Living Through History ... Alan Caruba

Living Through History
By Alan Caruba

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We live our lives one day at a time and, at best, understand them only in hindsight. The chief advantage of old age is the ability to look back and, hopefully, to draw some lessons from the history through which we have lived.

My chief regret is that so many among the generations coming up behind me have so little real knowledge of America’s or the world’s history, be it recent or long past. Indeed, history books in our nation’s classrooms have become a battleground between competing ideologies because those who determine what history is taught will shape what history is to come.

The destruction of our education system since the 1960s is not an accident. It has been deliberate.

I have lived through seven decades of history. Born in 1937 in the midst of the Great Depression, I have lived to see a comparable Depression.

Anyone who persists in calling our present economic crisis a Recession is whistling passed the graveyard. You cannot have as many unemployed people as we do today, owe as much as we do to foreign central banks, and continue to spend as senselessly as the federal government, and not call this a Depression.

The main difference, as I see it, is that while Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors were sincerely, but ineptly, trying to turn the economy around, the Obama administration sees it as an opportunity to totally destroy the nation by bankrupting it, by refusing to seal off its southern border from an invasion of illegal aliens, by imposing a healthcare act that nationalized one sixth of the economy, and via other comparable abuses.

I have been thinking about the seven decades of my life because I have been reading about them in an excellent book, “American Dreams: The United States Since 1945” by H. W. Brands ($32.95, Penguin Press).

What struck me most forcefully and personally was the fact that I was so utterly clueless throughout much of my early years, despite having graduated from university, served in the U.S. Army, and been a working journalist until I approached my thirties. Even then, jobs with the New York Housing Finance Agency, followed by a stint with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, did not connect me with the events swirling around me.

It was not that I was unaware of events. My childhood coincided with the Cold War that had shaped national policy under Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. I graduated university the same year Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959 and I finished out my Army service waiting for the outcome the Cuban missile crisis, grateful that it passed like a quick storm. The only thing I knew with certainty was that Communism was evil.

My politics were not particularly nuanced. My parents were Democrats and liberals. I followed suit because I knew no better. To their credit, they both began to have doubts with the advent of the Vietnam War and the Great Society spending. They had, however, benefited from the tremendous prosperity that followed the end of WWII, owned their home, had happily purchased all the new appliances that enhanced everyone’s lives, and raised my older brother and me in comfort.

I, along with other Americans, had seen the nation put a man on the Moon, had seen the enormous productivity of our manufacturing sector and assumed it could not end. It not only could end, it began to end as globalization undermined domestic growth. America has increasingly become a service industry economy, one dependent on easy credit, and an ever-expanding federal government.

I was into my 40s by the 1980s and only beginning to connect the dots of the history happening in the nation and the world. By then I was enjoying a career in public relations that took me all over the nation and introduced me to a wide variety of people in business, industry, and agriculture. Until then I had not realized the enormous inhibiting effect the federal government had on the economy through its intensive, expanding regulatory powers.

The environmental movement had gained momentum by then and in time it would determine how much water a toilet could use, how many miles per gallon autos must provide, and the soon to be enforced edict that literally bans the incandescent light bulb! Significantly, the Greens have seen to it that more and more of the nation’s vast sources of energy were put off limits.

The era of Ronald Reagan transformed my thinking. I became a Republican. Others did too, but it was the Clinton years in the 1990s that confirmed my distaste for the Democrat Party. When the GOP regained control of Congress in 1994, Clinton was smart enough to adopt much of the legislation they proposed and take credit for it.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was followed by the most transformative event since WWII. September 11, 2001 and the subsequent military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq flowed from that Islamic treachery. I suspect that history will judge George W. Bush less harshly than his peers. The financial crisis in 2008 plunged the nation into a downward economic spiral that brings us to today. The election of Barack Obama has only served to exacerbate it.

The Internet loosened the grip of the “mainstream” news media as Americans with access to information as no previous generation, discovered they had been betrayed for decades by the liberal “spin” the news included. The advent of talk radio was a revelation for many.

At a time when what is most needed is serious investigative journalism regarding a virtually fictitious President, Americans must depend heavily on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News to inform them of the damage being inflicted on the nation.

You cannot be, as I was, indifferent to who is in public office, intent only on your personal life as if some mysterious force will intervene to make things turn out right.

There is nothing mysterious about “the consent of the governed.” There is nothing mysterious about the ability of Americans to put things on the right path again. The American Dream can be made to work if we elect the right people to represent us and begin to shrink the federal government. That is the lesson I have drawn from my years and one I hope to see reignited in the years to come.

