Tag Archives: current-events

by | October 13, 2014 · 7:30 am

INSIGHTS 165: GOP NEEDS TO BE SHAKEN UP

GOPIt looks as if the Republican Party will gain control of the Senate in November. I believe the Republicans will not be responsible for the win. President Obama is responsible for losing the Senate. If he had stayed away from his teleprompter and especially his microphone, some of the Democrats running in red or purple states may have won. Certainly the only winning platform the Republicans had was their anti-Obama ads. It is important to be clear about what you’re against, if you also make it very clear what you are for in the positive sense.

So what will the Republican Congress do in the first six months?

I don’t think the leadership knows. The House speaker and the minority leader have not put forth an alternative to President Obama’s policies and programs. They either lack the intelligence or the courage or both to offer alternatives to the American people. That has to change. Like most changes, this one will require a change in key people. I hope the newly elected House members and the new majority in the Senate recognize their leadership while being crafty in the ways of Congressional procedures, have not shown anymore leadership than the president. You cannot run this great nation by being the party of NO. 

Any political gains made this year will be lost in 2016 if the Republican leadership does not aggressively attack and solve the many issues the Democrats fumbled. Health care, tax reform, solvency of welfare programs, immigration, unemployment, national defense and myriad foreign policy issues. With Republicans, the issue is always the issue. No more whining about the president’s unwillingness to work in bi-partisan fashion or the use of his phone and pen unilaterally. You have the power. Use it. Stop worrying about getting re-elected or being out-messaged by the president. Just get the job done.

First send Mr. McConnell and Mr. Boehner back into the ranks. Then send bi-partisan bills to the president’s desk. When he vetoes, work to overturn the veto. He has less than 35 percent of the people with him. Show us Washington is not log-jammed now that the Republican congress is in town. Regain the respect of the people and foreign nations.

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. If you think this message is important, please share it.

 

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by | September 24, 2014 · 7:25 am

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.

infoplease.com

infoplease.com

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.

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by | September 6, 2014 · 7:32 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 151

POLICY TO DEFEAT ISIS

Outlining a policy to defeat ISIS is not hard. Implementing the policy is much harder, especially when the government is run by a bunch of radical left wing lawyers and ideologues.

To begin, the president needs to recognize the problem. It is not workplace violence as the Obama administration stills labels the murder of soldiers at Fort Hood by a radical Islamist shouting Muslim slogans. With that mindset, this administration will never defeat ISIS with a law and order approach or a “management approach.” Wars are not won by lawyers spouting law and order sound bites: “We’ll bring them to justice.”

What kind of insanity is that? We need to destroy them with our military power. Our warriors need to be in charge of the battle. Keep the lawyers out.

Speaking of lawyers, who do you think has made it mandatory to ship all our weapons to the Kurds through the Shiite government in Baghdad? It has to be the Obama lawyer group. The government in Baghdad is useless. They are and have been a Shiite-dominated government. They are not going to pass weapons on to the Kurds. They don’t want the Kurds to have effective weapons. They have no intentions of helping the Kurds establish a Kurdish nation. And the Kurds will not again put themselves under a Shiite government in Baghdad or anywhere else. The Obama administration has lied again to Congress and the people. The Kurds are not, repeat not, receiving weapons to defend themselves and perform as “boots on the ground” in their area.

Our legalistic Obama administration just can’t grasp the fact that Iraq is no longer a nation. The  American troops in Baghdad are primarily there to defend the embassy. For we are still pretending Iraq is a nation that we should continue to recognize and support. Baghdad will fall and the American embassy will be another R&R facility for the victors. Our second policy principle must be recognition that the borders in Iraq, drawn by the Western powers after WWI, are gone. Kurdistan has all the ingredients of nationhood and should be recognized and supported. The enemy does not recognize the border between Syria and Iraq. It is meaningless unless you are an Obama lawyer or diplomat. Our military and political efforts to defeat ISIS must ignore the old border.

The third principle is that we once had a working relationship with the Sunni tribal leaders. That relationship needs to be re-established. We will need to convince the Sunnis that we will keep our word and support them in their own autonomous region, independent of the Shiite government. They will fight for their own land, if supported with U.S. weapons and Special Forces operatives. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, and the Gulf States will support a Sunni homeland in what was part of Iraq. The lawyers will never support this shift. Therefore, it is time for President Obama to surrounded himself with operatives who have a grasp of the real world, instead of the ideologues now occupying the White House.

