Tag Archives: America

by starediting | September 26, 2014 · 7:35 am

INSIGHTS 158 — WHO IS TO BLAME FOR OUR MESS? PART 2

In my previous blog, I outlined the mess we are in. Find that blog here. Read on to find out who is to blame for that mess.

Now, who is to blame for all this mess we are in?

Many brilliant scholars and thinkers have long pointed out that people get the government they deserve. In my mind, we are all to blame.

The people voted for an unproven candidate with a dubious background that included many blank spaces. These voters believed the progressives’ promises about hope and change would enable them to transform America. This was not a hidden agenda. Barack Obama was clear about what he was going to do. His candidate speeches and writings were transparent.

What wasn’t transparent was how this transformation of America was to take place. The citizens who voted twice for this president bear some of the blame

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for today’s mess. Their votes were based on hope, dislike of President Bush, and ignorance of the history of the world’s transformers, Marx, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Hitler and several lesser-known champions of utopian societies under the management of a so-called benign elite. All utopian -isms end up the same way. In harsh, repressive societies.

Conservatives and independents are not free of blame. In fact, their participation, or lack thereof, may deserve a large part of the blame. Most of us knew electing a man with no experience to be president was very high risk. If he surrounded himself with knowledgeable Cabinet members and White House staff, we thought it might be okay. Also, he is black and many of us were proud America had elected a black president. Now I wish it had been a different black candidate.

We didn’t know this president had a very different agenda. His transformation plan required the destruction of the opposition before a one-party system could take over and complete the socialization of America, where everyone got a fair shot and income is redistributed from the haves to the have-nots, both domestically and internationally. The usual utopian drivel.

We, who had reservations, didn’t do enough in either 2008 or 2012. We didn’t try hard enough to explain the transformation process to our more liberal friends. We didn’t contribute enough money. We didn’t support good candidates and let the Republican establishment and the stupid cumbersome primaries pick our candidates. Both candidates, at best, had only a marginal chance of winning. So we got the government we deserved. Now, what do we do about it?

Do you like and understand what you’re reading? Share it with your friends and leave me comments here or on Amazon. I read them! You can also visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. This content and more is available in my latest book, “INSIGHTS: Transforming America.”

INSIGHTS 156 — BOOTS IN THE SKY OVER SYRIA

The thunder over Syria is a victory for President Obama’s diplomacy. Maybe he has more insights into Muslim politics than other foreign policy areas.

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No matter what or how, this is one of those rare win-win events. America gets very welcome cover for air attacks against Muslim targets. Muslim nations flying combat missions with our planes also will give Putin pause before he does something rash to protect President Assad in Syria. Putin may be happy to maintain and defend his naval base in Syria and leave the air war uncontested by Russian threats. Iran also may not be willing to militarily confront a powerful Sunni military and political coalition. I’m sure one of the prices we paid for Saudi, U.A.E., Jordanian, Qatar and Bahrain’s support is our agreement to defend them against external attacks.

In any agreement, it’s always instructive to understand the strategic and tactical goals of your allies. Our allies in the air war against ISIS have clear goals. They do not want a powerful Sunni radical nation on their borders. Many of the Muslims butchered by ISIS were Sunnis. Some of the ISIS military units were once funded by members of our new Muslim air war allies. King Saud and the U.A.E. have been funding and equipping a proxy war against President Assad’s Syrian Shiite regime for a few years. They have fighters on the ground. Now they have the freedom to provide air support for their fighters. The same Muslim air sorties can also punish any units that have double-crossed them and joined ISIS. It seems the U.A.E. has command and control to direct the Muslim air war. They have better intelligence on the ground where their fighting units are engaged with Assad then we do. It is still a win-win but getting rid of Assad’s Alawite (Shiite) Regime may rank higher with our Muslim air coalition than defeating ISIS in Iraq.

Bringing Saudi Arabia into the air war against ISIS is a very big deal. President Obama must have upgraded his foreign policy team. Openly talking about bringing Iran into the war against ISIS was a brilliant move. Nothing would make the Saudis move faster than the possibility of an American/Iran alliance in their front yard. We don’t have boots-on-the-ground but the military and diplomatic war against ISIS has moved several squares forward.

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS – 154

OBAMA’S SCORECARD – PART 2

It will soon be six years since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. The traditional way of evaluating a president is to judge how he has done as a leader to solve problems concerning the economy, national security, and foreign policy. We could do that here, but that wouldn’t be addressing what President Obama has been doing. To be fair, he should be scored on what he has been working to accomplish. To do that, we have to use the tasks relevant to progressive goals, for those are what is important to President Obama and his legacy.