© Alan Caruba, 2010
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Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Baby, It's Cold Outside! ... by Alan Caruba

Baby, It’s Cold Outside
By Alan Caruba

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One of the great ironies of the Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen is that its focus is on “global warming” at a time when Planet Earth has been in a cooling cycle for the passed decade.

That fact alone is testimony to another one; the United Nations conference has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with a binding treaty that would ultimately transfer power from the individual sovereign nations whose representatives are attending to centralized governance by unelected bureaucrats.

Just as Communism concentrates all power in the “State” and relegates its citizens to “property” of the state, the UN Climate Change program would subjugate entire nations in the name of “saving the Earth.” It needs saving, but not from a fraudulent “global warming”. The present greatest danger to mankind is the various power centers represented by the delegates to the conference.

There is, however, another danger and it is the climate; not a warming one, but one that is at the tail end of the latest interglacial period between ice ages. The last ice age ended about 11,500 years ago, though some argue it was only 10,000 years.

The late Dr. Theodore Landscheidt, founder of the Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity in Waldmuenchen, Germany, was a giant in the field of climatology. This science looks at climate trends in terms of millions or thousands of years.

Before his passing in 2004, Dr. Landscheidt predicted a new Little Ice Age similar to what the northern hemisphere experienced from around 1300 to 1850. He based this on an analysis of the sun’s activity in the last two millennia and he believed it would arrive by 2030. Meteorologists are in general agreement that the current cooling cycle will continue for another two decades. Thereafter it gets really cold!

Meteorology is about the weather that is occurring now and predicting what that weather will be in the near future. As we know, even short range predictions of a few days are subject to variations. Modern meteorology depends on computer climate models, but none can factor in the role of clouds on the weather because they remain a mystery. Other unknown factors include countless active undersea volcanoes.

The Sun, however, can and is closely monitored and, since it is the primary source of warming and cooling cycles, predictions can be made. Dr. Landscheidt wrote, “The current 11-year sunspot cycle 23 with its considerably weaker activity seems to be a first indication of the new trend.”

Winter will grow colder and last longer. By 2030, people in the northern hemisphere will experience what occurred between 1300 and 1850. History is filled with examples from the devastation of Napoleon’s army when he invaded Russia to Valley Forge in America. In England, the Thames froze over.

My friend, Robert W. Felix, the author of “Not by Fire, but by Ice” and editor of the Internet site, http://www.iceagenow.com/, has been predicting not just a Little Ice Age, but a full-fledged Ice Age that occurred about a million or more years ago and did not end until about 10,000 years ago.

“We’re beginning to realize,” Felix wrote, “that earth is a violent and dangerous place to live. We’re beginning to realize that mass extinctions have been the rule, rather than the exception, for the 3.5 billion years that life has existed on this planet.”

Civilization as we know it is relatively new. Homo sapiens, humans, began their dominance around 10,000 years ago and the development of agriculture and other aspects of modern civilization are only about 5,000 years old. When you stack that up against vast epochs, it is a historical blip on the radar screen. Not that long ago in America, the only means of transportation were horses.

What is occurring in Copenhagen is an obscenity. The fact that the President of the United States and other world leaders would attend and endorse its lies calls out for a massive repudiation.

The “science” on which it is based has been revealed to have been deliberately falsified by the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia and we may yet confirm that even NASA’s and NOAA’s data was inaccurate as well.

As the White House and Congress try to impose a “Cap-and-Trade” bill, a huge tax on all energy use, on Americans, what scientists have been trying to explain for years is that no evidence exists that carbon dioxide (CO2) effects global temperature.

This puts the lie to the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement that it intends to regulate CO2 emissions in order to avoid a global warming that is not happening or that CO2 poses a health risk. We are witnessing gangsterism masquerading as regulation.

There isn’t even evidence that CO2 is a so-called “greenhouse gas” or that a greenhouse effect even exists. There is no evidence that the seas are rising at an alarming rate or that glaciers and polar caps are melting.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the sponsor of the Copenhagen conference, should be disbanded for being nothing more than a political instrument intended to coordinate a massive international fraud. All U.S. legislation based on “global warming” or “greenhouse gas emissions” should be repealed.

The worldwide mass media’s self-inflicted damage to its credibility requires a major effort to report the actual science and prepare the Earth’s population for some ugly consequences of the cooling that is occurring and is likely to accelerate in the decades immediately ahead.

It’s going to get colder and all the lies flowing from a morally debased United Nations will not change that.

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Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

“Broken Arrow” for US Troops in Afghanistan?

Obama Dithers. US Troops Die.
“Broken Arrow” for US Troops in Afghanistan?
A Commentary by J.D. Longstreet
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Pay close attention over the next few months for you are about to see how Democrats lose a war.

