Category Archives: foreign policy
EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #22
What does President Obama bring to the table? Given a teleprompter and a prepared speech he will deliver a magnificent piece of oratory. A performance that few in our history could match. But what else? He may project likeability but he is not. He is quick to anger. Carries grudges even those of his family. His treatment of the Supreme Court Judges in one of his State of The Union speeches was unprecedented. Remember his treatment of Representative Ryan. Not the work of a kind or gentle man. He cannot think on his feet. You have seen how he does without the prepared speech on a teleprompter. He is very thin skinned and cannot take criticism. He would prefer to do nothing if he can’t have his way. He does not even meet with his
I can’t stand to close this piece without debunking President Obama’s bragging rights. I know something about preparing operations for Presidential approval. I did that for President Reagan for the last two years of his administration. Take drones. They were developed and flying operations long before Obama’s tenure. All he did was approve the increase in their use. I agree with their use for it saves lives of our men and women in uniform. The only hard part for the President to decide is what is the political and foreign affairs fallout. The same is true of the Usama bin Laden affair. There is political risk in both approving or disapproving the staff recommendation to go. If it fails, ala Carter’s attempt to rescue hostages in Teheran, there will be negative fallout from the opposition. If the staff recommendation to go is disapproved there will be, sometime later, attacks from the opposition. Being President is a very hard role to fill. Sitting around the Situation Room with anxious looks for photo ops is not necessary. The credit goes solely to those who execute and face the real risks. Nor is leaking classified intelligence successes necessary to campaigning for re-election. Last night you saw the real President Obama who is not used to people talking back. Most supreme leaders and emperors are like that. Last night was no surprise.
EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 21
Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.
MY PERSONAL VIEW OF PRESIDENT REAGAN
In December of 1986, Frank Carlucci pulled me aside in the coffee hour following a worship service and told me President Reagan had asked him to be his National Security Adviser. He was putting together an entirely new Security Council Staff and wanted me to do all the intelligence, covert action, counter terrorism and counter narcotics staff work on his staff. I greatly admired Frank Carlucci and would have followed him anywhere. I reported for duty just after the first of the year. What follows is my personal view of President Reagan whom I would soon meet for the first time.
My motivation for writing this after decades of silence is the similarity between where President Carter and President Obama have led this nation. Neither one of them could ever have led us out of where we were then and now. But I have nothing but praise for President Reagan. I have several unflattering comments I could make about people in his Cabinet but silence is the better choice. I will say that Cabinet government cannot work without a strong, committed presidential staff. In my time, that was the National Security Council Staff. Cabinet members are soon captured by the organization they lead and soon are presenting the organizational viewpoint rather than that of the president. Please don’t believe I was an important person in the White House or that I was close to the president. In this case, admiration flowed one way. I was in his presence several times in the Situation Room and the Oval Office, but less so in the latter. My role was to provide the staff preparation for National Security Council meetings that fell within my area of responsibility. Okay, enough of the establishing of credentials.
In my first meeting with President Reagan in the Oval Office, he immediately made me feel at home and that he wanted to hear what I had to say. After his opening humorous story or joke, he said, “Frank, unless you tell me what is happening, I have no way of finding out.” He wanted us to know we could say what we thought without holding back. Bad news as well as good news is all relevant to the president. He was always gracious and sincerely interested in the well-being of his staff. I never saw him treat anyone with anger or sarcasm. He was extremely loyal to Cabinet members and Pentagon officials even when they deserved being sent to the wood shed. Keeping government organizations on the course the president wants, not what they want, is more than a full-time job.
Foreign officials couldn’t understand that the Reagan Revolution was first and foremost for Americans. His vision of the ‘Shining City on a Hill’ was not for nice-sounding rhetoric read from a teleprompter. It was call to all of us to throw off the cloak of doom and gloom and to remember our heritage, remembering also that government growth diminishes individual freedom. This is the president who destroyed Communism, rebuilt our military power, restored faith in capitalism and the free market, spoke truthfully, practiced transparency, and was respected by both parties. The most powerful man in the world never thought of himself in those terms. He understood those of us from blue collar backgrounds. The last quote I remember from him was, “Barry, I want Americans to be able to walk down any street in the world and be safe.” He cared about all of us. I’m glad he is not here to see Americans slaughtered in Libya while Carter, sorry, I mean Obama, dithers.
http://www.factsandfictions.com The author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series.
EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 20
POINT OF NO RETURN
When your candidate loses the election, there is a period when you hope the guy you didn’t vote for surprises you and is successful. Each of us has our own POINT OF NO RETURN when you realize this isn’t going to work and you try to get the ship of state turned around or at least reduce the speed. I had several indicators the voyage was not going well. They were more than bumps in the road. OBAMACARE was the first. It wasn’t the attempt to fix health care. I realized the system was broken and needed fixed but not the way it ended up being done. No debate, discussion, openness to amendments, and total obscurity when we were promised transparency. The third person in the succession list for the Presidency said, “You have to pass it to see what’s in it.” That was the beginning.
