I guess you might just say MAJ Hassan has demonstrated he is a conscientious objector to the entire purpose of the US Military, and his own oath of office, but…he’s at best “not guilty,” and, in my estimation of “worst,” just crazy. Not his fault. Not accountable. Just, you know, not down with the program.

First off, before contrasting begins, he is doing the opposite of what the military demands, because it only can work this way: Accountability.

Now, if he objected to the system, there were ways to deal with getting released from his obligations to support and defend The Constitution of The United States, had he done just a small bit of research. He could have requested a CO admin separation. Seen it done, and the good news, if the guy never came back to shoot us, but, he had no quals about becoming a much higher paid contractor, maintaining the same weapons systems without a uniform on. Another long story.

Now, I dig back in history to May 5th, 1945 for the basic culmination of a story of another man, a US Citizen, who believed his alliengance was to his God first, and his country second. He is a man of nobility in character, humble and remained true to his convictions across his lifetime, to his death in March, 2006: Cpl Desmond T. Doss, US Army.

The true story of the life and character of CPL Doss is all not contained in the post. The core of why he did what he did, to be awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor on May 5th, 1945 is not in the linked post, but in the documentary of his life, in the movie about him. Desmond Doss was extensively interviewed, as were several of the men he served with, including, the very officer who tried to have his discharged from the Army under a Section 8 separation.

In the movie “The Conscientious Objector,” Desmond Doss himself explains how he witnessed a fight between his parents when he was young, and had to stop his father from using a gun. from that moment forward, he took to heart the 6th Commandment: “Thou Shall Not Murder.” When WWII came along and he enlisted, he clearly indicated he was a CO and would not even touch a weapon. He did not. He asked to be a medic. He was refused and put in a CO Battalion. He asked to transfer. They send him to a line company as an infantryman, and he refused to handle any weapons. Finally, after much verbal and even physical abuse, they let him become a medic Along the way, his company commander tried to get him kicked out of the Army, stating he was crazy. Desmond said he told the board deciding his fate that to accept that condition, he would have to deny the message of his God, and therefore, he would have to call God crazy. He refused. They kept him in.

On the Meada escarpment, also called “Hacksaw Ridge,” he repeatedly went out into the battle to recover, treat and then lower men down a 400 foot cliff using a rope. They first tired to put that he had saved 150 men that day and he refused, saying that would have been impossible, yet almost every man in his company had become a casualty that day and he was the medic on scene. He compromised and let them put 75 men in the CMOH citation.

That’s how people object to things that conflict between their God and their Government, not by wearing the uniform, taking the check, then shooting your fellow soldiers, to make a point about how your god feels.

So, there you have it. The records of CPL Doss and MAJ Hassan are now open for the inspection and determination of history.

One man was honorble, the other one, well…I’d have to say he’s going to have to call his god crazy, or his defense has no merit, save that of a just plain sick individual. Somehow, he acted normally enough to plan out this attack, to include preparing himself for the most likely outcome of death b distributing his belongings and cleaning out his apartment. He had a plan.

[Update: 11/18/2009: See similar and connected thoughts at the Watcher of Weasels blog, listing two sets of submissions from around the blogosphere.]

So, the President campaigns around the world to give away our national pride, at home to give up on our economy, and now he wants to treat war criminals like civilian law breakers and cast our fate to the wind.

The reason I say this: Discovery. Both sides of the legal representing have a right to see what the others have, so the trial can be “fair.”

Military tribunals are fit for those who have declared war on us. The leader of Al Qeada, Osama bin Laden did. The “detainees” in Guantanamo have attacked our nation and others, under the leadership and decentralized command of OBL. bin Laden did not tell us he was turning loose serial murders in the US and abroad in order to see if they could amass a better “body count” as criminal serial murderers. The “murders” that have resulted are collateral damage (when a non-combatant like those in the World Trade Centers and on the 4 flights) of warfare. There are several groups around the world, and even within the US which will gladly accuse the US Government and specifically the national leadership, or being “war criminals” for civilian deaths abroad, even when those officials didn’t even touch a trigger device of any sort. The military deaths the detainees have caused, some directly, are, in the very classic definition, casualties of “war.”