History will be made as the world’s only super power, led by a socialist President and a socialist controlled Congress, feed our soldiers into a meat-grinder in order to turn public opinion against the war. As soon as a sufficient percentage of Americans declare their distaste for the war in Afghanistan, Obama will declare the war cannot be won – thus -- creating an excuse to bring US troops home from Afghanistan in defeat and disgrace.

So far, Obama has rejected every single option placed before him by the military.

Think about this for a moment: Obama knows absolutely nothing about the military. He knows absolutely nothing about military tactics. If it were not for a dictionary Obama would not know what the word “counterinsurgency” means! And yet, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military the world has even seen. How much sense does THAT make to YOU?

I have advocated, for many years, that Americans desperately need to amend the US Constitution to provide a mandatory requirement that anyone presenting himself or herself as a candidate for President must be a military veteran. The American President is the Commander-in-Chief of all US Armed Forces. He/she ought to be a veteran. They ought to have served their country in the military they will be commanding. The Military, itself, would have far greater respect for a Commander-in-Chief who actually has military experience.

Looking at Afghanistan today it is fairly easy to see what is about to happen there, barring some unforeseen event. The “Vietnam Syndrome” has already set in among the troops in theatre. Look, Obama may fool some of the people, (actually he is fooling a LOT of the people) but he is NOT, I repeat, NOT fooling the Military!

“American Warriors”, know beyond any doubt, whatsoever, that when they find themselves in a tight spot -- a call for reinforcements will be answered immediately. Usually more reinforcements are sent than were requested.

The current Commander-in-Chief received a call for 40,000 troops to reinforce the brave American warriors in Afghanistan as far back as August of 2009. It is mid November. Those reinforcements have NOT BEEN SENT as of this writing! There is no excuse, none, sufficient to excuse this lack of action on the part of the Commander-in-Chief and his Administration. We are seeing frequent reports now of low moral among American troops in Afghanistan —and why not? They are being used as “cannon fodder” while the President appears to be searching for some political goal he can announce as an acceptable “Victory in Afghanistan.” My guess is – it will have nothing to do with actually defeating the Taliban.

In other words, dear reader, Obama is playing politics with the lives of our military men and women in Afghanistan. I know of no other way to state the obvious.

Look, every military veteran will tell you that when combat troops, on the ground call for reinforcements -- you send them. To not send those reinforcements risks a “Broken Arrow” incident in which US troops are over-run by enemy forces. When a “Broken Arrow” call goes out, from a US commander on the ground, all US combat aircraft go immediately to those coordinates and begin bombing the hell out of the enemy. All US artillery within range begins lobbing salvo after salvo of artillery shells onto the enemy, which, until moments ago, was set to overrun and wipe out the US forces on the ground.

Looking at Afghanistan today, we see a resurgence of the Taliban. They are re-supplied and reinvigorated by their backers, quite likely another Middle Eastern country at odds with the US, and, most likely, old, more traditional enemies of the US -- Iran and Russia. There is no doubt that US troops are fatigued and as we said above, there are reports they are demoralized. The military brass admits they expect more suicides among US soldiers in the coming year. Sound familiar? Veterans of the Vietnam Era have seen and heard all this before.

Liberal/socialists, such as Obama, do not understand the military. They do not under stand military power and they surely do not understand the application of that power. They tend to look at the military as a pawn to be used in an international game of political chess.

Most of the liberals I come in contact with detest the military. You can see it, most vividly in our liberal politicians in Washington. The military is prepared to get its hands dirty in the defense of freedom. Liberal politicians are not. They will remain in their sanitized congressional offices and refer to the political debates, they so love, as “fighting” -- as in: “ Senator “so-and-so” is “fighting” for you. You’ve heard it. You know exactly what I mean.

Afghanistan is now Obama’s War. He has claimed it -- or it has claimed him. For better, or worse, it is now Obama’s War. Blaming George Bush is no longer an option. Obama must accept the blame for the deaths of our military men and women in Afghanistan since he took office.

Commanding troops in a “shooting war” takes guts and skill. So far, the American people, more importantly our American warriors, have not seen an obvious display of either.

J. D. Longstreet

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Liberal+Obama+Afghanistan+War+American-Warriors+Moral+Obama’s-War

Muslim, but Presumed Innocent ... Alan Caruba

Muslim, but Presumed Innocent
By Alan Caruba

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The earliest indications are that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the alleged killer of thirteen soldiers who wounded 30 more at Fort Hood broke under the stress of his forthcoming deployment to Iraq in his capacity as a psychiatrist. Up to the shooting on November 5, he was reportedly doing everything he could to avoid being sent to the Middle East.