Then we had the world apology tour to put our past uniqueness and power for the good into perspective for the world. Followed by the unwarranted snubbing of old allies like the United Kingdom and Israel and new ones like Poland. What kind of a President would make it one of his first acts in office to send back the bust of Churchill, a revered hero of the West?
The foreign tour was followed by the unprecedented growth and use of the power of the Executive Office, the attempt to close Gitmo, put previously cleared CIA officers under investigation for the use of torture, i.e. water boarding and other harsh interrogation techniques that saved hundreds maybe thousands of American lives. With the worst Attorney General in my lifetime turned loose to impose his unique style of law and order we had Fast and Furious, the de facto granting of citizenship rights to the underpants bomber, the push to try the moslem thugs responsible for 9/11 in New York City. Finally THE ATTORNEY GENERAL was held IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS for the first time in our history. THE ATTACK ON CAPITALISM AND THE FREE MARKET SYSTEM were followed with the loading of the previously non-partisan National Labor Relations Board with Union supporters that tried to stop Boeing from building planes in Charleston, South Carolina, because the state was a Right to Work state.
This President does not like meetings where records are kept and many people witness the proceedings. As a senator, he was the chairman of the Afghanistan Committee that never held a meeting. To get around his own Cabinet he appointed thirty plus czars who do not need Senate confirmation and cannot be summoned to Congress to reply to questions or give testimony. They also do not meet as group. Written records of the President’s inter action with his secret “cabinet” will not be available to historians. Perhaps the most notorious of the czars was Van Jones, the Green Czar and a self-avowed Communist and a signer of the Truther Petition (a document that claims the U.S. Government was involved in a 9/11 cover-up and complicit in the attack in order to establish an excuse for the Iraq and Afghan wars). Valerie Jarrett was probably responsible for putting Jones in the President’s inner circle. After quietly leaving the White House, Van Jones showed up as one of the leaders of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
There were other strong indicators such as: Failure to get even one Democrat to vote for his budget submissions; announcement for troop withdrawal dates in Iraq and Afghanistan; the total lack of a plan to reduce the deficit; and the new mission for NASA (help Muslim states to feel proud of their contributions to science and math). But the big one for me was the President’s open mike mistake when he was talking in low confidential tones to Dmitry Medvedev. President Obama asked Medvedev to tell Putin that he (Obama) would have more flexibility after his re-election. Medvedev answered he would pass on the message. That an American President would pass such a message to a man that is no friend of the United States is the worst transgression I have ever personally heard of in my life in government. That was my Point of No Return. Do you have one?
http://www.factsandfictions.com author of the Jack Brandon thriller novels
EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #17
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WHERE IS OBAMA COMING FROM AND WHERE IS HE GOING?
Those are two questions Americans have been asking themselves for nearly four years. He has written a book about that journey. Pundits have written articles, both in favor of the president and in opposition. The main-stream media, which we have counted on in the past to uncover the guiding principles and the experiences that have shaped the principles of our leaders, has been silent. It would be unseemly to dig deeply into the background of the first man with minority credentials to inhabit the White House. It was enough that he fought the Clinton machine and beat an inept McCain candidacy. The only good thing to come out of that debacle was governor Sarah Palin. Any conservative who questioned Obama’s birth, associations, education, and beliefs flirted with being branded a racist. I was personally proud of my country for electing a black man to the presidency, even though I had serious doubts about his capacity for the job. No nation embracing racist values could have elected Obama.
There are numerous problems in America Obama could have tackled. The inner city mess, failure of American K-12 education system that serves the union better than the children, jobs and job training, free trade agreements, supporting people struggling for freedom everywhere, stamping out the last vestiges of discrimination, and uniting our people. No, instead he set about gaining control of the means of production, righting America’s nearly nonexistent colonialist history, and seeking forgiveness from foreign nations for the actions of American power and influence. Where did that all come from?
We should have known some hidden demon was driving this man when one of his first acts in the White House was sending a bust of Churchill back to Great Britain. He was picking up the anti-colonist battle his grandfather and father fought in Kenya against British colonialism. He was mentored for many of his formative years by known communists and Islamists dedicated to the destruction of the “colonial empires of the west.”
This man is not evil. He is just marching to a different drum. The only one he can hear. He is not cruel or bad, just misguided. We can not change the beat of this ancient anti-colonist drum. He looks cool, but he’s living in the past. He’s trying to follow a path that is now faint and overgrown. One the nation does not want.
Go see the Documentary 2016. It is a good piece of scholarship. Well produced and very helpful in understanding a president who is mired in an anti-colonial past.
http://www.factsandfictions.com Author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series
Eight Decades of Insights – 13
The following are my opinions based on years of government service and academic study. This piece is not about Republicans versus Democrats. I’ve voted both ways and miss the Democratic Party that has been taken over by the Progressives who are definitely not Democrats or believers in the American Dream.
