Another Military Debacle by our Politicians?

The weekend newscasts and the wire services carried stories that US troops would be completely out of Iraq by spring of next year. It remains to be seen if they have it right, or wrong.

Semi-denials have come from Washington, but they seem to lack "gravitas"

As I read, and listened, to the stories, two things rushed to mind. One: the withdrawal is just in time for the election of 2008, and two: withdrawing the troops is wrong. It is a sell-out of those US service members who died in an attempt to make this a successful effort to liberate a people from tyranny.

The fact of the matter is this: If US forces pull out, I am convinced Iraq will be right back in the hands of a dictator with in months, if not weeks.

It is abundantly clear, at least to me, the Iraqis are not capable of governing themselves. I do not believe Democracy has a chance in Iraq. You see, democracy cannot be imposed on a people. Like freedom, you cannot give it to someone. One must fight for, and win, his freedom for it to have worth. The same holds true for democracy. It must be won by struggle. So far the only struggle, waged in Iraq for democracy, was by US forces and those forces of the Coalition.

Trying to govern the Iraqis is like trying to herd cats. It certainly appears that only a “strongman dictator” can keep them in line with brutal efficiency. The US should make sure that the next dictator of Iraq (and there will be one, make no mistake about that!) is our man.

Probably the most ruinous effect, as a result of the withdrawal from Iraq, is that the terrorists will see it as a victory and their stature will go up several notches in the eyes of their fellow Muslims. I think we made a huge mistake by not leveling Iraq, destroying it utterly, and then simply walking away. The US is not a nation builder. Never has been. Oh, but you say, we did it in Japan. Yes, but, Japan had a society based on honor. We had something to work with in Japan.

Legend tells us that when the Romans finally attacked and conquered Carthage, the killed every one they could, then they burned the city to the ground. Not satisfied, they then demolished the rubble. Still not satisfied, they took oxen and plowed the ground upon which the city of Carthage had recently sat and sowed the ground with salt so that nothing, not even a blade of grass, would grow there.

I liked the Romans. They knew how to end a successful campaign against an old enemy.

One other stubborn fact is… in less than a decade we will be back in the Middle East fighting another war against Muslims. Iran has to be brought to her knees, the same for Syria. So, if we are withdrawing our troops for more, and better, training to hone them, and sharpen them, and re-equip them for the coming invasion of Iran, then that sheds a whole new light on the coming withdrawal from Iraq.

If there was a mistake made in Iraq, it was trying the win the hearts and minds of our sworn enemy. The US should never be interested in winning hearts and minds of adversaries. The US should use overwhelming force to remove the aggravating impediment to the US will.

Sounds horrible to say that out loud doesn’t it? The fact is, it’s the way a country wins wars. If a country is not willing to go to the limit, and then some, when it decides to go to war, it is already set-up for defeat. When a country goes to war it should be with total commitment to wage total war.

No country on earth, no military force on earth, can withstand the might of the US military … when it is turned loose to do its job. But, when it never has the leash taken off, as in Viet Nam, and now in Iraq, we wind up with something less than victory and a demoralized military force. It will take decades, and another victorious war, to get our military back up to speed … if the US Government withdraws our forces from Iraq with the job nowhere near finished.

One thing, in closing, before the US involves itself in another war, I’d like to see an Official Secrets Act passed through the Congress and signed into law by the President. The Mainstream Media has turned out to be nearly as lethal for our military as the enemy to it’s front. The media should be denied any contact with members of the US military during a time of war. Zero contact. They should certainly not be allowed in the theatre of operations as they are now, and they should be forbidden from approaching the lowliest Private in Basic Training. Zero contact.

In the meantime, the people of the US need to do some soul searching and ask themselves if they are ready to be a second rate power. Because that is exactly where we are headed. It takes guts, intestinal fortitude, to be a super power. The people of the US are no longer demonstrating that fortitude.

Longstreet

I Will Not be Watching the Oscars Tonight!

I will not be watching the Oscars tonight.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, that will not come as a surprise.

I am a Conservative Republican. Why in the world would I subject myself to the garbage, which will surely be heaped upon my party tonight?

It has become painful to watch the actors and actresses tear down this country. The Oscars present a welcome opportunity for me … not to watch, or listen, to their un-American, un-Godly drivel.

You see, I am sick and tired of Hollywood’s elite “emoting” with their half-baked ideas on American politics. More often than not, their “pearls of wisdom” are counterfeit, and much less than wise, quite often exposing the unfathomable depths of their ignorance of the representative republic the forefathers planned for us.