Native-born and deemed a good American who enlisted in the U.S. Army, Hasan is the son of Jordanian immigrants and a Muslim. Reportedly, he had encountered some difficulties as the result of that and there are reports, unsubstantiated at this point, that he had posted some thoughts on a personal website regarding his feelings about the role of the U.S. in the Middle East.

If the early news reports are any indication, most will avoid the fact that Major Hasan is a Muslim. Neither CBS Evening News, nor NBC Nightly News in their East Coast feed made any mention of it. As the story continues to develop, it will be instructive to see how the U.S. news media deals with this obvious fact.

On Fox and Friends, Friday morning, it was reported that he shouted “Allah Akbar,” God is great, as he fired at his trapped and helpless victims. There is, in addition, the factor of premeditation.

There are some four to five million Muslims of Arab descent in America, some native born, others who have immigrated. One presumes their patriotism, but there are also too many troubling incidents of these citizens and of converts to Islam to ignore.

Still, nothing—least of all a mass shooting—happens in a vacuum. That is why the November 10th execution of John Allen Muhammad is going to be another occasion for the nation’s media to avoid the fact that he, too, is Muslim. Muhammad, along with Lee Boyd Malvo, were the Beltway snipers who, for three weeks in October 2002, randomly killed ten people and critically wounded three others.

No one is suggesting that all Muslims are killers. What is not being addressed, however, is the way Islam and its holy book, the Koran, is a call to battle.

Starting in 1972, ten members of a local mosque in New York ambushed responding officers, killing one of them. Some fifty-five incidents, including 9/11, have Islam as a component. In the 1970s, adherents of the Nation of Islam, Oakland, California, were particularly active.

As Iran celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the hostage taking of American diplomats, one is reminded of a July 1980 killing in which a political dissident living in Bethesda, Maryland was assassinated in front of his home by an Iranian agent who was an American convert to Islam.

In the 1990s, events began to pick up. In January 1993, for example, a Pakistani with Mujahideen ties gunned down two CIA employees outside its headquarters. In 1997, a Palestinian left an anti-Semitic suicide note behind, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and shot seven people. Events continued apace in the present decade. In March 2000, a local imam gunned down a deputy sheriff in Atlanta and, in Los Angeles, in July 2002, a Muslim killed two people at the Israeli airline counter at the Los Angeles airport.

The 2001 attack on the Twin Towers was Muslim in conception and fulfillment, dependent on the wish for martyrdom by its perpetrators and over three thousand Americans lost their lives.

Honor killings became part of the news stream. In 2004, a Muslim father killed his wife and attacked his two daughters. In 2008, a Muslim father strangled his 25-year-old daughter and this year in Glendale, Arizona, on November 2nd a Muslim father ran over and killed his daughter, fearing she had become too westernized.

Earlier this year, in February, the founder of a Muslim television station beheaded his wife who was seeking a divorce. The manner of the killing is worth noting.

Terrorism experts continue to warn us that some Muslims here in America are engaged in plots to advance jihad. Curiously, the Department of Homeland Security just named two Muslims to top posts. If an American Muslim who rose to the rank of major could commit mass murder, one has to wonder about the wisdom of those choices, admitted to the inner sanctum of the agency charged with protecting the nation.

The signs were there with Major Hasan, but it is likely that the political correctness that infects common sense in America allowed his unhappiness to erupt in a brutal, senseless act.

No religion is exempt from a history of warfare or individual acts of violence, but today’s world is a reminder that of all the killings taking place in the Middle East these days, it is Muslims killing Muslims. Spread by warfare, Islam is the newest of the most populous religions of the world and is distinguished by its zeal to impose a global caliphate.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is not even a religion of civility. It is a battle plan that divides the world between the world of Islam, Dar al-Islam, and the world of war, Dar al- Harb. Guess which part of the world that puts most of us?

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

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Conservative+Muslim+Army+Terrorism+Islam+War+America

The National War Powers Consultation Act

The National War Powers Consultation Act
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Ever hear of something called “The National War Powers Commission”? Well, it was put together by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. It is billed as a private, non-partisan, panel led by former US Secretaries of State James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher. It is said the commission will examine how the Constitution allocates the powers of beginning, conducting, and ending war.

From our perspective (as a lowly American citizen) this is just another way of getting “creative” with the US Constitution because there are elements within our government that do not like the Constitution, especially in it’s original form, and are determined to change it. All the flowery language aside, they are screwing around with the balance of power in the US government.

There is an interesting article by William Matthews entitled “Congress Mulls War-Powers Overhaul” at the “Defense News” site. We recommend it to you. You will find it HERE.

