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Donald Trump has met the only person who could destroy his candidacy for President and that is his inner self. He has defeated himself with his focus on his personal agenda. I don’t see how he can come back or should come back from his failure to put the people first. He has betrayed the millions of Americans who placed their hope and trust in him. He should withdraw and let the convention select another candidate. We believed in him but he didn’t believe enough in us.
The Iraqi Army is attacking the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah that is also the place al Qaeda Iraq was born. The struggle in Iraq was so much simpler when the U.S. Marines recaptured Fallujah. Much blood and treasure was spent in the heroic Marine push into Fallujah. A decade later more blood, including some more American blood, will be spent in another abortive attempt to ignore facts on the ground and restore a Shiite Iraqi government to power.
It has been apparent for many years that Iraq is not now and never was a cohesive nation. Harsh Sunni dictators kept the lines on the maps that were labelled Iraq in place. The other two elements in Iraq, the Shiites and the Kurds, did not share in the governing process or in the distribution of wealth. The Sunni Army, police and Intelligence forces kept them in place until the forces of the United States destroyed the Iraqi Sunni Army and governing infrastructure in order to install a Western type parliamentary government. In the process we destroyed the balance of power between Iran and Iraq. We know how to fight and win battles. We do not know how to do the nation building required to force fit a western democracy type rule in a part of the world that has no history of democracy or foundation of Western values. Both Presidents Bush and Obama share the blame for the rise of ISIS in Iraq.
Back to Fallujah and facts on the ground. Iraq today is totally a Shiite nation. The ISIS movement is overwhelmingly Sunni and the Kurds are fighting to establish a Kurdistan nation. They will fight to resist any Iraqi Government that tries to subject Kurds to rule from Shiite Baghdad or a Sunni rule in any form, ISIS or not ISIS.
The real threat in the area is Shiite Iran who intends to end up incorporating all of Shiite Iraq and the Iraqi oil reserves. What forces are surrounding Fallujah in the current struggle? Yes! Iranian militias, another name for Iranian government trained and equipped troops, who intend to destroy all Sunni armed groups in the region that could threaten their takeover of Shiite Iraq including Baghdad and south to the Gulf. An Iraqi victory in Fallujah will be a victory for Iran.
US airpower and advisors will be fighting on the side of Shiite Iran against the wishes of our traditional Sunni allies and Israel who want ISIS destroyed but not at the emergence of a more powerful Iran. That is fine with our leadership. The President and his Administration are firmly in the Iranian group. Can there be any doubt after some of the details of the Iranian Nuclear Treaty which is not a treaty have leaked?
Some things cannot be put back in the box and this is one of them.
Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics
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Filed under Intelligence & Politics
How much of this whining do we have to hear from the ideological purists of the Republican establishment? They had their chances and failed every time. They supported two flawed candidates, McCain and Romney. We gave them control of the Senate and House and they failed again. Now the Bushes, Romney, George Wills, the National Review and Weekly Standard pundits, Paul Ryan in his Speaker of the House position, McConnell as the Majority Leader in the Senate and failed presidential candidate Senator Graham are vowing they cannot support or vote for Mr. Trump. In the long-term who cares about them but in the short run to the elections, they should grow up and do what is good for America. That is not a hard choice if they can get over their self-appointed political guardianship of intellectual conservatism and focus on what the nation so desperately needs.
Clearly the Obama Administration will leave the nation with several critical areas that need immediate bipartisan attention. The ideological conservative purists need to focus on what is good for America and not solely on worshiping at the altar of Conservatism. These areas need a pragmatic approach consistent with the Constitution and the rule of law:
Re-establish the co-equal branches of government with the checks and balances spelled out in the Constitution;
Control America’s national borders;
Rebuild our military force levels and weapon systems;
Replace OBAMACARE;
Make American companies competitive by reducing taxation and regulation by Executive Departments and Agencies;
As the national economy grows, pay down the debt and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure;
Shift responsibilities such as education and healthcare back to the States; and
Apply common sense to the size and scope of the Federal Government.
GOP leaders get over your purist problems and get on with fixing problems. No more ‘leading from behind’ or the ‘issue is never the issue.’ You are being paid by the people to make their lives safer and better, not to enforce your own brand of ideology of government. Get with the program. Take on the issues. You may not get another chance. Socialist and Progressive controlled governments do not give second chances.
Never expect an ideologue purist of the left/right or elsewhere in the true believer world to solve problems. They, first and foremost, are totally focused on ideological purity. To solve problems, you need to turn to pragmatists. Purists cannot make deals requiring compromises. Purity is more important to them than progress. When looking for leadership you won’t find it in the ranks of the extreme left or right.
When he raves on and on about the RN Convention and its rules, Paul Ryan, The Speaker of the House, looks and sounds, like a professional bean counter. “The rules are the rules.” Baloney what if they are undemocratic and have the main purpose of negating the votes of the people in favor of the Republican Party hacks who have been getting away with this dishonesty for far too long. Maybe the rules should be junked in favor of the millions of primary voters. What is so sacred about the 1237 number? With multiple candidates that is a hard number to get. Maybe that is why Gov. Kasich was encouraged to keep running so the Republican Party hacks can have their open convention and again show the people how little they care about their votes. A sad state of affairs.
What is Governor Kasich doing? Is he a viable candidate? Hardily, he has a good resume but is a hopeless campaigner. He won Ohio after a hard campaign and that is his home state where he controlled the state’s political machine. How can he afford to keep campaigning? He has no chance of topping either Trump or Cruz. He is like a vulture circling the Cleveland Convention looking and waiting for the political death of Trump and Cruz at the hands of RNC and its archaic rules. Kasich must be funded by and doing the bidding of the ‘Never Trump’ movement. He makes it harder for either Trump or Cruz to win a majority of the vote, clearing the way for a contested convention. Doesn’t he realize the political class will either throw him under the bus or pat him on the head and send him back to Ohio just before they bring in their candidate.
Are South Carolina Republican politicians listening to the people? Don’t think so. The People voted overwhelming for Mr. Trump yet Governor Halley, Trey Gowdy and both Senators are supporting Senator Cruz. What do they know, we do not? Maybe they are thinking they are part of the establishment of the political class that knows better than the people who elected them. Even the Tea Party has lost its way and doesn’t listen to its members or even ask them. Tea Party surveys of their membership are primarily an undisguised form of soliciting funds. How quickly politicians become inner directed.
If the Republican National Committee and the Republican political class don’t want to honor our votes in the primary, how can they believe the votes will be there in November? At least they are consistent, they never listen to the people. The talking heads and RNC officials are yammering ‘the rules are the rules’ for delegate selection. What they don’t say is why are those particular rules in place.
They are not designed to aid the democratic voting process in the future. They were crafted in the past to make sure the political party officials maintained control over candidate selection. They didn’t then or now trust the people to choose the candidate. The people might decide they don’t need the members of the political insider elite to keep hanging around. Anything other than a true primary where the people vote for a candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins is not a democratic process no matter the arcane rules involving the selection of individual delegates.
Bottom line, it is a divide and conquer tactic for local, state and national party officials to ensure they get a candidate they want. What happened in Colorado and could happen with the uncommitted delegates in Pennsylvania, regardless of the rules or when they were published, is a disgrace and to continue to defend this process is shameful.
Barry Kelly | Facts and Fictions 