Category Archives: foreign policy

by Barry Kelly | March 23, 2015 · 7:05 am

INSIGHTS 194 — ACT NOW

Well, we’ve had several months of Republican control of both houses of Congress. With all the other conservatives who helped the GOP to victory, I’ve been waiting for them to act like they are in control of the legislative process. It hasn’t happened.

They are mired in the old tactics of their losing past. A lot of whining and posturing, but very little action. They act like Obama’s progressive puppets dancing to a tune they have heard endless times. The sad truth is that President Obama is too smart for the old GOP leadership. He jerks them around from immigration, to ISIS, to Iran and nuclear weapons, to the word of Israel’s prime minister and where he gives speeches, to climate change, to the minimum wage, to military strategy in the Middle East to Putin’s empire building, to oil and natural gas production. Congress is the only thing he can lead from behind. They are used to being led around.

The solution is not hard. Just cut Obama’s puppet strings. Ignore his dozens of misdirection moves and lies. Do what you were elected to do: pass legislation and put bills on his desk to sign or veto. Conservatives win either way. Get a positive agenda. Share it with the people. We are waiting for the Republican way to get America working, to have a responsible health care program to replace Obamacare, to have a clear energy strategy, care for our veterans, to prevent the further weakening of our military capability, to start the process for a new tax code, to cut funding and reduce the size and scope of government, to champion a foreign policy that supports our traditional allies and gives our enemies pause. This is all within the power of Congress. They cannot wait for a Republican to win the White House. Who would vote for a party that when it wins it acts like a loser?

I have long been convinced that the Republican Party cannot lead this country with its current leadership. They are both too timid and too prone to only be reactive to Obama’s lead. The only hope is for the new representatives in the House and the new senators to push out the old leaders. They have lost their way and are comfortable whining rather than winning.

The window is closing. Congress does not have the time to continue dithering and playing games. Yes, new leadership will make mistakes and not exercise prudent patience, but they will make things happen before they are all marginalized.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and both on kindle for $3.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in March or early April.

2 Comments

Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare, Politics, Progressives

Tagged as Congress, government, house, Leadership, politics, Senate

by Barry Kelly | March 6, 2015 · 7:39 am

INSIGHTS 193 — TRANSFORMING THE WORLD ORDER

When Senator Barack Obama convinced a majority of American voters to elect him president, he made no secret of what he was planning to do. He has worked hard at transforming America and has gone about as far as he can go, once the opposition captured both the Senate and the House. He will still make a few more gains using the executive power of the president, both lawful and unlawful. The big gains like Obamacare, immigration, internet control, killing coal, slowing down oil and natural gas exploration, over-regulating the economy, and under funding the military are history. This is no conspiracy theory. The man is doing what he said he would: redistributing American wealth. We just weren’t listening.

The Obama push to enact a carbon tax due to man-made climate change was and is a tactic to redistribute wealth from the industrial nations to the have-not nations, a big step in making all nations equal. I think his end game for domestic America is to weaken our economy and military power so America can never again be a dominant power and a threat to a new international equality among nations.

Transforming America domestically is only half of the progressive dream. The other half, and perhaps the most challenging, is the transformation of the old world order. I believe President Obama has very strong anti-colonial beliefs. Remember his father’s family suffered under British colonialism in Kenya. Obama was only in the White House a short time before he formerly sent a bust of Winston Churchill back to Great Britain. Why not just store it in the White House?

All the past progressive isms such as communism and socialism had powerful international programs to spread their beliefs. The goals of today’s progressivism are more invasive, yet better concealed. I can find no logical or American national interest to explain why President Obama has so persistently pursued a relationship with Iran. What little we know about the Obama/Kerry negotiating, is hard to connect with an effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. This is a country that is the number-one sponsor of terrorism in the world. Its top leaders have stated they intend to wipe Israel off the map. If their secret efforts to develop a nuclear capability is for peaceful reasons, why would they have a parallel program to develop ICBMs and maintain such a close relationship with North Korea?

If a U.S. president wanted to transform the existing world order, including the Sunni Muslim world order, Iran would be an ideal tool to use. Iran’s foreign policy objectives, if achieved, would destroy the existing world order. The Middle East would be dominated by Iran. They now control or have significant influence in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Lebanon. If their military is successful in defeating ISIS and/or occupying a large part of Iraq. They will keep whatever Iraqi or Syrian territory they dominate by force of arms. The Iranian empire that would emerge from wars with the Sunni nations and their Western allies will establish a new world order. It wouldn’t be the first great Iranian Empire.

To give Iran full room to maneuver, President Obama had to pull American and Western troops out of Iraq and resist sending them back anywhere in the Middle East. (Can you imagine either ISIS or Iran carving up Iraq, if America had left a sizable combat capable force in Iraq with an U.S.-controlled airbase? No way.) Therefore, using that rational, he had to get U.S. forces out as soon as possible and push negotiations with Iran that would clear the way for them to have the bomb.