So, what have they proposed that has my ire pulsing a bright red? A number of things, but first and foremost… they chose to ignore the clear, plain, language of the US Constitution. There is no ambiguity in the Constitution’s bestowing upon the Congress the power to declare war. Period. The President can ASK for a declaration of war… but he does not have the constitutional power to declare this country at war, period. Along comes the so-called National War Powers Consultation Act and, suddenly, the office of the President is dragged into the decision to declare war. That is clearly unconstitutional. The President is given only the power to command the armed forces in a war, which has been declared, FIRST, by the Congress. Nothing could be clearer.

I ask you, what is so hard about reading the constitution and understanding what it says in plain English? I do not understand it! Ever since the 2nd Amendment was ratified Americans have had the right to keep and bear arms, but… just a short time ago 4 out of the 9 Supreme Court Justices didn’t think Americans had that right… even though The Constitution plainly says that we do. Now comes this abomination, which totally ignores the constitution and decides that Congress doesn’t have the sole power to declare war but must share that power with the executive branch, the office of the Commander-in-Chief. It’s another attempt at an end run around the constitution and it ought to be shot down immediately.
We have had four wars since World War Two and the Congress could not drag up enough courage to declare war. I suppose we Americans are expecting too much of our Congress when we ask them to show a little courage and leadership.

Oh, and allow me to remind you that the Congress of the US approved the invasion of Iraq! It is a matter of record. And that is as close as they are ever likely to come, again, to declaring war on another country.

One must remember that even though the Founding Fathers had no telephones, telegraphs, e-mail, faxes, or text messaging, the first Congress of the US was much more in touch with the people of the United States than the current Congress. Understand, the original idea was that the Congress would maintain a link with their constituents, so they would always know the people’s feelings about the direction of the country. But recent congresses have seen fit to cut themselves off from their constituents. With no term limits on their time in office we have created a “ruling class”, for all intents and purposes, unanswerable to the American people. The power to declare war was bestowed upon the Congress because The Founders felt that link to the people would always be there -- more so than with the office of the President.

Declaring war is quite likely the most daunting decision a Congressperson or a Senator will make while in office. Since World War Two the Congress has been running from that responsibility. The War Powers Consultation Act would give the Congress one more fig leaf to hide behind, and it would do nothing to aid the country in time of crisis. It should be tossed out… the sooner the better!

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+US+Constitution+War+Congress++President+NWPCA

MOPing-Up Iran?

MOPing-up Iran?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Over three years ago we warned that the US might be nearing the brink of another shooting war in the Middle East. The expected antagonist will be Iran. Since then we have had a Presidential Election and a new President has taken over and, at least publicly, our new President says he wants to “talk” with Ahmadinejad, Iran’s leader. We felt now would be a good time to refresh our memories as to who the leader of Iran REALLY is

We came across this article on the “Daily Mail” site and since it so vividly details the somewhat less than ordinary belief(s) of Iran’s leader, Ahmadinejad, we recommend it you. You’ll find it HERE.



We are facing an enemy, in Ahmadinejad, every bit as dangerous as Hitler and the Nazi party. At some point the US will have to deal with this man and with his insane plan to take the world into chaos. When that day comes, chances are extremely good that the world will, once again turn to the United States to retrieve it’s chestnuts from the fire.

While the totally ineffective UN plays at placating Ahmadinejad, he grows stronger as he nears the realization of his dream of an Iranian Atom bomb.

If the US were blessed with forward thinking leaders, we would be building up our armed forces in preparation for this confrontation, which is just around the corner. But we cannot do so with the limp-wristed leaders we have in the Congress today.

The US “standing Army” should be doubled. Our Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corp need to be doubled in strength… and as quickly as possible. If that means reinstitution of the draft… then so be it. When war with Iran comes, it won’t be fought from 15,000 feet with smart bombs. It will be a slugfest in the air, on the sea, and on the land. It will not be contained in the Middle East. The continental US will be hit. We can count on it! Missiles launched from ships, lying off shore in international waters, can burst through our radar defenses and hit targets before we can react to stop them.

The US military is seriously weak at this point in our history. Shortsightedness, and a tendency to believe “we can all just get along,” has led the US into a “head in the sand” policy, which will come back to haunt us… and to hurt us.

The US needs a crash program, right now; to build up our military might to a state of readiness we reached in the midst of the Second World War. Although our leaders don’t want to admit it, we are facing the same intensity of danger as we did at the beginning of that war when our military was at one of its lowest ebbs.

When one looks at the threats to the security of the US today and compares it to the reaction of our leadership toward meeting that threat, if one has an ounce of sense, one must be seriously frightened. Our Congressional leadership is tooling along as if nothing in the world matters except passing socialized medicine legislation into law ASAP.

