Category Archives: Politics

by Barry Kelly | June 8, 2015 · 9:32 am

INSIGHTS 211 — THE ADVISOR’S LETTER TO AMERICANS

The Advisor turned away from his multi-screen display of world events in disgust. It was hard to watch the fall of American prestige and respect in all quarters of the world.

Like it for not, Mr. President, he thought, the American people expect you to be a leader. Leading from behind is only a fiction that obscures the fact nothing is being done, even from behind. What world power, in history, has ever so willingly given up a leadership role? The world may not have always liked the way we used our power, but the vast majority of nations recognized the world was safer when America was willing to be the the policeman when the need was dire.

There is also no leadership in domestic America. Look at the disgrace of the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. The White House and the Justice Department led the racist riots by both their actions and rhetoric. The only sane thing for individual policemen to do is to avoid aggressive enforcement of the law. To stay out of questionable areas. To not take risks. It is not a matter of teaching people a lesson, it is a matter of the survival of every policeman and his or her job. Who would be willing to take real risks under national, state, and city admininstrations that pander to the mobs and professional race mongers?

Still disgusted, the Advisor turned off his screens that displayed the news and got up from his chair, pacing around his room.

On the foreign scene, what soldier is willing to go to war for a commander-in-chief who not only doesn’t have a bit of military experience but who actually despises the American military and is doing his best to destroy its former effectiveness while he tells lies about his successes? Iran, Russia, the Middle East, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, and Syria have all profited by a feckless exercise of appeasement diplomacy conducted by emissaries who were and are ideally suited to enthusiastically play their assigned feckless appeasement diplomacy role on the world scene. How dumb can they be? A beginner’s understanding of history just before World War II clearly shows appeasement diplomacy leads to war not peace. To make matters worse, most of our once-respected media ignores the truth and supports the slide of American power and respect in the world. Where are the cries for things like justice, peace, truth, and honest leadership instead of a series of big lies told over and over?

Even from my traditional position of being an unbiased advisor to the president, I can not tell him these truths for he already knows them. Our president counts what I call failures as successes. In historical perspective, he is a destroyer not a builder. And from this strange ideology he is leading the charge to transform America. The real problem is not the president. He told us what he was going to do. The problem is the people who voted for him not once, but twice, and still think he and his former Secretary of State are and will be the best for the nation. As a nation and a civilization we are at a tipping point. If we tip much further it will be impossible to stop the decline. When the takers outnumber the givers, the odds are not good.

With nothing else to do, the Advisor decided to make a fresh pot of coffee. He wasn’t sleeping much these days, anyway.

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel by Barry Kelly dealing with ISIS in America, is now available nationwide from your local book store, This is the fifth novel in the “Justice”series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Politics, Progressives, Russia, Shiite

Tagged as America, government, Obama, politics, world affairs, world news

by Barry Kelly | June 2, 2015 · 7:27 am

INSIGHTS 210 — A NEW ADVENTURE

You loyal people who read my blogs and follow my posts on Facebook and Twitter know that I am a storyteller. I do not hope to write a great American novel, but my readers and their reviews tell me I have written five very good stories featuring Jack Brandon and his Bouvier des Flandres who are supported by several very strong women. Each of these stories cover some aspect of current law and order problems. They fit several genres: mystery, adventure, thrillers, espionage, and terrorism. All have been available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in print and digital form. I do not personally try to sell them. I’m busy enough writing more novels and my blog several times a week.

I have a publisher who is an excellent writer and artist, as well. We have breakfast at least twice a week that keeps us both semi-sane. There is not a budget to advertise my books. Once they are formatted for publication, it is up to the gods of chance to decide how many actually sell. So far, the number is in the mid hundreds. Far fewer than even the break even point financially.