To attend a paid performance of one of these Hollywood pundits and, right in the middle of the performance you paid for, have them rattle of their leftist views of the Republican Party is in the poorest of tastes. But whoever thought taste and class was present in the culture of Hollywood.

Have you noticed how their political diatribes bear remarkable likenesses to rehashed communist propaganda film dialogue from the 1950’s? Is that a coincidence? I wonder.

The thing is, you see, once I have heard one of these intellectual lightweights spout their hate of Conservatives it is never out of my mind when viewing, or listening, to them practice their art. An actor who spews hatred for the President, for instance, and then asks me to accept him as the character he is currently portraying on the big screen, or the TV screen, is asking me to do the impossible. I cannot do it.

I wonder, has this hurt them at the box office. Has this hurt them in their pocketbooks yet, for it surely will? The pain will be even more intense amongst those who put up the money for the production of those terribly expensive productions. The question then arises, how long will the moneymen, and money women, of Hollywood put up with the loose lips of the left wing activists of the acting community of Hollywood?

Many of us, myself included, will not watch a movie, even on TV, in which a left wing activist is starring. I cannot get past their “air headedness”. I mean these are people hired to play a part because they are good at “pretending” they are somebody else. How do we know when the acting, the pretending, stops and the real person, if there is one there, steps forward?

I am convinced that one of the reasons the Liberal left is so prominent in Hollywood is the tendency of liberals to base their politics on feelings, on emotions, not fact and reality. Actors, you see, make a living emoting, using their emotions and playing upon the ‘feelings’ of the public. It, then, is the most natural thing in the world for emoting actors to hook-up with a political party of emotions. One could hardly be surprised at that.

In the days of the Hollywood studios, actors who made their politics known, let alone publicly supported one political party, or the other, would quickly find himself, or herself, without a contract and out on the street. Why? Because it hurts business! Plain and simple.

So, next time Hollywood wants to realistically look at why their revenue from motion pictures is down, maybe they ought to take a look at the political causes their actor’s associate themselves with, and then compare the actor’s politics with the politics of the majority of Americans. They will be surprised. We won’t… but they will.

“Freedom of Speech”, they yell! Of course it is. They have the freedom to speak anything they want. But… I have the freedom not to listen, and, in the case of the actors, not to buy a ticket to one of their movies.

A lot of Americans are exercising that last “right” these days.

“Longstreet”

Mandatory Military Service for Americans?

This Post First Ran in the Fall of 2005!





I was reading the comments on another blogsite recently and noted that someone indorsed mandatory Military service for the US. Those refusing military service would lose their privilege to vote.

I have been thinking about that ever since.

First… there is no constitutional “right” to vote in the US. So there would be no violation of the constitution in depriving one of that privilege.

Now, back to the idea of mandatory military service for Americans. There is much to recommend it.

It is becoming painfully obvious that our youth no longer feel an obligation to repay their country for the all the privileges of living here and enjoying all the benefits Americans enjoy. Couple that with the fact that nobody wants the reinstitution of the draft (including the military) and the increasing frequency of terrorist wars and “brushfire” wars around the globe, and it becomes clear that America needs a larger standing Army than we have now.

There are only two workable options, as I see it, to solve that problem: a draft, or… mandatory military service. I have come to favor the latter.

Mandatory military service would create an investment in the country, as nothing else will do. When one puts one’s life on the line, for one’s country, one tends to take his, or her, citizenship much more seriously.

The responsibilities of citizenship in this country have suffered greatly since the flower children of the ‘60’s came to power both in our government and in our educational institutions. The love of country has been dampened by their constant promotion of multiculturalism, and inclusivity, and the like.

Like it or not there ARE those among us who do not seek what is best for America. There ARE those among us who would see America tipped from her sole “Superpower” status and relegated to a European style socialist government. Their indoctrination of our youth is nearly complete. We have a generation of young people who seek to take from this country and never feel obligated to give anything back. They have no vested interest in America. They actually believe America is no better than any other country on the globe.

Military duty is, quite likely, the best means to reverse that indoctrination and return those young people, after, say four years of military service, to American society as a contributing member.

So when it comes up in our national legislature, and eventually, it will, I will be a supporter of mandatory military service.

I am old enough to still believe that America is the last, best, hope for the people of this planet. We cannot allow America to perish as a result of suicide.

“Longstreet”

Did You Ever Wonder?

This Post First Ran in August of 2005!






Did You Ever Wonder...

