“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

One Apology Too Many ... J. D. Longstreet

One Apology Too Many

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina should never have apologized the first time.

As a resident of North Carolina for nearly fifty years, and a native of South Carolina, I qualify as a “Carolina Boy.” I am as much at home in one Carolina as the other. Thus, you have my "bona fides."

If you paid attention in history class, you may have noticed that we “Sandlappers,” of South Carolina, are famous, or infamous, depending upon your viewpoint, for our hot tempers. It doesn’t take a great deal to set us off and then we tend to burn hot for rather a long time. The last time the men of South Carolina lost their collective tempers it took four years and a lot of blood, sweat, and gunpowder to quench it.

Nobody is completely sure of the source of all that passion. But never doubt it, we are a passionate people. We may speak a little slower than you folks in the cooler climes but we think and act just as fast. Our slow speech can be a little off-putting and disarming and we often use it to charm our way to a sought after goal. It has been said that if America had a natural warrior class it would be the southern male. South Carolina is justifiably proud of her son’s performance in all the wars America has seen fit to involve herself in whether within her borders or without.

When secession became imminent, back in 1861, South Carolina was the first state to vote for secession – and -- South Carolina was the only Confederate state to vote unanimously for secession. You see, in South Carolina, it is 100% -- or nothing. We don’t do anything half way.

I tell you this so you will not be surprised when Joe Wilson, the Congressman from South Carolina who called the President a liar, in public, does not apologize again. Many of us think his one and only apology was one too many.

I, for one, believe Congressman Wilson was correct. Why? Well, it seems that some of the folks over at the White House admitted, late last week, that ObamaCare would, in fact, need a verification system of some kind to keep illegal aliens from receiving free healthcare under ObamaCare. Now, here’s the problem. It seems that every time a verification system comes up in the discussions -- the democrats oppose it – effectively killing it. Last we heard, no verification system had been agreed upon. So, as it stands, illegal aliens WILL receive free healthcare under the current plans for ObamaCare! Of course, that is subject to change. Yeah. Right!

In an article titled: “Tea Party Crowd Stands Behind Republican Rep. Joe Wilson” CNSNEWS.COM reports the following: “The House bill -- in Title II, Subtitle C, Section 246 – states that there will be “no federal payment for undocumented aliens.” However, the legislation provides no mechanism for verifying the legal status of beneficiaries, making it difficult for insurers and medical personal to know who legally qualifies for federal subsidies under the plan.” You can read the entire article HERE.

Well, there IS another way to “fix” the problem and that is for Obama to kick his “amnesty for illegal aliens plan” through Congress and -- Walla! No illegals aliens, and -- they get free healthcare, too!

So – what is there for Congressman Wilson to apologize for -- the truth? Wilson told reporters: “"I've apologized one time. The apology was accepted by the president, by the vice president, who I know. I am not apologizing again."

Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.) is reported to have said: “Joe apologized for saying what he did in that setting, but he proved to be right,”

Of course, the Democrats are having their usual conniption fits. They vowed to propose a resolution of disapproval this week if Wilson did not publicly apologize to Congress. Earlier this week the US House formerly rebuked Congressman Wilson. If a “rebuke” by THIS Congress were not so ridiculous it would be funny! If anything, Congress ought to be apologizing to the American people! Many of us REBUKE THEM daily!

As we have learned over the decades one can always count on the Democrats to play the “race” card at every opportunity. This incident presented a terrific opportunity for them to do so. They trotted out former President Jimmy Carter who promptly tossed the race card into the mix by reportedly saying: “I think it's based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president." Carter, apparently upset at recent demonstrators who had compared Obama to Nazi leaders, is reported to have said: “Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care." Carter went on to say: "It's deeper than that."

Just so we are clear here, if Jimmy Carter was still in the White House and was proposing the same healthcare program as Obama, I, as a conservative southerner, would be opposing him every bit as much as I oppose Obama! Further, if his actions and proposals resembled those of the Nazis, as a part of the loyal opposition, I would be derelict in my duty if I DID NOT point that out to the American people!

It certainly appears the democrats are extremely delicate. They suffer from a malady known as “thin skin.” It is manifest by the easily observable fact that they can dish it out – but they can’t take it!

Mr. Carter referred to “a sincere debate” over Obamacare. Mr. Carter KNOWS the last thing Obama and the democrats want is a REAL debate. The fact is, and they are fully aware of it, they cannot win by debating their proposals on ObamaCare! A debate will only allow the American public to learn more about ObamaCare. We already know the more Americans learn of the power grabbing, socialist, program called ObamaCare the less they like it.

According to a Rasmussen Reports article -- "... one week after President Obama’s speech to Congress, opposition to his health care reform plan has reached a new high of 55%. The latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll shows that just 42% now support the plan, matching the low first reached in August.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of Democrats now support the plan while 80% of Republicans are opposed. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 67% are opposed." You can read the entire report HERE.

