Tag Archives: politics

by | December 12, 2014 · 7:35 am

INSIGHTS 178 — INTERROGATION, THE REAL STORY

Enhanced interrogation! Torture! A rogue CIA! Illegal activities!

No matter what newspapers you read, what TV channels you listen to, or what comes to you online, these terms have been flooding the media market. The case for enhanced interrogation is a strong one unless you fear the power of the United States more than you fear Islamic terrorists who have a known track record of killing Americans. Other than the progressives of President Obama’s party, most Americans disagree with Obama’s approach to defending them from terrorism.

This blog is addressed to mainstream Americans who believe in the rule of law, the Constitution, and are proud of our history.

First, a few general observations about interrogation and the line between enhanced interrogation and torture. You can talk to those people who have been interrogated in the CIA’s program. They are alive and well either at Guantanamo or some place where they have been transferred. They are still alive and not crippled physically or mentally deranged. Many have gone back to the battlefield to try and kill more Americans and our allied supporters.

The deaths from enhanced interrogations are reported as one. On the other hand there is the drone program where the terrorists targeted are all dead, along with any friends, family or bystanders who happened to be nearby and all the intelligence they had died with them. At least one terrorist of those killed by a drone strike was an American citizen. I generally support the drone program but don’t understand the American left’s hatred of the CIA program while they accept reports of drone strikes with their morning coffee.

Very few people know anything about interrogation techniques. I do. A skilled interrogator will be successful. He or she will get the subject of interrogation to give up useful information. A skillful use of rewards and punishment (not torture) and a deep knowledge of the subject area gets results. Torture of the InquisitioDianne_Feinstein,_official_Senate_photo_2n type or that used by our enemies in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam was so severe that the subjects would tell their captors anything just to stop the pain. The experience of being tortured does not make you an expert on interrogation, only on being a courageous survivor.

Now the politics of the Democratic senators’ report on terror. That is the right title for the report. Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence did not contribute to nor agree with the report’s content. It is strictly a left-wing progressive report to attack the CIA. Why was the report released now years after the program ended? Simple: After the Republicans assume control of the Senate, Senator Feinstein will lose her chairmanship position and will not be able to carry on her vendetta against the CIA by publishing a remarkably unprofessional report similar to those self-serving reports we have seen come out from our enemies. No one actually a part of or associated with the Enhanced Interrogation program was interviewed or allowed to contribute to the report.

The CIA deserves a nation’s gratitude for keeping our homeland safe.

 

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/mystery novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, 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.

 

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by | November 17, 2014 · 7:28 am

INSIGHTS 173 — GOP, ACT LIKE A WINNER

I readily admit to being a proud right-of-center conservative, but I have mixed feelings about being called a Republican. The establishment party is both timid and dumb. No conservative should be timid in announcing what they believe and what they want to accomplish. The Republicans are afraid to tell the people their legislative goals and plans. They are afraid the progressives will challenge their programs.

Being dumb is harder to understand. The House and Senate Republican  leadership have never understood what Obama is about. He is not a typical left-wing Democrat or liberal president that battles over issues with the opposition. He has told everyone he is about transforming America. He has steadily worked toward a one-party socialist system of government and a re-distribution of wealth. He controls the agenda of government. The Republican Party, with the energy provided by the various tea parties, just won a resounding victory. But who is controlling the government agenda? Not the victors, but the loser!

Instead of telling the American people what great things they are going to do to restore economic growth, protect the rights of the people, re-establish our military and diplomatic prowess, and preserve the separation of powers doctrine, they are letting Obama dictate the agenda. The Republicans charge as long as the master manipulator flicks the red cape of executive power. He doesn’t care about Hispanic immigrants. If he did he would have passed legislation in the first two years of this reign when he controlled both houses of Congress. He only wants the Republicans to keep their identity as the party of anti-immigrants.

Why let a defeated president control the agenda of politics? Let him do his immigration executive order and work to pass a real immigration bill that will supersede Obama’s executive order. Strengthen the borders and give more border authority and funds to the border governors to fix their borders. They’ll do a better job than the federal government ever has or will. Ignore the rambling rhetoric of the president. Draft and pass real legislation. So what if he vetoes it. Keep legislating. That’s what you do. That’s your power base. That’s what you know how to do. Do not spend your energy and our time battling the president on his turf and his rules. Take charge. Let him pout and threaten to rule America with his pen and phone. See how far that gets him. The people have said Obama is irrelevant. Why don’t you believe them?