Did you ever wonder why ALL the Republican Presidential candidates, and Presidents, are said to be so dumb and ignorant? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why the Democrat's Presidential candidates, and Presidents, are said to be so smart, so intelligent? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why so many more of those dumb, ignorant Republicans get elected? Huh?

Did you ever wonder when, if ever, the Left is finally going to become cognoscente of the fact that they come across, to the average American, as arrogant, know it alls, who talk down to the rest of us whom they see as the dirty, unwashed masses lucky, mind you, to have them offer themselves as a candidate to be President? Huh?

Did you ever wonder, after all the promises the Left has made, and not kept, to the Black minority in the US, Black Americans continues to vote for them... overwhelmingly? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why the Left has no solutions to ANTHING to offer?

Did you ever wonder why they are able to do nothing but disrupt, obfuscate, block, and hinder?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is not willing to defend this country? Why they do not feel the US is worth dying for?

Did you ever wonder if they ever see themselves through the eyes of the average American who thinks their antics, such as the demonstrations in Crawford, Texas are childish, silly and do nothing to aid the country and everything to aid the “Islamofacists” sworn to wipe America from the face of the earth?

Did you ever wonder why the Left thinks more of trees and animals than they do for God’s own children, the human race?

Did you ever wonder how the Left can manufacture lies such as accusing the Republicans of stealing the Presidential elections in 2000, and 2004, and then come to believe their own lies?

Did you ever wonder where the Old Democrat Party went?

Did you ever wonder how the socialists managed to take over an entire major political party in the US without a struggle?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is so cozy with that bunch of thieves, brigands, and reprobates, at the United Nations?

Did you ever wonder…?

“Longstreet”

How Income Taxes REALLY Work!

First, let me say that I did not write this, I did not compose this, and I don't know who did. I have received it at least twice, possibly three times, by e-mail. It has been attributed to two different college professors, and both of them deny authorship. So, it would seem that nobody knows who the author is, except the author!

Regardless of who wrote it, it is one of the best explanations of how taxes really work I have ever seen. So, take a few moments, relax, and enjoy. But, be mindful of the lesson contained within:

This is a good explanation of how income taxes really works!!

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich!" and it is just accepted to be fact.

But what does that really mean?

Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope the following will help. Please read it carefully.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." Dinner for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal.

So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

(Author Unknown)

Something to think about between now and the 15th of April!

Longstreet

America's Suicide

We have a country so torn about whether it wants to be free, or a "socialist slave" nation, a country which is so ignorant of it’s own rights and privileges as well as it’s responsibilities, under the US Constitution, and so utterly ignorant of the actual laws of the US that it behooves us from time to time to stop, take a deep breath and try to decide who we are, what we are and where we are headed.

We are a nation at war. Our enemies have sworn to wipe us out. That, in itself, is not new. It seems some nation, or group of nations, or fanatics, has been trying that since, well, 1776. So far, we are still here.

Having said that, I think we are as close to collapsing, as a free nation, as we have ever been… at any time in our history.

Our educational system has failed this country. It has failed the would be beneficiaries of it’s knowledge. We now have a couple of generations, in existence right now, who haven’t a clue who they are. Why? Because our educational system no longer teaches history. I don’t mean the politically correct garbage, disguised as history, in order to sell our students a bill of goods in an attempt to create support for a political system that will eventually replace the capitalist system upon which the nation was founded and upon which it has flourished. No, I mean real history, the raw, gritty, stuff that does not shrink from teaching us of our failures and our triumphs. The story that helps us to understand who we are and how we got here, the story that creates pride in oneself and pride in one’s nation.

Further, it teaches our students that the United States is a Representative Republic, not a Democracy, as they have been taught, or led, to believe. A history that teaches our students that there is, indeed, and AMERICAN CULTURE. A singular culture, created by our ancestors, and to which each generation contributes, good or bad, as the generations come onto, and pass from, the American scene.

I’m speaking of a history that teaches our youngsters how laws are made, how laws are used, and how laws are tested. It teaches them respect for the law. It teaches them that in America, very little is asked of it’s citizens, except that they obey the laws which were created by the representatives their parents sent to the government of the United States for the sole purpose of making those laws.

The history I’m speaking of teaches that America is a country of law. Our society is based upon a code of law, which, itself, was based upon, among other things, the Ten Commandments of the Bible, English Common Law, and other codes.

Proper history teaches there are rights, privileges, and responsibilities, all tied up into one bundle and each citizen is handed that bundle at birth. It further teaches that for every infraction of a law, there is a punishment. It is the way civilization governs itself. If you break the law, you will be punished.