Well, I have news for Congress… and the White House. (It ought not be news to the Congress or the President, but it apparently is.) It will soon be time to go to war in a serious manner. “Pussyfooting” around, with Iran, as we have been doing with Iraq and Afghanistan will only end in the destruction of the US as a nation. We will only win a war with Iran by utterly destroying them. There will be no room for political correctness. There will be no call for “winning the hearts and minds” of the Iranians. We won’t have time! We’ll be fighting for our very existence!

In the meantime, I fully expect the current administration to continue along it’s fairy tale path, assured in it’s own ignorance, that we can talk our way, negotiate our way, out of war with Iran, until thousands of Americans lie dead, and irradiated, in the streets of our large east coast cities.

However, over at the Pentagon, they are preparing a 30,000-pound “Bunker Buster” Bomb designed to reach down into the depths of the Iranian soil and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. The new bunker buster is called the "Massive Ordnance Penetrator," or “MOP” – and it is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. It is designed to carry 5,300 pounds of explosives. The “MOP” is about 10 times more powerful than the weapon it is going to replace. Sources say the MOP will be ready by next summer. There is a good chance, however, that when the military admits they WILL HAVE a new weapon – they already have it. That actually means the US could use the bomb NOW, should the need arise. Many of us would argue that it is past time to bring the “MOP” online. In fact, I worry that we may learn that we should have already used the “MOP.” (Learn more about the “MOP” HERE. and HERE.)

We civilians have grown fat, and lazy, and extremely vulnerable while our military has grown lean... too lean, maybe. Unfortunately, I have come to believe that it will take a mushroom cloud over New York, Boston, or Washington, DC, to wake this nation up!

Suicide is a sorry way for a once great nation to go!

J. D. Longstreet

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US+Iran+Korea+War+MOP+Bomb+Bunker-Buster

Afghanistan: Obama's War! by: J. D. Longstreet

Afghanistan: Obama’s War!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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As much as I dislike doing this, I am going to offer President Obama some sound advice, which I fully expect him to totally ignore. That advice is: “Get the hell out of Afghanistan!”

Just recently I published a piece, on my own blog, by my friend, Alan Caruba, calling for the same thing. Getting US troops out of Afghanistan is just another thing Alan and I agree on.

Maybe it is a generational thing. Both Alan and myself were in the military and both of us experienced what the wrong war in the wrong place can do to a military and to a country and we don’t want to see our country go through that again.

Having said all of the above, I fully expect President Obama to maintain US troops in Afghanistan and stand-by as they are chewed-up by twos and threes until, we have a death toll of Americans rivaling that of the Vietnam debacle.

Here’s the thing. We cannot win in Afghanistan.

I am a realist. I look at the facts and choose my position on a subject based upon those facts. I do not interject optimism into my decision-making in so far as taking a position or forming an opinion. When one does that and applies that process to the war effort in Afghanistan one can come up with only one inescapable truth -- and that is, we cannot win in Afghanistan.

This is not defeatism. Understand that. Of COURSE, the American military could, fairly easily, wipe that country off the map in short order. But, what would we have gained? As far as I can see, nothing of value to the US would be gained. Occupation of the country would, it seems to me, be nothing short of another decades long shooting war with our military bases becoming “Fort Apaches” in enemy territory. None of this takes into consideration the cost in dollars to the American economy.

The question, then, for our current President and Commander - in - Chief, is: why continue to feed our young men into a sausage grinder, such as Afghanistan, knowing full well that at some point, down the road from now, the Commander- in- Chief, in 2013, or beyond, will be ordering their withdrawal from that hell-hole? Saving face for Mr. Obama, or any President, is certainly not enough reason to spill the precious blood of American soldiers.

Afghanistan is not really a country. Not REALLY. Frankly, I’m not sure WHAT it is, but a country - it ain’t. It is sort of a no-man’s land with a conglomeration of tribes and/or clans usually at each other’s throat over some sort of “slight.” Their major industry is dope. Yep! “DOPE.” They grow beautiful fields of opium poppies -- and they sell it on the world market -- both the legal market and the black market. Get between them and their dope money and you are asking for serious trouble.

Afghanistan’s next-door neighbor, Pakistan, is where the serious threat to America lies. Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Program was established as far back as1974. Earlier this year, some American officials expressed concern that Pakistan is enlarging its nuclear weapons facilities. They fear that Pakistan is moving to increase its stockpile of fissile material. That would allow them to develop more destructive atomic weapons. Some experts are concerned that Pakistan may be in the early stages of creating thermonuclear weapons. Thermonuclear weapons are far more destructive and could be more easily developed to fit inside warheads.

