traditional, professional website as part of our outreach efforts (though this blog will always remain active). We welcome testimonials from anyone who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, be they current military, veteran, or peace officer. You can email your testimonials to us or post them in the comments on this blog. Please see the details on submitting testimonials at the bottom of this first post. - Stewart Rhodes
An Introduction to Oath Keepers
Oath Keepers is an association of currently serving military, veterans, and peace officers who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic ... and meant it.
The principle mission of Oath Keepers is to prevent the destruction of American liberty by preventing a full-blown totalitarian dictatorship from coming to power. Our Motto is “Not on our watch!”
I have been thinking of starting an organization such as this for several years now, but it never seemed to be the right time. However, I have recently had some very sobering conversations with brother veterans, active duty soldiers, retired and active duty police, and other committed and knowledgeable patriots. Because of those conversations, and in light of some very disturbing recent events, I am now convinced the right time is here – in fact, I am convinced it is now or never.
There are very dark days ahead for our Republic, and the greatest threats to our liberty do not come from without, but from within, “from men of great zeal, but little understanding,” from both political parties, who, to get at the devil of the moment, gleefully tear down the Constitution’s barriers against unbridled government power. The past eight years has been an expose of such short-sighted foolishness as self-described "conservatives" conserved nothing while expanding the de facto power of the Executive branch to obscene and absurd levels. Those powers are now in the hands of President Barrack Obama, who shows no signs of being reluctant to use them to impose his own special "vision" for our nation.
Worse yet, there are those among the political, legal, and even among the banking elite (?!!) who know exactly what they are doing, and yet willfully contrive to destroy our Republic and to disarm and enslave the American people. Our Republic has been under relentless assault from such domestic enemies for decades. We expect them to take full advantage of any upheaval and civil unrest during the coming economic/political “perfect storm” to try and put the final nail in the coffin of our Republic.
We aim to stop them dead in their tracks.
We know that if it comes to a worst case scenario, the American people will fight them. Americans are not Russian or Chinese peasants. Americans have a legacy, a heritage, of fighting back against tyranny and oppression and beating the best any tyrant can throw at them. The American people will not go down without a fight, and our would-be slave masters are greatly underestimating the resolve and military capability of the people. There are literally millions of American veterans, many of them with combat experience, who know very well what they are about, and who will fight with a ferocity that will stun their effeminate self-styled overlords.
But we also know that “It” (a full-blown totalitarian police state) simply cannot happen here if the majority of military service members and police obey their oaths to defend the Constitution and refuse to enforce the unconstitutional edicts of the "Leader."
The Oath Keeper Focus of Effort
And that is where Oath Keepers comes in. As time runs out, and as the window of opportunity closes on any hoped-for purely political restoration of liberty in America, we have determined that our best “focus of effort” – where we can have the greatest impact – is by maximizing the number of active duty military, reserves, and national guard who will fulfill their oaths by not following unconstitutional, immoral orders. And that also goes for the police, many of whom are also veterans.
We cannot imagine a more productive use of our time or anything that we could be doing that has the potential to literally alter history quite like this effort.
We already know for a fact that many of our brothers in arms will not “just follow orders.” And we also know, from personal service and experience, that the closer toward the “tip of the spear” you go, among the hard-core and elite combat units such as Marines, airborne soldiers, Rangers, Special Forces, etc., the greater percentage of men you will find who are true believers in the best sense of the word. They are men who take their oaths most seriously and are very much aware that they are the guardians of the Republic. They are also men who have come to terms with their own mortality and have made peace with the big picture fact that none of us gets out of here alive – what counts is what we do while we are here. We all served among such men of great integrity, character, courage, honor, and devotion to liberty and we have no doubt where they will stand on The Day. And what is more, they have a combat capability that goes far, far beyond their numbers. They are force multipliers extraordinaire.
But God forbid it should ever come to a fight. The very last thing any of us ever wants to see in our lifetime is veteran being pitted against active duty, or soldier against soldier, while the craven cowards at the top sit safely in some soft, cushy bunker.
But while we hope for the best, we are also prepared for the worst. Whatever the outcome, our oaths will be fulfilled.
What you can do To Help:
Submit a testimonial: Help us put a serious warning shot across the bow of the usurping politicians by a show of numbers
If you swore the oath, whether you are current military, reserves, national guard, a veteran, or a peace officer (or even a lawyer! – so long as you really meant your oath), write your own testimonial statement as an Oath Keeper and either post it in the comments section or email it in to oathkeepersok@gmail.com.
There will likely be one post per day entitled Oath Keeper Honor Roll where you can submit your testimonial in the comments section for that post. If for any reason you don’t see such a post on a given day, please look for the last “Honor Roll” post. If all else fails, just post it as a comment to any post you happen to be on. We will then move your testimonial to the most recent honor roll post. Ideally, we want to present page after page of testimonials. If you want to send in a photo to go with the post, email us.
Submit a Video Testimonial
You can also send in a video testimonial. Oath Keepers will have a youtube.com page up and running shortly, and we will post any submitted videos to that page. Until we get everything set up, if you want to submit a video, email us to work out the logistics.
You can choose to make your written or video testimonial anonymous, or you can put your name on it
It is your choice. We fully understand that more veterans will be willing to put a name or a face to their testimonial, while most currently serving active duty, reserves, and guardsmen will want to remain anonymous. It is a sad statement of where we are as a nation that service members who merely affirm their devotion to liberty and their oaths to defend the Constitution have to be concerned about possible persecution detrimental to their military careers, but that is the reality.
But such anonymity is a plus since it helps to plant the seeds of doubt in the mind of anyone in our government who has immoral and unconstitutional intentions. We at once want “them” to know there are a lot of us, but also to not know exactly where we are within the military or our full numbers. Uncertainty and the fear of the unknown can be great force multipliers of their own.
Suggestions for making a statement
I will be posting my own written statement over the next couple of days, as well as that of several other veterans, and I will also post my own video statement which you can use as models for your own, if you like.
Please refrain from making statements that could be construed as overt, specific threats of violence or exhortations to commit specific acts of violence. Simply stating that you will not obey, you will not comply, you will not submit, and you will resist any and all unconstitutional and immoral orders and actions is enough.
You don’t need to go into details. “They” will certainly get the message. And remember, our political enemies will take every opportunity to paint Oath Keepers as an extremist organization and to marginalize us in the eyes of the public. We have some creative PR guerrilla warfare in mind to counter those smear attempts, but you can help by keeping in mind our mission to reach the broadest cross section of active military, police, and veterans.
Other than that, the only real guidelines are to keep it short (two to three pages, or under five minutes, unless you have an amazingly compelling story), to the point, and heart-felt.
Calling All Combat Veterans
Our long-term goal is to have some very powerful, persuasive video testimonies by combat veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, on up to today which we can use to reach more active duty and veterans. If you know of any such men, who are for real and who are willing to step up and make such powerful video testimonies, please email us.
Such video testimonies by combat vets have an immense moral force and will do more to win the hearts and minds of others who took the oath than all the blog posts and books that have ever been written put together. Such video efforts will be seen by many thousands or even hundreds of thousands and millions on youtube.
Spread the word!
The more people who see the Oath Keeper message, the more active duty and veterans will be reached, and the more committed oath keepers we will have who will be willing to stand firm, and the better the ultimate chance of saving our Republic. Feel free to forward any content from this page and to repost elsewhere so long as you include a link to this site and give proper credit to the author and/or Oath Keepers.
Remember, many hands make light work. it's time to get out and push.
Stewart Rhodes
Co. E 60th Infantry, 9th ID Scouts (Airborne)
"To the utmost extent of our power"
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