President Obama’s overall goal is the transformation of America. That term means very little unless you examine the steps that are required in the process of transformation. The first step is to marginalize his opposition, the Republican Party, by a skillful manipulation of issues. Remember, the progressive mantra is “the issue is never the issue.” In short, that means you don’t try to solve problems or issues, you simply use every issue to instead attack the opposition. Changing sides on issues or lying about what you said previously about the issue doesn’t matter and happens often.

In Part 1 of this blog I scored Obama on redistribution of wealth and weakening America on a worldwide scale. Read that blog here.

All socialist ideologies require the move of the means of production from the private sector to governmental control. Beginning with Obamacare and moving to micro-managing regulations on manufacturing, coal mining, nuclear power, oil exploration and drilling, and energy use, the president has made an auspicious start but he still has a long way to go. His grade here for advancing progressive programs only rates a “C” minus.

To create a one-party political system run by a progressive elite, Obama needs to destroy the Republican Party and absorb the legislative power of Congress into the executive branch by using executive orders and department regulations. He has made the executive branch more powerful than the office he was elected to fill, but the stubborn resistance from the tea parties and other conservatives has slowed the process and the progressives will probably (hopefully) lose control of the Senate in November 2014. The president gets only another “C” minus here.

To prepare the way to move America into the control of an international organization, he needs to withdraw from foreign bases and weaken the U.S. military forces, which are still the best in the world. The president has announced his intent to cut the manpower of the Armed Forces to pre-WWII levels. The Defense Department, under timid civilian and military leadership, has rolled over and begun implementing manpower cutbacks by informing several hundred captains and majors they will no longer be needed. I’m sure notices to sergeants and others will follow. Majors, captains, and sergeants are the backbone of any military organization. It will take 15 years or more to replace the expertise being wasted. As long as the Pentagon is so gutless, Obama will succeed in diminishing both manpower and weaponry. He gets a “B” plus here.

Unless conservatives, independents, and moderate Democrats wake up, President Obama will eventually get higher grades as a progressive than he ever got during his academic training.

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 150

SHAPE THE BATTLEFIELD

President Obama read the polls and decided he should address the nation on the ISIS threat. But he didn’t say a word Wednesday night about how his past policies have made it necessary for America to go to war again in Iraq.

He claimed to have a small coalition of nine NATO nations and Australia who have not committed ground troops. That’s a bit smaller than the last time we went into Iraq, when we were supported by 29 nations who committed ground troops. President Obama did as well as he could from the foundations of his foreign policy over the last nearly six years. Let’s not poke anymore holes into his speech about ISIS.

As commander-in-chief, he needs to be clear on a few critical points. The first is call the threat what it is. It is radical Islam. Within those circles which include most of the Islamic world, it is a good thing to kill infidels/nonbelievers. Where are the moderate Muslims? The Saudis have funded radical madrases/schools all over the near, middle and far east for at least two decades. Money from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Kuwait, and Pakistan have poured resources into the Taliban and other radical Islamic organizations for years. Nearly all the World Trade Center bombers were Saudis. In Egypt the more moderate military is nearly fully occupied dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood that Obama backed against Mubarak. Libya doesn’t seem too moderate, nor does our old ally, Turkey. Pakistan is not a moderate Islamic nation. Good luck, Mr. President, in finding moderate Islamic states to join your coalition with real help and commitment. They may not continue to support ISIS but I doubt they will stand up with a Christian nation against ISIS. Their only interest is keeping ISIS away from their territory.

The second point is that competent boots on the ground are necessary to win any military campaign. Obama’s examples of his strategic success in fighting terrorism in Yemen and Somalia are not even relevant. The relevant bit of recent history is the Bush Administration defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan with approximately 500 American boots on the ground, all military or civilian special forces warriors and, of course, thousands of tribal fighters from the Northern Alliance. Enough fighters to push the Taliban into massing to defend against attack so the U.S. Air Force, flying no holds barred missions, including B-52s, destroyed the defense positions of the Taliban down the length of Afghanistan. The air strikes were guided to the kill zones by American civilian and uniformed Special Forces. That is a proven tactic. The problem is that skilled fighters like those of the Northern Alliance have yet to be identified.

With a clear broad view of the strategic battlefield, victory is possible without large U.S. combat units, but small units on the ground will be needed. First the Kurds will fight and can fight as soon as the Obama Administration recognizes the Kurds will fight for their own homeland. We need to accept and welcome Kurdistan into the alliance. As of last week they reported that had not received any arms shipments from the U.S. Our in the box thinkers had to send all aid to the Kurds through Baghdad which is the same as not sending any. Shiites don’t send weapons to Kurds.