As much as I hate the thought, it is entirely possible, and highly probable, that we will awaken one morning, in the not too distant future, to the news that Pakistan has been overrun by some terrorist organization, and those terrorists are in possession of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. In fact, this is the ONLY reason, I can conceive of, for American troops to remain in Afghanistan. At least, America would have forward deployed troops -- just in case this very scenario became a reality.

If Obama is determined to keep America’s military engaged in Afghanistan, then he needs to huddle with the Pentagon and actually listen to the “fighting generals” and follow their advice. America has had more than enough of bureaucrats in Washington directing US troops in battle with an enemy. Mr. Obama should immediately drop any thought of “winning the hearts and minds” of the Afghans. It isn’t going to happen. Forget “nation building, too.

I am aware that I will earn the title of “Armchair General” by making this observation, but here goes, anyway. It seems to me that America has only two real choices in Afghanistan. Get out – or -- “fort-up” as near the Pakistan border as we can and with the use of electronic eavesdropping (otherwise known as “spying”) and “humint” or “human intelligence” gathering sources (That simply means spies on the ground in Pakistan) stay as well informed as is humanly possible so that threats to Pakistan’s’ nuclear weapons and their development program can be thwarted as quickly and efficiently as possible. Even that won’t be one hundred percent effective, but, at least, our efforts in Afghanistan will not be a total waste, as they certainly appear to be today.

Hard choices? You bet they are. But that is the reason the President gets the “big bucks,” the nice house, the nice cars, and even a primo aircraft to fly about the globe. And, we would go so far as to suggest that Mr. Obama kiss and make up with Israel, our only REAL friend in the Middle East. He may not like it, but, from the looks of the diplomatic struggles with Israel these days, there remains the very real chance we will need to use Israel’s military facilities in the event the war in that region becomes even hotter and even wider.

So now it is “Obama’s War.” It will make his administration -- or -- break his administration. If Mr. Obama has any doubts about that, at all, we suggest he pluck a few history books from the White House library and look up the Jimmy Carter Administration. Many of the problems America is trying to deal with today, in the Middle East, were inherited directly from the hapless Carter Administration. It will be a very long time, indeed, before the American electorate entrusts the lives of their young military assets to the likes of the Carter Administration ever again. Unfortunately for the America people, Mr. Obama exhibits a host of the Carter foibles and will cost the US, over time, an abundance of time, money, and American blood.

This is, admittedly, not an easy problem to deal with. But deal with it Obama must. We Americans and, indeed, the remainder of the world, both friend and foe alike, will have their eyes upon Obama observing, trying his metal, and looking for that single weakness Obama may display. They will be searching for a weakness they can exploit to bring even more death and destruction to America’s shores. We can only pray that Divine Providence will look mercifully upon America and extend his arm of protection around the US as He has so lovingly done in the past.

J. D. Longstreet

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" rel="tag">Conservative+Liberal+Progressive+Afghanistan+War+Obama+Pakistan

America's Enemies ... Alan Caruba

America's Enemies

By Alan Caruba

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Listening to President Obama one might think that America doesn’t have a single enemy that could not be turned into a friend if only he was given the opportunity to just talk to them. He is a great believer in diplomacy even though diplomacy has rarely stopped a war if one party was determined to wage it. War doesn’t need the consent of both.

Perhaps because I was born just prior to the outbreak of World War II and grew up aware of terrible things happening in both Europe and Asia, followed by having an older brother who served during the Korean War, plus my own service in the U.S. Army, my attitude about wars has been shaped by a lifetime in which I cannot recall a minute when America wasn’t at war, engaged in a war, or threatened by a war.

To this day I have considerable antipathy for “peaceniks” and war protesters even though, as the ill-fated Vietnam War dragged on, I joined a march or two. If ever there was a wrong war in the wrong place, Vietnam was it. For those unfamiliar with it, it was essentially a civil war into which the U.S. inserted itself due to a “domino theory” that, if Vietnam fell to communism, all the other Asian nations would as well. At the time, the Cold War was still raging since the end of WWII and Chairman Mao was still in charge of China.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t plotting against you, so it’s always a good idea to take a very general survey of those nations who wish us ill.

After a slow start, the U.S. is contemplating putting North Korea back on its list of terror-sponsoring nations. I suspect many Americans with no memory of the Korean War during the 1950s dismiss North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile capability. Not only will this thugocracy sell its WMDs to anyone, but the renewal of the Korean War is never more than 24 hours away. The U.S. is committed to intervene.

Iran, despite being on the other side of the globe, is working toward having its own nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. As far as the Middle East is concerned, that’s a war just waiting to happen.

