From the Frontline

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil … Who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man!” Isaiah 5:20–23

Over the years I have discovered shocking facts from military and historic sources on the incredible life and intriguing conspiracy to assassinate U.S. Army General George Patton.

U.S. Army General George S. Patton distinguished himself early on as a world class athlete and as leader of men after being admitted to the elite West Point Academy. His youthful achievements were followed by a brilliant career as an officer, which culminated as commander of the U.S. Third Army in World War Two, during which he was recognised as the most ferocious General on the Allied side. He was known as the man who had never lost a battle, the hero of North Africa and Sicily.

Why then, would the U.S. government conspire to assassinate its top military leader?

Could it have been because General George Patton accurately assessed the shift in the balance of world power which World War Two had produced, and foresaw the enormous danger of communist aggression against the West. General Patton recognized the danger posed by the Soviet Union, which he identified as the real enemy, and he disagreed bitterly with the orders he had been given to hold back his army and wait for the Red Army to occupy vast stretches of Europe. With 18 divisions and more than half a million men, the Third Army was the largest U.S. fighting force in history. Patton was convinced that he could have freed all of Eastern Europe, if Eisenhower had not halted his supplies and fuel. Alone among U.S. leaders, General George Patton warned that America should act immediately, while her supremacy was unchallenged, to end the communist threat. Unfortunately, his warning went unheeded and he was quickly silenced by a convenient “accident” which took his life.

"The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell." James 3:6

All of us, at one time, or another, have been guilty of gossip. Yet, it is sin. God takes gossip seriously. The Ninth Commandment is there for a very good reason.