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/mystery novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” will be published before Christmas. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. Please forward this message to your Republican representatives.

 

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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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by | July 8, 2014 · 7:31 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 125

NEW MAP NEEDED

Put your old map of the Middle East in the pile of historical documents. For a hundred years, the national boundaries of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon followed the contours of the lines diplomats drew to show the demise of the Turkish Empire. Their inked lines paid little or no mind to the impact those lines would have on language groups, cultural and religious realities, and tribal territories.iraq

Iraq is not now and never has been a nation with the common things that make a nation, a nation. Instead, it worked around religious animosities, language differences, and conflicting tribal affiliations. The work around was only possible due to the harsh policies of a Sunni aristocracy that had no hesitation about using brutal tactics to subjugate Shia and Kurdish minorities. The Kurds have wanted and fought for their own nation for decades. At times they have sought Western support only to be betrayed time after time. The Shia are pulled eastward to the strong Persian and Shia  state of Iran, the same state that the Sunni leadership in Iraq fought a brutal war with in the 1980s. During that war, poison gas was used against the Iranians. Saddam Hussein was an equal dispenser of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He also used poison gas on the Shia and the Kurds. Only ruthless cruelty and fear kept Iraq a nation.

Vice President Joe Biden, who almost got nothing right in his entire political career unless he copied it from someone else, stumbled on the right solution at the wrong time when he proposed dividing Iraq into Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish areas, provinces, or whatever. It was not to happen. His solution was too far outside the box for most of us.

President Obama made all the wrong moves and gave the wrong signals when he took power and pulled all our forces out of Iraq. But let’s be fair. The only way for Iraq to exist as a nation was to put a ruthless Sunni dictator back in power. That wasn’t going to happen. In its wisdom, the Bush Administration destroyed the Sunni-led Iraqi Army and ruling political party, clearing the way for weak Shia leaders to win or manipulate a democratic voting process that prepared the path for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to run a Shia regime that looked eastward to Iran for support and guidance, turning Iraq into an Iranian province.

Our president, who has a strong Sunni bias, knew he could not provide real military support to assist a Shia faction to battle a Sunni force. So all the hand-wringing over the number and kind of troops  sent now to Iraq and what the president should do is wasted. Iraq is history. Now we need to seek common goals among the Sunnis and Kurds.

Either way, this is a perfect issue for President Obama to follow his mantra, “the issue is never the issue.”  He never tries to solve issues anyway, he only uses them to destroy the opposition.  In Iraq, doing nothing is close to being the perfect solution. The Republicans will find some way to use the Iraq issue against themselves.

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EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 124

A MUST-READ

When Congressional leaders like John McCain and John Boehner do not understand Obama’s progressive transformation plan and continue to expect him to deal with issues facing the nation, we are in trouble.

That is why I wrote my first non-fiction book, “INSIGHTS: Transforming America — Is InsightsThis What We Fought For?” Every American who is concerned about their family’s future and the well-being of America needs to read this book. I believe the book’s message is so important, I sent proof copy books and letters to 20 leading conservative thinkers and leaders in the country. I need their support, and yours, to get the word out.  The digital copy and hard copy versions are now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please help spread the word to your friends and neighbors.

When you start to read this book and begin the journey, try hard not to jump to the conclusion that I’m being too hard on President

President Obama, photo by the New York Daily News.

President Obama, photo by the New York Daily News.

Obama. Once you understand his motivation and where that motivation comes from, his tracks are easy to follow. He is a very different type of American politician, one that we have not seen the likes of before.

My new  book was written so every American could understand the progressive transformation. There may not be many more chances to derail the current rush toward a socialist nation. This book is a code-breaker for understanding your president and defeating progressives in the polling booth come November. I guarantee that after reading “INSIGHTS,” you will clearly see Obama’s transformation for what it is. In the progressives’ world, there is no room for conservatives, libertarians, moderate Democrats or independents. Look for these groups in the dust bin of history if the transformation process continues under Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Five percent of profits from the sale of this book will go to a veteran cause. Your comments are welcome and needed. God Bless America.

 

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by | July 7, 2014 · 7:30 am