Americans seem to have forgotten that Saddam Hussein fought a war with Iran for eight years, settled for a stalemate, and then invaded Kuwait. If ever there was a good reason to fight a war to rid the region of this troublemaker, I cannot think of one. Now the problem has shifted to Pakistan, under attack from an enemy of its own making, the Taliban. Since Pakistan has nukes, it cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of fanatical Islamofascists.

Right next door India keeps a wary eye on Pakistan. Bordering Pakistan to the north is Afghanistan, a nation of tribes that, though occupied over and over again, has resisted all invaders for centuries. Just because 9/11 was planned there doesn’t mean the U.S. needs to maintain a military presence there. The prospect of an effective central government is quite distant despite the money, military manpower, and other efforts the U.S. is making.

So the enemies we can identify include any and all Muslims who support the view that Islam must rule the entire world. There are more than a billion of them.

Russia is no friend to the United States, but Russia is no friend to Europe or China either. Almost entirely dependent on the export of oil and natural gas, its fate rises and falls with the cost of a barrel or cubic foot of both. The fall of the Soviet government and the loss of its satellite nations in Eastern Europe have not significantly brought about a change of attitude in the Kremlin although much of the population would be more than happy to embrace the free market capitalism of the United States.

China is no friend either even though it is highly dependent on its ability to manufacture and export its goods to the United States. Our current economic woes worry the Chinese who own billions in U.S. treasury bills along with the fact that Americans aren’t buying as much of their stuff lately. China has perhaps the largest espionage effort regarding the U.S. of any other nation in the world.

Americans have been slow to respond to yet another enemy, Mexico. The U.S. has been literally invaded by Mexicans though they came looking for jobs and a better life. The result, however, has been enormous financial burdens on all aspects of our society from schools to hospitals to welfare and to crime. There are an estimated 12 million illegal Mexicans and others from south of the border and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leaders, wants to push through another amnesty bill.

The last amnesties only resulted in a greater rush to enter the U.S. Only a handful in public office will address the fact that the Mexican government has openly encouraged this invasion because the money sent home is a significant part of its economy. It is a major trading partner, but it looks to become totally controlled by the narco lords.We have been slow to say or do anything about Venezuela, led by the dictator, Hugo Chavez. This likely has much to do with the oil that nation exports to the U.S. Chavez, however, is closely allied with Hezbollah which, in turn, is allied and controlled by Iran. Chavez has been buying up a lot of weapons of late and it has nothing to do with defense and everything to do with his bad intensions. Once a democracy, Venezuelans are now totally under the control of their government.

The U.S. just got around to arresting two former members of the State Department who had allegedly been spying for Cuba for thirty years. President Obama wants to lift restrictions on that dictatorship that have been in place for at least 50 years. Since the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s, Cuba has fallen on hard times, but it is still an enemy.

Africa is fairly dormant though Somalia has fallen to the Islamofascists. The U.S. has conspicuously done little to relieve the horrors in Darfur, inflicted by the Muslim Sudanese government. Overall, there is little likelihood that the U.S. will become embroiled in a war in Africa. It too is a significant source of oil.

If there is a common theme to our present threat levels, it is oil and, more precisely, the failure since the 1970s of the U.S. to access the abundant reserves of our own oil in the interior of the nation and from its offshore continental shelf. Since the Obama administration is hell bent on covering the U.S. with wind turbines and solar panels, we shall remain hostage to oil-producing nations.

The enemy that is only beginning to make himself known to Americans is President Barack Obama who has swiftly created an administration that ignores its many cabinet departments in favor of “czars” that have been ceded power over all elements of our nation. They rarely hold any press conferences, nor do they seem responsive to the inquiries of Congress. The only function of the cabinet secretaries appears to be to stand behind the President when he makes various announcements. No wonder he greeted Hugo Chavez with a big smile.

Taking control of automobile companies is unconstitutional. Giving bailouts to them is unconstitutional. Permitting the Federal Reserve to print money without regard to the inflationary impact this will have is reckless. Voting for a “stimulus” bill without reading or even debating it is reckless. Running up the national debt is reckless. Putting the value of the U.S. dollar in doubt is criminal negligence.

Trying to take over the nation’s health systems and to require all Americans to purchase health insurance flies in the face of free market capitalism and cedes control over the most intimate aspects of our lives to the government.

We now have a Homeland Security Department that identifies any American who disagrees with the Obama administration as an “extremist.” This includes people who oppose abortions, oppose illegal immigration, support the Second Amendment right to own and bear weapons, and veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorism is no longer part of its vocabulary, but “man-caused disasters” is.

If Americans don’t besiege and change Congress to reverse these assaults on the economy and the Constitution, this nation will fail and our liberties will be memories.

Alan Caruba

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Conservative+Obama+Congress+Enemies+Afghanistan+Iran+Russia