Israel and all the rest of our current allies and friends in the Middle East would vanish in clashes with Iran and its subject states. The dream of the progressives for the last century would finally be achieved. The new world order, no longer dominated by the West, would now reign with equality between nations. A much better world, they believe, for all people. A ridiculous conspiracy? A progressive pipe dream? Never happen? That is what I thought about the transformation of America that is still unfolding. Does anyone have a better explanation? Comments welcome.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in March.

INSIGHTS 192 — The facts. Nothing but the facts.

Is America a divided nation? I think so. But it is not divided primarily over race, ethnicity, religion, or class. I believe the division we see today is over ideas. Political goals and objectives are what has always separated the liberals from the conservatives. Ideas are difficult to discuss in the abstract. Maybe if we agreed on a common set of facts, we could begin building bridges across the American divide. If we cannot agree on the facts there is not much of a foundation for bridge building. I’m speaking of hard facts and not the way these facts are interpreted. Interpretation falls into the arena of good debate and discussion.

I hope the simpler I present my list of facts, the easier it will be to get to the first level of agreement. Okay, let’s go!

America today is facing several very serious foreign threats to world peace:

Russia’s expansionism
Iran’s drive to acquire nuclear weapons
radical Islam’s hot war to establish a Caliphate through the employment of terrorism and religious cleansing
North Korea, an intemperate and unpredictable developer of nuclear weapons
China’s expansionary world view and a growing hostility between the haves and have-nots of the world’s population

All these issues need serious and immediate attention by our leaders.

Domestically, we have several areas of critical importance to our economy, unemployment and under employment, the continuance of government founded on our Constitution, the rule of law, and the separation of powers doctrine. The economy needs an assured source of energy to compete in world commerce. We now have that possibility for the first time in decades. Our production of natural gas and oil are very close to making us energy self-sufficient. Fossil fuel is the only viable source of energy to fill our growing economic needs within the next two or three decades. On the job front we need to bring back oversees jobs and rapidly grow the economy. Our government needs a president who puts the needs of America over his or her personal visions of what would be or could be a more perfect world.

Two economic philosophies have built this nation: capitalism and the free-market system. Are they perfect? No. Do they need some regulation? Yes! The nation also needs a Congress and a president that recognize their respective Constitutional roles. Presidents are not kings and neither congressional house has presidential powers. They both need to stay within the America rule and practice of law.

National security first requires an ability to recognize what is required to protect our land and people and then to create and nurture those required elements. If we neglect our Armed Forces, we neglect America. Surely our short history has shown a strong military force is needed to assure our national survival. Peace has come through the military strength of democratic nations to balance and, if necessary, overwhelm the forces of totalitarian nations. Peace comes from the recognized power of democratic nations to back up their diplomatic efforts toward peaceful settlements. Confusion of national goals, a failure of leadership and will, and the neglect of military strength emboldens our enemies and discourages our allies.

Internally, corruption in government, a lack of transparency on the part of the party in power, and the deliberate falsification of information for political objectives will over a short time, destroy the faith the people have in the government of either party.

Can we all move toward the center and agree on a common set of facts?

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in March.

INSIGHTS 190 — THE DANGER TO AMERICA IS WITHIN

It is time to recognize the truth.

For the first time since the Revolution and the Civil War, I believe the greatest danger to our nation is coming from within. The outside threats to our way of life are formidable, but we can handle them once the danger from within is defeated.

This danger from within is the Obama administration. It has a drive to destroy the America so many of us have fought and worked for and died for.

It is hard to blame President Obama solely. He did tell us exactly what he was going to do. And it was clear. Obama’s transformation of America was nothing less than substituting a republic that encouraged the growth of a fledgling colony into a world power with a socialist, elite-led system of government.

People get the government they deserve. We are all to blame but not equally. Those of you who voted twice for the Obama progressive regime and who still are making excuses for his actions bear most of the blame.

We have a strong socialist percentage of citizens in America. These are the people who welcomed Obama as a transcendental leader who would cure all of America’s faults, starting with the transfer of wealth among citizens and also among nations. The core of the progressive philosophy is to share the wealth according to a long-held dream of Marxists. It makes no difference that this scheme has never worked on any scale.

Without wealth, nations can have no physical power. Obama is dedicated to making America just another nation in an international organization. I believe Obama intends to destroy our military power. He believes his words can bring about a much better world than we had before his rise to power. He’s had four secretaries of defense in six years. I believe he has wasted more American blood and wealth than any other president — and he isn’t done yet.