Now consider how the Nuremberg Trials put away the defense of “my leadership made me do it.” Each Nazi Official was tried, militarily, as war criminals based on the immoral acts they personally caused to be carried out.  We are at war with these people.  They are not simple criminals on the streets of America.

The President is now going to give away our national intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities, as now “discovery” is in play, and you can bet the rest of the world will be clamoring for official transcripts of the trial, and full sets of all evidence, so they can discern how we finally caught them after we first let them do their harm to the nation and our society. The men who have cost this nation close to over 7,000 lives (9/11 and the military casualties), not to mention the tens of thousands who were wounded, and on top of all of that, the massive amount of spending to demolish, then reconstruct ships, and structures they destroyed. And don’t forget to add to that the spending, both governmentally and personally, in excess of just flying from one place to another, pretty much anywhere in the world, and the cost of the delivery of goods by shipping. Yes, airport/airline and port security are major costs we have had to bear because a few men think the entire world deserves to return the the salad days of living in the desert with tents and slaves from all other parts of the world they could easily reach, or take by force of arms.

Just as the disclosures by the New York Times regarding the tracking of terrorists by their cell phone signals put out our eyes, followed by the disclosure that the US was tracking money moving to the terrorists in the international electronic banking network put us in the dark again, the discovery process will be a very similar exposure of how we actually keep ourselves protected from mass murdering individuals and groups and other nations.

I guess I just couldn’t expect a lawyer, with no experience with any connection with the military and national defense at any level to comprehend this is something more important, and not about giving these international murderers full Constitutional rights. And, that just dovetails with how we will consider illegal aliens in the future: worthy of all rights of any American citizen, just because the are physically here. I’m aghast that no one on his staff has managed to successfully point this out to the President.

The other fallout is military and intelligence officers who captured these illegal combatants did not do it like law enforcement does. There will be enough pieces of evidence that can’t be produced that the “defendants” (such a nice, unoffensive term, isn’t it?), that there will be no “beyond a shadow of a doubt” to convict them. They will be set free, and even if deported, they will see how they can repeat their actions and know the likelihood of every having to face the consequences will be essentially nil.

You can bet they have access to the most high powered American lawyers our oil money can buy via a Gulf country’s “defense fund.” It may be interesting to hear if any law firms approached will have the guts to say “no,” and even more telling to say they said “no” openly. I’ll bet we won’t hear any of that at all. Some may turn them away, but they won’t talk about it out of fear for the safety of their firms employees and partner’s lives. Bad enough the President can get protesters (who are generally against gun control everywhere) to right in front of the homes and offices of insurance and investment firm employees. the al Qaeda crowd is all about gun control for you and several AK-47s for them – and they know how to use them. Or IEDs in that recently filled pothole down your street….they’re all about the IEDs and EFPs.

To top it all off, know that the media, ours and worldwide, in particular, those who think America needs to be “taught a lesson,” will be happy to give an open microphone to those who have killed thousands and are willing to die if they have a chance to murder many more, or even a few.

We don’t allow our own mass murders this sort of unfettered access to the media, despite them having a Constitutional Right to free speech.

My prediction: The detainees, demoted to common criminals in our systems, will have extraordinary constitutional Rights, so as to make sure the World doesn’t call us hypocrites. It will be the World press’ perception of what the proper application of Constitutional Rights in America that will drive the discussion. Any American stepping forward to explain that’s an overly simplified, or incorrectly applied interpretation will be labeled as some sort of right Wing Extremist Christian, Zionist, bigot, racist, or Islamaphobe, or just a hard line American who just thinks they can have it their way without the rest of the world getting to have their say. Mark my words.

The World will get to see a circus, where those who even put their own fellow Muslims in the line of fire for their power gains, for a purely religious reasoning, will get to say all that they want and all that they say will be repeated as truth, to include descriptions of the horrors of captivity in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, at the hands of those who began the Crusades and who are today trying to wipe Islam from the face of the earth by genocide. All the prior reporting, and the truth of the detainees having just about ever one of their physical needs catered to, while they complained of getting fat from the professionally prepared meals for thier religious beliefs, will be called “propaganda” of the Bush Administration.