While I don’t advertise my work or travel locally to flog my novels, I do follow the advice of some successful writers. A friend of mine, a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam just before me, has written several books he personally sells from his web page. He passed on some advice he got from Mickey Spillane, who lived nearby. Mr. Spillane told him to create a character and keep writing about the same character. Fans want to follow characters they have admired and see what they do next. Mickey Spillane said, “I created Mike Hammer and rode him to success.” Other authors have stressed the need to have a blog, a fan page on Facebook, and Twitter. I do that, as well as keep a list of people who have told me how much they enjoyed my stories. Early on I found a partner/editor who has been of great help and support. But none of this has worked to sell thousands of books.

But now for the new adventure. I just published my fifth Jack Brandon novel, ISIS: Quiet Justice. It has a timely topic and is the first novel centered around ISIS exporting terrorism to America. It would have been out even sooner but the CIA took two months to review the manuscript and the galley proofs.

This time I wanted to see some real sales. At breakfast with my friend, the owner of Prose Press, I mentioned it was time for me to take some chances to promote my new book. A few days later, I told him I had scraped up a budget for advertising. Right there at the table he laid out a plan based on his background as the owner/operator of an advertising firm.

While all my books were theoretically being distributed by Ingram, the owner of Barnes and Noble and the Lightning Source on-demand printing presses, nothing much happened. Without the agreement of the author to buy back all books bought by book sales outlets and not sold, no book outlet would ever put a single book on their shelves. Rather than a net gain with the low profit margins involved, it is a real loss. So the money stolen from my nest egg has to cover book returns as well as advertising in national book distributor catalogs. A full page color ad can cost $1,800 and more than one such ad is needed, as well as other advertising costs.

I have always been a risk-taker. Win or lose, the process is exciting and this gamble is filling a part of my bucket list. It was a big deal for me to tell my blog and fan page followers that my books are now available nationwide at their local bookstore. Just check below. The kickoff is June 20 between 1 and 3 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in the Market Common in Myrtle Beach.

If you can, drop by. Otherwise, wish us luck. Thank you.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel by Barry Kelly dealing with ISIS in America, is now available nationwide from your local book store. This is the fifth novel in the “Justice” series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Action thrillers, Barry Kelly, Books, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, ISIS, Spy novels, Terrorism

by Barry Kelly | May 30, 2015 · 7:54 am

INSIGHTS 209 –ADVISOR AND A NEW STRATEGY

The Advisor knew the president wanted to talk about domestic policies on his next visit and that would be easy for him. He knew what the president wanted and how he was going about it. The president’s only problem with his domestic policies is that he is running out of time and losing influence in his party, he thought. If you follow the news reports and are intelligent and skeptical enough to read between the lines, it is apparent the president, who is a political genius in the tactic of changing direction and misdirection, is turning to things he can do with or without Congress.

Hence the turn to ISIS, or ISIL, as the president prefers as it enables him to continue denying that the foundation for a radical Muslim state is already in place. The president’s basic plan will remain the same, even if the words change. His policy is to avoid the use of American military or economic power to achieve nationalistic objectives. In his mind, the world has seen enough of American dominance through capitalism and the use of military power to intervene in world events. The president seems to believe that his one great foreign policy or international accomplishment is in the prevention of American power to solve international problems. Like no other leader, foreign or American, he has driven the U.S. out of the Middle East. The remaining bastions of Western presence in the Middle East will gradually dry up and wither away, much like the last castle strongholds of the Crusaders. The president believes a progressive new world order will emerge to create a better life for all the victims of colonialism and racism. This much he has said right to my face in this very room.

The Advisor paused his musings long enough to pour himself a fresh cup of Sumatra roast coffee and sit back down at his desk. He took a long sniff of the fresh brew and sat back in his chair, the mug warm against his hand.

The president is not a dumb man but neither is he a wise one. His strength comes from his deep commitment to the redistribution of wealth and the destruction of American world dominance. His new strategy for ISIS will not be new. Just different words. Nothing in his new strategy will adjust to ground-truth reality, but it will avoid even the slightest offense to Iran. The president knows what many of the Pentagon’s analysts have said, but he has no intentions of following any of their advice.