The next tactic to hurt the heads of our people struggling to put Iraq back together again is to rekindle our Special Forces relationship with the Sunni tribes. They will not go back into a Shiite-dominated government so recognize that, and tell the humpty-dumpty bureaucrats trying to patch together a phony country to cease and desist. The Sunni tribes, if promised their own land and given weapons, will fight and take care of the ISIS forces in Iraq. The next step is easy. Let the Shiites retreat south of Baghdad until they decide they will stop and fight for their own land, Shiiteville. All we have to do then is separate the not so bad guys from the really bad guys in Syria and work with them to get rid of the Assad tyranny. All this can be done in less than a year with very few American WIA or KIA. What was Iraq is now nearly the same as it was before arrogant western diplomats drew unreal lines on a map and created the nightmare of Iraq. None of this can be done unless the president gets out of the way and lets the Pentagon and CIA run the war on terror and radical Islam.

Written by the author of “INSIGHTS: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You are encouraged to share this message and follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Afghanistan, Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Kurds, Obama, Shiite, Sunni, Terrorism

Tagged as America, iraq, ISIS, Islam, Middle East, military, Obama, u.s.

by Barry Kelly | August 27, 2014 · 5:55 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 144

THE THREAT OF ISLAM

Fate and luck have often produced the leadership needed in times of crises. Unfortunately, neither fate nor luck have given America the leadership she needs to combat the virulent march of Islamic radicals across Syria and Iraq. We have a president who is ill-equipped to deal with real world crises. He leans toward the Muslim side in all foreign policy issues. The president has surrounded himself with inexperienced department heads who share his view of the world. Both the critical departments of State and Defense are under pedestrian leadership. Clinton, Kerry, Hagel, and Dempsey have been conducting foreign and defense policy designed to withdraw America from a super power role to one consistent with the goals of the United Nations, an organization that has no love for American power.

Our executive leadership is implementing a plan to bring American troop strength down to pre-World War II levels at a time when radical Islam is sweeping across the Middle East and Putin is moving to reconstitute the Soviet Empire. (According to media reports, 900 army majors have been given termination notices, some while in combat areas. Majors and sergeants are the backbone of any army. It will take ten or twenty years to replace their knowledge and experience.)

But that is not the worst. A significant part of our population is increasingly anti-military and doesn’t recognize that all violence is not evil. All our personal freedoms and national security at times need violence to protect the nation and its citizens. The belief that we can control or positively influence enemies, current or potential, by our unilateral behavior is foolish to the point of suicidal. That unilateral disarmament on our part will lead other nations to act accordingly is a belief, not only naive and arrogant, but without any historical evidence. The president and his attorney general have often stated closing Guantanamo Bay will make it harder for radical Muslims to recruit new members. What deters enemies is strength and they will to use it.

While young Muslim boys (girls don’t get to go to school in the world of Sharia law) are being taught to hate the West and to learn how to be soldiers, our children are being punished for pointing a pretend finger gun or engaging in any act that might be construed to represent Christianity. Recently the media reported a young school girl was disciplined when she said, “Bless you” to a classmate who had sneezed. The spirit that got us through two World Wars and several others, needs to be rekindled. The meek don’t inherit the earth; in the real world they get themselves or others killed.

Before we encourage the spread of Islam in America, the citizens should know Islam is not a religion of peace. The Koran has none of the forgiveness, love, gentleness, or acceptance of the people of other religions that is contained in the New Testament. Muslim teachings support forcible conversions of non-Muslims and the killings of those who don’t convert. The imposition of Sharia Law is the end game of radical Islam that is, today, being carried out by ISIS. Occupation and domination is the plan. The end result of radical Islam is to impose a totalitarian rule run by an elite group. Funny how the progressive, socialist, communist, Islamic or fascist systems of governing all have the same end result, rule by an elite who make your choices for you. Individual freedom is not an issue. None of them believe in it.

Fortunately, we can see what the Islamization of Europe is doing. It is spreading fast and even imposing Sharia Law in some areas where the Muslim population is dominate. The United Kingdom now has more Muslim citizens fighting for ISIS than it has Muslims in its own armed forces. Muslim immigrants do not assimilate. They maintain their own language, culture, law, and education. Local mosques are the spearhead for the spread of Islam. It need not happen here. It must not.

Written by the author of “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.