The other result, that will take time to notice, and be analyzed for what it was, will be the ability of terrorists and other nations, like Iran and Venezuela and Syria, to bypass and manipulate our intelligence gathering system, and to use our own Constitutional methods against us. One of the only options to prevent this will be to turn the US Military and the CIA into law enforcement mode, and every single person being held to standards of securing crime scenes in foreign lands, and having the forensic collection equipment and methods available worldwide in massive quantities. That won’t happen, so therefore, we will never see convictions of any consequence. we will get the equivalent of the kid on the corner with the nickel bag of grass to sell to his friend, but the people behind that street crime will be completely insulated from capture and prosecution.

For goodness sake, we couldn’t even convict OJ Simspon, because the fitting of a single glove injected “reasonable doubt” into the discussion, not to mention the entire cultural battle that ensued regarding the overall statistics saying a large percentage of the African American population had been charged and convicted, so, OJ needed to be let off as a symbolic gesture of the “correcting” of the system.  If the Federal Prosecutors can’t produce “CSI: Kabul” quality evidence (did you know most police departments do not have access to all the equipment and methods you see in the CSI series?), then there’s doubt, and we already know we’re hyper-sensitive to making sure no one is wrongly accused, unless, or course, it’s a person who said something about someone else’s gender confusion, then we need to make sure they pay for their thoughts right away.

We have just seen a case where over-sensitivity to Islam has led to another 14 deaths and 31 casualties, and yet there are cries not to “jump to conclusions.” That was but 14 deaths. How much more sensitive will we be over the first 2996 that will be mentioned?

The connection mentioned in the title of the post: When John Walker and his brother sold our communications codes to the Soviet Union in the 70s and 80s, we lost our ability to detect and track their submarines, specifically those carrying ballistic nuclear weapons. The Navy had sensor systems, based on the sea floor and aboard ships and subs, that were rendered ineffective as a result of the Soviets knowing exactly what we were detecting on their subs. The for a period of time, the Nation was at great risk, as we could not keep track of the weapons of mass destruction off our shores, and near our carrier and amphibious battle groups. The cost was billions of taxpayer dollars to upgrade major systems, and to develop new ones, just to keep the nation and our strategic assets safe.

In the case of John Walker, John Walker was charged, tied and convicted as a spy. Even the New York Times reported that this had been the most damaging spy ring in history, and one of their journalists, John J. O’Connor reported that, “It’s been estimated by some intelligence experts that Mr. Walker provided enough code-data information to alter significantly the balance of power between Russia and the United States”. John Walker remains in prison today on his 30 year sentence.

President Obama has positioned himself to repeat this act of John Walker, but with our top level anti-terrorist intelligence networks. The anti-Americans of the world, be they individuals, small cells, large and organized extra-national entities, or entire sovereign nations, who use terror methodologies as their means of warfare, will, if they are not already, consider this merciful act of an American that should be better than that, a priceless gift.

This will lead to more unreasonable pain and suffering, something US citizens cannot be subject to by our own Constitution, yet the terrorist, who expect us to be bound and limited by our Constitution, will exempt themselves from the same laws when “dealing” with the US population.

John Walker worked in the dark on night. President Obama is doing this in the light of day.

I know.  I used to live by government documents and learned how to make sure I fully complied with all that was in there.  You have to do it with one person.  If you don’t the “connectivity” of all the requirements will be missed, as to their impact from, or on other parts, which will be required during actual implementation.  Yes, I wrote a few myself, too.  Making it clear, within that type of culture and format was still a challenge.  Side effect:  trying to update/change?  Big effort, and the bigger the document, the longer it takes.  Been there, done that, too.