It is clear many foreign policy and military analysts know how ISIS can be controlled. First, Western statesman have to recognize that the Western creation of Iraq after the fall of the Turkish Empire has failed. Iraq has always been an artificial state held together by vicious and cruel dictatorial leaders. Keeping the Kurds and Iraqi Sunnis individually weak pleased two Western Cold War allies, Turkey and Iran under the Shah. Even today, neither Turkey nor Iran want to see the United States arm and support either the Kurds or the Sunnis. But any American foreign policy that fails to arm and aid the Kurds and Sunnis will fail. The world has changed. Iran is now a deadly enemy and Turkey is becoming more and more driven by a radical Islamic fervor. Both of these old allies fear the establishment on their borders of a Sunni Caliphate made up of major parts of Iraq and Syria .

Rather than arm the Kurds and Sunnis with effective weapons, so far military aid to either of them has been in the form of words, the president will be guided by Iran and Russia’s alliance with Iran and not by what is in America’s interests. Give up on Iraq as a viable nation. Forget about bringing Iran into the family of nations. Let the Kurds and Sunni tribes establish their own borders. Employ American air power at several times the current level and deploy 10,000 combat and support troops. By combining these changes with a real effort to arm the Kurds and move the Sunni tribes away from ISIS by immediate military and economic support could still be successful, but the president would have to turn his back on Iran and follow American strategic goals. That he will not do.

The Advisor shook his head and sighed heavily, then took a long sip from his mug. If only the president would listen, he thought.

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel by Barry Kelly dealing with ISIS in America, is now available from your local book store, This is the fifth novel in the “Justice”series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Iran, ISIS, Israel, Kurds, political solutions, Russia, Shiite, Sunni

Tagged as Iran, iraq, Kurds, Middle East, Obama, politics, sunnis, turkey

by Barry Kelly | May 27, 2015 · 7:48 am

INSIGHTS 208 — THE ADVISOR CORRECTS A FALSE NARRATIVE

During one of the long intervals between presidential visits to The Advisor’s underground office, the Advisor thought to himself: if no one else will get history right and correct the false narratives circulating from the White House and the liberal press, my journals and my Facebook account will contain a clear report of what was happening during my term as the Advisor.

The Bush regime won the war but paved the way for a failed Iraqi government when they destroyed the Iraqi army and the Bath party of Saddam Hussein. None of the existing infrastructure every government needs was left. To make matters worse, the Advisor thought, shaking his head, the Bush administration failed to understand a Shiite/al-Maliki government would never be a check to the Shiite nation of Iran. Instead, the Iranians ended up owning Maliki who preceded to further weaken the Sunnis and the Kurds. For all the American blood and treasure the Bush administration spent in Iraq, little was left for Obama to work with, especially given his primary motive to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible. I doubt President Obama, or either of his inept secretaries of state, ever saw the real geo-political problem a Maliki government would cause. You would think that President Obama, who leans hard in the direction of supporting Sunni Muslims, would have recognized the growth and consequences of Shiite power in Iraq. “Some would argue that he didn’t care about Iraq, his sights were set on using Iran to transform the traditional world order in the Middle East,” he said aloud to no one. “And I am one of them.”

The Advisor sat down at his desk and continued musing. You didn’t need timely intelligence, which Obama claims he never received, to see the Sunni Islamic radicals that joined the rebellion against Syrian Shiite President Assad could easily cross the border into Sunni areas of Iraq. The Sunni tribes alienated by Maliki were ready to provide support in the form of manpower, logistics, weapons, and money. Borders mean nothing if they are not defended.

The result of the ISIS invasion of Iraq is that tribal and religious areas no longer follow the lines drawn by western diplomats after World War I. All remnants of the Shiite/Maliki government are being forced to fall back into Shiite populated areas, primarily south of Baghdad. A realistic map of Iraq will soon show Sunniland, Kurdistan and Shiiteland. The Sunnis and the Kurds will never go back into a centralized Shiite-run government. That failed experiment is over. Only more American blood and treasure could delay the collapse of Iraq, and for what? Our government needs to stop believing an Iraqi centralized government is possible. It is not.