But, this is precisely what our American youth has no knowledge of. They haven’t a clue who, and what, they are. They no longer have the pride for their country and the passion, or love, for her that is necessary for a country to survive and thrive. It just isn’t there.

All great nations commit suicide. America is no different. We are in the process even as I write. We have been since, at least, the decade of the 1960’s.

I’m afraid America has reached and passed her “high water mark”. The decent into mediocrity began in the 1960’s and has increased at a frightening pace ever since.

I believe the American educational system has done this. It has gone from the premier educational system, in the world, to the rough equivalent of an educational system of a third world country. If a country wishes to destroy its educational system, the quickest, and most efficient, way to do that is to allow the teachers to unionize. The most powerful unions in America today, bar none, are the teacher’s unions.

Then, there are the politicians who make use of these ignorant products of the American educational system and, boy, have they ever! We have a nation filled, to over flowing, with “Useful Idiots”! And there is no light at the end of that very long tunnel.

I suppose the gaudiest example of American ignorance resides in the American Left. (The old expression “birds of a feather”, etc.) Although, we have our share on the Right, as well, it seems most pronounced on the Left, I think, because of their propensity toward public displays of their ignorance. The glittering jewels of ignorance seem to, sort of, wash up on the shores of the Left and are immediately lauded, and praised, and placed in positions of prominence for the entire world to see. Examples: the anti-war movement, the global warming crowd, the pro choice crowd, the politically correct crowd, the ban the bomb crowd, the supporters of the UN crowd, the tolerance crowd, the multicultural crowd, and many groups which support strange and weird behavior. All these groups fall beneath the left’s huge umbrella. Every so often one of them will pop up on the Right, only to be shut down and expelled. On the right, we don’t suffer fools lightly. If we find we are cursed with such a group, or individual, we relegate them to the backbenches, immediately, out of public view. We do not advertise and promote our fools.

It disturbs me, beyond measure, to note how quickly our nation has gone from an individualistic, God- fearing, “Can DO” nation, to a nation of dependent hedonists, who find the word “can’t” to be the course of least resistance and cling to it in hopes of being saved from themselves by a government every bit as helpless as themselves.

I must tell you, I believe there is something to what the preachers, and prophets, of old, tried to tell us… that God would withdraw his favor from a nation, which chose to forsake Him. God must weep, regularly, when he views the mess we have made of this great, and glorious, land, to which, I am convinced, He led our Forefathers.

We find ourselves, as a country, today split into two camps. One camp wants to save the country, from itself, and restore it to it’s rightful position as that “shining city on a hill”. The other is bent on total destruction of what remains of that dream and what is left of the efforts the founders of this unique experiment. As a member of the former group, I must tell you I feel we are losing to the latter group. Any proof you might need is splashed across your morning newspaper and the screens of your TV sets.

Can we save America? Frankly, I don’t think we can. When I survey the generations, upon whose shoulders that task will lie, I really fear for the survival of America.

You see, when you rob a people of their identity, you have taken everything from them. You can lead them wherever you wish…right off the cliff, if you wish. They will unquestioningly follow. They don’t know any better.

I see two generations, behind mine, neither of which has any clue who they are. Their destruction is assured. In their destruction lies the destruction of the once great land... known as America.

Longstreet

The US has Current Sedition Law.

Anybody checked the US Sedition Laws lately???

There is so much avowed hatred for the Bush Administration and the GOP in general, coming from the Left, that we have been calling for the use of the US Sedition laws to quell this dangerous behavior. So far the Bush Administration has restrained themselves from using the Federal Laws, already on the books, to prosecute seditious behavior. But there must be a line drawn and there ought to be examples made of those who commit sedition so as to discourage those who might desire to mimic them in the future.

I could not believe there were no Sedition Laws in the US Federal Code! So, I went looking. Behold, I found them.

Now, here is the current Federal Law concerning modern day Sedition Conspiracy:

US Code

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 115 > § 2384

§ 2384. Seditious conspiracy

Release date: 2005-08-03

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

Now that you are up on Sedition Law in the US... you may wish to keep a close watch on activities in DC, in coming weeks, which would seem to lend themselves to prosecution under the law cited above.

As an American who loves his country and does not want to see her destroyed, or degraded, by those so self centered they care nothing for anyone but themselves, I urge the Federal Government to begin applying the law.

I can understand the reluctance to do so. Some very big names in America and some very powerful groups would certainly be implicated.

Isn’t it about time the Federal Government began to enforce the law?

Longstreet