Many, many, questions about the constitutionality of ObamaCare are waiting for the Supreme Court to answer. When one compares ObamaCare to the Bill of Rights, one can readily see that a number of amendments are in jeopardy.

We southerners were expecting this kind of reaction if Obama was elected President. More than once, long before the election, I heard southerners lamenting the expectation that if they opposed a “President” Obama they would be derided as “racists.” You see, we KNEW it was coming. As a southerner, I do not hesitate to tell you that choosing between Wilson and Carter is not a difficult task. While Carter is an embarrassment to me as a southerner, I am proud to support fellow southerner Congressman Joe Wilson.

Now, I admitted that I am a Carolina Boy at the beginning of this piece and proudly so. As a result, I am sure that it comes as no surprise to you that I would defend Congressman Joe Wilson. At the same time, it should not surprise you that what troubles me about the entire incident is not Congressman Wilson’s conduct, but the less than honest conduct of the President of the United States.

J. D. Longstreet
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Racism+Nazi+Bill-of-Rights+Liberal+Socialists+Obama+Lies+Healthcare

The Fine Art of American Protest ... Alan Caruba

The Fine Art of American Protest
By Alan Caruba
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There have been many mass marches on Washington, D.C., so the locals know how to make plans to anticipate the congestion and the police are polite and skillful in the science of crowd control. They can afford to be polite because the crowds, no matter how large, are too.

Oh, sure, they shout a lot, but that’s what a protest march is all about. Back in April 1894 unemployed workers known as “Coxey’s Army” showed up to demand that Congress do something. It was the second year of an economic depression that would last another two years, but it was the worst that had hit the nation barely three decades since the end of the Civil War.

Americans know where to head when they are at odds with their government and most know or suspect that the source of their problems can be found in Washington, D.C. and they are always right.

Bloodshed has been extremely rare at such events. On June 17, 1932 a “Bonus Army”, some 20,000 World War One veterans and their families massed in the Capitol seeking advance payment of bonuses from the Hoover administration. The year is significant. It was four years passed the beginning of the Great Depression that began in 1929.

Orders were given to disburse them and to destroy the shanties they had built. An Army Colonel named Douglas McArthur led the troops. Several of the veterans were killed. Hoover’s reputation never survived that march.

Americans tend to march to protest economic issues and/or wars. Some social issues draw crowds such as the March 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which most people remember because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, “I have a dream.”

The 1960s were punctuated by many marches to protest the Vietnam War. The crowds massed in 1965, 1966, 1967, and1969. They kept coming back as in 1971. In April 1974 some ten thousand gathered to demand the impeachment of Richard Nixon. On August 10, 1974 Nixon resigned; the first and only President to do so, the final act of the Watergate scandal.

The 1980s had a smattering of smaller marches, but they were about things like lesbian and gay rights or global nuclear disarmament. It wasn’t until another war that a lot of Americans got on the buses to Washington, D.C. again. The Gulf War ginned up a crowd estimated at 75,000. The 1990s saw a handful of marches of not much consequence.

The war in Iraq stirred familiar passions and the first protest march was on September 24, 2005. By 2007 the pace picked up, but while the war was unpopular with many Americans, it did not generate the kind of anger that Vietnam did. Barely ten thousand showed up in July 2008 and, by Washington, D.C. standards, that was small.

What is significant about the Saturday, September 12, 2009 march was the totally grassroots nature of the event. It was billed as a “Tea Party”, a name taken from the rather spontaneous tea party events that occurred shortly after Congress went insane and started spending billions of taxpayer dollars on bailouts, the takeover of General Motors, ownership of an insurance company, and a huge so-called “Stimulus” bill.

With the economy heading south, Americans quickly and correctly concluded that the Democrat controlled Congress and the new President were taking the nation over the cliff with their spending, borrowing, and printing of dollars.

September 12, 2009, however, was a protest against President Barack Obama.

Second and third in line for public protest were Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Having achieved total political power, the President and Congress had generated a massive grassroots resistance barely seven months into his term.

On Saturday Americans from around the nation gathered in Washington, D.C. to demand that the U.S. Constitution be obeyed!

The U.S. press initially described the crowd as “tens of thousands.” It was so big that, by evening, even the Capitol police had not yet released an estimate of its size, but British press observers pegged it at two million!

America was born in protest and a new generation is carrying on the tradition. It is not an idle thing. They could have gone to a football or baseball game. Instead, they came to Washington, D.C.

Only fools would dare ignore them.

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

© Alan Caruba, September 2009

Conservative+Liberal+Socialist+America+Paradise-Lost+Mediocrity+Protest