Our policy should be to support the Kurds with modern weapons and monetary aid until their own fighters get properly equipped and to persuade the outside Sunni world to help bring the ISIS under some restraint. In the meantime, use unfettered air power and required boots-on-the-ground to break the advance of ISIS and stop their atrocities against the Christians and other religious groups ISIS is now slaughtering. Some massive evacuations of endangered refugees may be necessary. All because two administrations failed to see the Middle East as it is. Hawks and doves are equally to blame.

With this president’s commitment to Iran. I don’t believe he will allow his administration to support the Kurds or Sunnis in Iraq. They certainly have not sent needed supplies to the Kurds despite their statements to the contrary.

The Advisor sat in silence for a few moments before picking up his pen and putting his thoughts down on a fresh page in his journal.

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, is now available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in print form and nook and Kindle formats.This is the fifth novel in the “Justice”series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

INSIGHTS 206 — THE PRESIDENT TALKS TO THE ADVISOR ABOUT AMERICA

The president smiled and said to Chris, his Secret Service escort, “I can’t wait to tell this guy what is really going on. He must belong to some old geezer cult to be willing to spend his last days underground. Or maybe he is just on the last stage before he really goes underground.” The president grinned at his witticism and so did Chris, but his grin was faked. His thoughts were real: What was I thinking when I volunteered to take a bullet for this man? I truly don’t think he really cares about anyone.

The president put his palm on the ancient iron door and as it swung open, he was greeted by the Advisor who escorted him to the conference table and poured the coffee brewed to the president’s taste.

“I know I said I would give you the thinking that has led to my domestic policies, but would you mind asking me a question or two so I can fill in the gaps in your understanding?”

“Of course not, Mr. President. What are your core beliefs about America?”

“Going right for the hard stuff, are you? Okay, that’s a good place to start. I hope you realize that I can speak without reading from a teleprompter. Some people doubt I can. I have a very objective view of America for I did not grow up in America so I wasn’t brainwashed by years of propaganda from kindergarten through high school. With what my parents and their friends told me, I was able to see through all the hysterical ranting of the bigoted conservative American politicians about the greatness of America and its role as a ‘shining city on a hill’. The truth is that the world today would be a lot better if America never existed. You see, the real vision of America is that of a ‘polluted city on a hill’ churning out products to make the rich richer. The people making those products they cannot afford, can’t even feed or clothe their families.

“The populous ‘have-not class’ in American society is doomed to remain there and the middle class is conditioned to recognize their proper place to keep from falling into the lower class. Your churches, schools, and capitalist organizations all preach a philosophy that ensures the stability of the status quo. There is no free market and capitalism is the chain that holds this nation stagnant. Your history is shameful.

“From the very start, the colonists put property over people and the individual rights of the rich founders above the rights of the masses. Your wars from the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, to the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East have all been to gain economic power and further riches for the one percent. Let’s not forget the slave labor that built your economy and is today still second-class citizens oppressed by the police and confined to ghettoes in the big cities. How can you be proud of that heritage?

“I have laid the groundwork to destroy what I inherited. If I had another eight years this nation would be an example of fairness to all. Where everyone would have a fair shot and the playing field would be at last level. There would only be one class: the one hundred percenters. My only problem has been to get all the old Democrats to recognize my goals and to help me achieve them. In the future this nation will take its law and guidance from the United Nations.

“Tell you what, the next time I come to see you, I’ll listen to your response. Now I have to go. My wife thinks I’m in the gym or sneaking a smoke.”

“Goodnight Mr. President,” the Advisor said to a closing door. He muttered to himself, “Did I just hear what I heard?”

The above is a fictional account of a president meeting with a legendary but fictional advisor.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, is now available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in print form and nook and Kindle formats. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.