Back to the irregularly scheduled commentary:

Oh, and do you think Congress think they think they own the fruits of your labor?  Oh, yes they do.  Let’s wrap this in the sheep’s clothing of “Universal Health Care.”  Remember we were only talking a $1.6T Health Care cost?  Now it’s a wee bit bigger…and it’s your dollars at their work (to secure more votes, from people too ignorant, coming out of a failed educational system, who think everything is for free, if a politician promises it to them), now it’s more:  $2.4T!  Oh, yes, and in 5 years, the “you can keep your health care promise?  For 5 years….then they own you and your liver, heart, and probably what you are allowed to drink and not smoke and will put a GPS unit on you to make sure you go to the Guv’ment workout facility as scheduled, or you’ll be denied care, since you didn’t prevent your condition you’re now at the emergency room for…lovely.  Hey, good luck with a Guv’ment contracted health club being top of the line with well paid and well educated staff.  Do you see that anywhere else, besides the US Military, and then the pay isn’t that spectacular?

Side note:  What government program has even come in on or even under budget?  What has not, in every major program the federal Government has crafted, not blown way past the estimates when al lis said and done?  Yep, you’re right.  None of them.  So, how stupid are we to believe the same people who keep telling us how much something is going to cost keep being shown to be wrong, and we quote them as though they have it perfectly managed?

“Pre-existing conditions” covered?  Fools!  You thought they meant that?  Yeah…if you can wait 6 months.  If you’ve got the time, you can research how that’s working out in Britain and Canada, and other socialized medicine countries:  Either it’s and evil method to control big costs, or it’s a purely pragmatic recognition of the way the “evil insurance” companies were doing business, so as to not loose money and go out of business.  At the end of the day, it just “clears the docket” (lawyer speak for “someone just plead and we don’t have to set up for an expensive trial and backlog the overloaded already schedule”), but this time it means the funeral business is about to become the best investment you can make!  I should see if some investigative reporter can find out it the White House and Congressional office holders are already invested in such enterprises.  Call me cynical, but aren’t all these links making my very point?

Nope, there will be no “Death Panels!” Yeah!  Oh, wait.  What will occur is in the pragmatism that will be necessary to comply with the reduced funding is a medical professional typing in the desired protocols for treatment for your malady, the computer being tied directly to the central health care system in DC (or Chicago).  After some moments of the systems communicating, you will have get a “I’m very sorry.  The budget for that treatment was all used up in the first 18 days of the fiscal year.  Would you like to come back in Early October and see if we can apply again?”  What’s your response?  “No…what can we do to help me ‘handle” this?”  I’m sure those “blue pills” will be made available quickly.  No doors with “Death Panel Board Room” stenciled on them.  Instead, it will say “Doctor ________’s Office.” and the occupants will not be doing it out of choice, but out of the reality of the economic stresses of the system, and the control by a centralized office that decided what’s good for the society as a whole and the individual there is but a numbered citizen, noting more.  It shall not be done intentionally, and I susepct, some will leave the medical care profession, for they will not be able to bear up to that necessary discussion.  One the other hand, from the Government’s view, it will make them help “us” take “personal responsibility” for not being a burden on the system.

[Update 11/16/2009 - "Rationing Commission" will be a part of the "system." Yes, that directly relates to the paragraph above, which will, by necessity of lack of enough funds for everything for everyone, cut off certain procedures, medications and treatments. It's how the Government budget works.]

On a humorous note:  Diane Sawyer confronted Al Gore a few nights back about how methane is 20x more damaging to the atmosphere than CO2.  He still has settled on telling us CO2 needs to be offset.  Referring to my parenthetical comment above,  I guessing there hasn’t been a methane mitigating process developed, like we have with CO2 (plants absorb what we give off).  So, if someone can come up with a way to offset cow farts….actually any and all farts created on the planet, I’d say you stand to be a worth $20B off your investment in at least proving you can sell “fart credits.”

On a not so humorous note:  This will be a divisive, ugly mess, in just getting it signed, to what happens in medical offices all around the nation.  The “great Uniter” doesn’t care about our voices, only his agenda.  The pools tell us that clearly.  I bet no one is telling him what he needs to know.  Probably spells expulsion from the inner circles or power, with prejudice, and a dead fish in your bed.