His weakness and failure to see the world as it is has brought us closer to global conflict than anytime since the end of WWII. Peace doesn’t come from weakness. It comes from strength and the principles that made us what we used to be. Obama and his progressive followers would have been right at home in England when Chamberlain returned from a meeting with Adolph Hitler, saying to great acclaim that he had assured “peace for our time.” Obama, I believe, has given us enough signals that he is approaching Iran with the same Chamberlain mentality. Hitler’s armies paid no more attention to the Chamberlain agreement than the Iranians will to any agreement with Obama when they get nuclear weapons and mate them with their developing ICBM missiles. Seeing the world as you believe it to be instead of what it actually is is only a great danger if you are the president of the United States.

President Obama’s dealings with Iran, ISIS, and Putin’s Russia can only result in more aggression and a greater threat of war. One thing is certain — we cannot survive a war with this president as our commander-in-chief. My belief that Obama is the greatest danger from within we have faced since the Civil War is based on more than just his international failures. He is corrupting the civil service, the military Joint Chiefs structure, abusing the Constitution, the separation of powers doctrine, and is deliberately handicapping economic recovery to further his divisive messaging of class warfare and racism. He cannot be impeached with nearly half the population still in favor of his presidency, a media that is friendly beyond reason to Obama’s progressivism, and a republican leadership that is no match for Obama’s messaging.

The next two years will be very hard. We need to do everything legally possible to delay Obama’s brand of transformation.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “Quiet Justice,” a new novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out by mid March.

6 Comments

Filed under Barry Kelly, class warfare, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, global warming, Intelligence & Politics, ISIS, Obama, Politics, Progressives, Putin, Russia

Tagged as America, danger, Obama

by Barry Kelly | February 13, 2015 · 7:33 am

INSIGHTS 189 — DANGEROUS, OR JUST AN EMBARRASSMENT?

It won’t get any better.

I believe we have a flawed president who brought a heavy load of baggage with him to the White House. He can’t escape from his personal beliefs about the guilt of American power; the socialist creed of Saul Alinsky that wealth needs to be spread equally to all individuals and nations; and leading from behind and from a place where words are the same as action.

Add those beliefs to his real-life experiences of attending a ‘hate America’ church for twenty years, his early childhood years attending a Muslim madrassa in Indonesia, his grandfather’s enduring of abuse by the British colonial authorities in Kenya, and his pre-presidential association with an unrepentant American terrorist, Mr. William Ayers, and you have a man who comes from a very different background than any of our other presidents. Don’t expect him to address the problems and issues that threaten America. He can only use those issues to attack his opposition. When the opposition is weakened, the way is open for a one-party rule by a progressive elite.

President Obama cannot turn loose the power of the free market to create jobs and wealth, for he believes in a managed economy. He can only use his power to spread the wealth and to give everyone “a fair shot.” He cannot preside over a transparent administration, for with transparency comes full disclosure. In this case all the documents requested under our Constitution and the practice of the ‘separation of powers’ by Congress would severely damage his socialist goals. Instead of a transparent Obama administration, the one he promised, we have an administration that is known for lying and delaying for years legitimate requests for information by both citizens and Congress.

Probably the most egregious cover-up is the use of the IRS to target conservative groups applying for legal tax-exempt status. President Obama may be planning to use the increasing power of the IRS to destroy any opposition. The president said he was shocked and angry about this illegal use of the IRS but now denies it ever happened and is stonewalling Congress’ requests for documents. At one point, the administration claimed the documents were permanently lost when all of the computers of the people of interest crashed.

On the foreign front, the president’s desperate effort to make a deal with Iran is even more dangerous than his inept dealings with Putin. Iran is developing nuclear weapons. It is their stated national objective. Why does the president believe the Iranians are developing and testing ICBM missiles? They are not necessary for a peaceful development of nuclear power. For some reason beyond me, President Obama has mortgaged our war with Islamic terrorism, our relationship with the Sunni nations, and Israel over his constant concessions to Iran. I believe he has not been sending arms to the Kurds due to Iranian desires to keep the Kurds from being able to defend their land and people from ISIS attacks. If any people ever deserved our help to fight for their freedom, it is the Kurds. President Obama has sent only words and token shipments of weapons directly to the Kurds. Arms to the Kurds sent via Baghdad will never get shipped on to the Kurds.

All we can do for the next two years is to fight hard to delay the president’s illegal and dangerous domestic and foreign policy whims. We must also avoid a major war. Imagine being at war with our present commander-in-chief in control. Would that the Republican leadership in Congress be smart and courageous enough to thwart the worst of his socialist hopes? Not much hope there. Just more tilting of windmills and internal fighting. The people have spoken but neither the president nor the Republican leadership are listening.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “Quiet Justice” a new novel dealing with ISIS in America will be out by mid March.