The fourth policy principle is the president must turn over the management of the war to the Defense Department. If he keeps the White House legal team, the UN, and the State Department out of the war business, we can defeat ISIS. John Kerry always makes everything he touches worse and the Obama lawyers and ideologues have absolutely no real-world experience. The UN has no love for America and is useless in serious peace keeping operations.

I do not expect the Obama administration to leave their progressive ideology to adopt these sensible principles. But they should!

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. If you think this message is important, please share it.

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EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 142

WRONG PICTURE

What is wrong with the pictures coming out of Ferguson, Missouri?  Is that what middle America is? Are we a racist nation?

Last question first. No, America is not a racist nation. How can a nation be racist when the president, the attorney general, the national security adviser, and several other prominent officials are black? There are prominent blacks in every profession, stars in every professional sport and other entertainment areas. Blacks with military honors serve in every branch of the Armed Forces. Graduating students from our universities are black, as were some of their professors. No, we are not a racist nation nor are we a nations of cowards. In America, if you can walk the walk and talk the talk you can make it, no matter the color of your skin. While words are important, actions and real circumstances tell us more.

The words coming out of the president and attorney general do not help to calm the situation in Ferguson any more than the words coming out of the professional race manipulators who circle every possible injustice like a group of vultures swirling around the spot light of public attention. The shooting in Ferguson calls out for a real investigation of the facts, not  political speeches crying racism is the cause. Shouldn’t the rush to racist statements on the part of our president and attorney general wait for the investigations to be completed before making racist pronouncements.

Didn’t we learn anything from the Treyvon Martin case?  Too many bright young black teenagers, especially males, are being killed by senseless acts. The nation needs these young people. We need to give them time to live and contribute. Let the Ferguson situation play out, but deal severely with looters. Peaceful demonstrations must always be allowed but not street violence. Peaceful demonstrators of any color do not come to demonstrate with Molotov cocktails and guns. The police have a duty to protect the citizens of Ferguson from the violence of rioters and looters. And the attorney general and our president need to deal with the mass killing of young black teenagers by black on black violence.

Mr. President, tell your attorney general to go to Chicago with his legions of investigators. Give the young blacks of our inner cities a chance to live. Give them jobs and hope. So far you have done nothing to help them. Making them dependent on government money is not the answer. Give them real jobs, a chance to raise a family and give back to the community. Show them real justice is color blind. Your first step should be to remove your current attorney general who has said we are a nation of cowards when it comes to race. He is not an example that justice is color blind. We are not a nation of cowards and we are not, today, a racist nation. The pictures coming out of Ferguson fill the media’s appetite for sensational news but do not describe America.

 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

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by | August 24, 2014 · 7:15 am
by | August 20, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 141

KURDS AND ISIS

However he got there doesn’t matter. It is rare that President Obama gets policy and action together to do the right thing. So let’s give him credit for helping the Kurds rescue thousands of minority religious followers and begin pushing ISIS back into traditional Sunni tribal areas. Without U.S. airstrikes and weapons delivered to  the Kurds, the Mosel Dam and Christians and other minorities would still be in the hands of ISIS. There is absolutely no question that ISIS is capable of genocide against any people who do not believe in sharia law.

Unfortunately, this is not a short-term problem with a quick answer. The right thing is to support the Kurds. Their army, the Peshmerga, can and will fight to protect their homeland and people. All they need is an American commitment to supply needed weapons and some economic support. They can be a pillar of stability in the region and a military balance to the ISIS. The Kurds will not, unless forced, ever put their fate in the hands of a Baghdad Shiite or Sunni government. They have suffered under successive Baghdad regimes. The Kurds also have no love for Iran or Turkey.

Over the last five-plus years, the world has seen that our word cannot be taken at face value. Therefore, the problem for the Kurds is deciding whether they can trust our commitments. They are in a very dangerous position with few options. America will get another chance to show the world if our word means anything. The president has broad powers in foreign policy and armed conflict issues. But in this case it would help if he could involve Congress in long-term support for the Kurds. This is an issue he should not use to attack his opposition. There has to be some kind of a line between progressive political goals and something as serious as building a area of stability in the wreckage of Iraq that is friendly with America.

We can not expect the Kurds to trust us if we show intent of putting them back under a Baghdad regime. The president and Congress need to accept that the idea of a Shiite government ever being trusted by the Sunnis or the Kurds is gone. In fact, it was never a viable option. The borders of the Middle East have been changed de facto. A smart foreign policy would accept the change and move on. Please, Mr. President, keep Secretary of State,  John Kerry out of Kurdish policy issues. You and we cannot afford any more bumbling by your Department of State.

Read my non-fiction book, “INSIGHTS: Transforming America –Is this what we fought for? “

 

 

 

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