This election is not about Obamacare, war in Afghanistan, fossil fuel vs green renewables, immigration/border control, nuclear weapons for Iran, the Arab Spring, radical islam, monetary policy or all the other burning issues that disguise the real struggle.
In November the contest is about power. Everything else is simply a distraction or tactic to further the Progressives only goal, which is to get power and keep it. Only the Progressive Socialists understand the only real prize is power. It is perfectly acceptable within this ideology to say anything and do anything as long as one is focussed on getting power. Truth doesn’t matter. Keeping your word is not important. They are only words that can be recycled for the faithful. The “end justifies the means” is the Progressive ideological mantra.
This is not a conspiracy of the Democratic Party. The traditional Democrats are not evil. They are Americans who believe they have won an election.They are focused on the Progressive dream of a perfect utopian America. Now the Democrats must join with their Progressive leaders to achieve the goal of transforming America. Heard that before. Believe it. It is real. Before transformation America was a nation whose political system was founded on the diversification of power. Checks and balances. Three equal branches of Government. The Progressive agenda cannot prevail with power diffused. Piece by piece it must be centralized. Control of the health industry, the financial structure, industry, especially manufacturing, housing, traditional power generating resources, commerce and, of course, the unions is the prize. Jobs and the economy are only important as a means in the struggle for power. A failing economy, burdened with debt and high unemployment presents Progressives with opportunity.
Does acceptance that the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party is following a campaign focussed on centralizing power make current events and issues understandable? I believe it does. Mr. Alinsky has provided the plan. Now his disciples have only to carry it out. (Read Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals for more enlightenment.)
What traditional American political party would even consider undertaking the following issues and actions?
*Class warfare rhetoric about taxing the rich, taxpayers making more than $200K annually. Surely, they know the revenue gain would be marginal. But for the Progressives, the political appeal to the fifty per cent that pay no income taxes is a winning argument. The middle class is a force that must be destroyed. The middle class, in the Progressive scheme, is very different. We will all be in their middle class. It will be the only class. No one failing. No one succeeding. This is not the stuff of the American dream where hard work and sacrifice provide opportunity for the individual to advance. Try to get elected preaching the line that everyone gets the same income regardless of their success and work skills. It’s far too early for that political platform.
*Pushing an unpopular, poorly crafted health care bill through Congress was politically wise? Only for the goal of centralizing seven per cent of the economy was it worth the storm of protest. Thousands of new IRS officers will be policing the system. What better way to control people and their destiny. Is making the IRS even stronger and more pervasive an attractive political goal?
*Use of the Justice Department to challenge the power of the House of Representatives. Making the Congress look stupid is worth the few shouts of protests. The Justice Department will not investigated any White House leaks or anything else that reflects badly on the Administration. Forget border security and “Fast and Furious,” suing states, investigating voter ID laws in swing states is more likely. This is not the traditional Justice Department that protected our freedom. President Nixon misused the power of the executive branch and we know what happened to him.
*Deliberty dissing our traditional allies, the U.K. and Israel as well as India and Poland, all democracies. While catering to Russia, the Muslim world, Venezuela and China. Not a democracy among them. Is this traditional American foreign policy? Has it ever happened before?
*Supporting disruptive street demonstrations and the willful destruction of property by the “Occupy Wall Street” mob led by Van Jones, a former Obama Czar for Green industry and an avowed communist. Search your memory for the last time the Democratic or Republican Party publicly supported a similar action.
*Bringing back the very unpopular “Death Tax”. Why bring this up in an election year? Some believe that the Progressive wing of the Democratic party has always wanted to destroy wealthy family dynasties. They can weld too much power so they can be a check to Progressive attempts to gather power. And it appeals to the “want it now have nots”.
*Before any political group can usurp power, they must control the military. A weak military force with weak leadership is a much easier target. Taking money from Defense and using it on entitlement programs makes Progressive sense. It weakens the military and spreads more wealth to those who depend upon government and who vote for the hand that feeds them. Did anyone think sequestration would work? The Republican leadership that hasn’t yet figured out what is happening, fell for the sequestration bait. Now the nation has to cope with declining power in a dangerous world.
*What political party ever set out to destroy the American power industry? Or send billions of taxpayer dollars to make believe green solutions for energy independence? Progressives talk “all of the above,” but act differently. And routinely use the power of Executive Orders to marginalize Congress.
Does the above make sense within the American political sphere? Not for any traditional party. For the Progressives, it is the only platform they can use to transform America. Most of us will not recognize or like the end result.
Be careful Democrats! If the Progressives win, the next election could have very different rules and you won’t be part of it.
Filed under Alinsky, class warfare, foreign policy, political solutions, Politics, Progressives, Uncategorized
Barry Kelly | Facts and Fictions 