It’s all about the access to almost unfettered “influence” that will line your pocket in other ways.  For Harry Reid, it’s land deals;  For Al Gore it’s telling us the world will burn if you don’t buy carbon credits (oh, and the company he invests in ends up with $3B from the taxpayer’s pockets – interesting), while he becomes a billionaire;  for Bill Clinton, it’s $150K per speech;  For The WON:  Book deals of $500K before he’s even sworn in, and $1.5M for a Nobel Peace Prize;  John Murtha makes sure his relatives and good friends get plenty of money (while calling our Marines cold blooded murderers) from other taxpayers, not in PA, to live at the level to which they have become accustomed.

While Social Security is being “downsized” due to the economic crisis, now Congress decides they need a 2.8% COLA for FY 2010.  I guess with higher prices for energy (you know, none of the rest of us have to pay), and “incidentals” (payoffs must be higher these days, with some lobbyists going out of business, I suspect)…

And don’t forget about making sure your “supporters” employ your family members…

What does this say to me?  Someone gets it:  Politicians make it on the fringe, and outside of the box, in the shadows, and in venues that the MSM won’t expose.  And they believe if you can make it, they can take it.  Your work is now for the good of the many, and anything you do over and above…well…sorry, someone else needs it, and even if you believe that, you don’t get to choose who that someone is that will get your surplus money of time and energy.

Now, in case you want to say:  “Hey!  That’s a pretty broad brush you’re painting with there! Not all politicians are like that!”  Really, are you serious?  If you’re right and I’m wrong, then how come these people aren’t run out of office at the request of their fellow politicians, or at the very least, the people who voted for them?  Nope, they actually go to bat for one another and make sure they all stay on the gravy train.  It’s a “Good Old Politicians” club.  So, my commentary is based on actual observation of the facts, not because I have some axe I feel like grinding to make myself feel better.

Representatives for us?  No, self appointed royalty.  They are turning out to mostly liars on top of that:  “I’ll go to DC and stand on my principles!”  Yeah right, until Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, or Barack Obama, and even other leadership, over a subsidized lunch in the Congressional Dining Room threatens to take away all the perks you all of a sudden see, that you had no idea of the luxury of hauling your family and friends and campaign supporters to exotic foreign destinations on a whim, and the barber shop, and the $93K in “petty cash” per year…just because you won’t vote their way, which is all about them making sure they stay put to rape the Federal treasury for their personal interests.

And then, they don’t even work a full week, and while “in the office,” they play solitaire.  Know anyone fired from a real company, that has to balance the books, for doing this?

I can think of a vulgar term for these people, who live large on our backs:  B@$t@Rd$ comes to mind, quite honestly….

My opinion:  We can’t even afford to keep our own incumbents any longer, unless we like seeing the outcome of giving it all to them.  Flush the old ones out, and begin again.  Difficult, but, like a bone marrow transplant:  Unless you go that far in “cleaning house,” you’ll die a lot sooner.

Somehow, this smacks of 1) building an enemies list (and they thought Nixon was bad for doing it…) 2) a violation of The Bill of Rights and 3) The journey towards fascism/communism (take your pick…they both hate dissent – “the highest form of patriotism!” so says Hillary Clinton at the top of her lungs).

But then, maybe there is the key:  We are in the Presidentially defined post-American Era, by his personal dictate, so “patriotism” is an archaic concept.  Rather than let it fade away, it is something to be quickly destroyed, lest it infect the youth.  So, viewed through that filter, it makes sense to have The President of the United States have his staff  put together a plan to put this emotion to rest, and quickly, but in seemingly benign ways at first.  The fact that it allows him the ability to take control of the decisions of the country, without regard for the “will of the people,” just becomes a bonus.

Speaking of the “will of the people,”  Karl von Clausewitz discussed that phenomena at length in his well read work “On War.” His study of war up through his own time of the Napoleonic Wars, showed that leadership that did not have “the will of the people” to wage a war, ended up the losers on a regular basis, across the millennia.

So, what’s my point?  The nature of today’s politics  are “conflict” and has become more and more polarizing in this time rather than just looking discussions among people who agree to disagree around the water cooler or at the bar having a beer.  It has many of the attributes of warfare.  Logistics, funding, intelligence gathering, out maneuvering the enemy, giving yourself credit for your proven capability, and the enemy the credit for the maximum capability when formulating your battle plans, and I could go on, but I think most would agree I’m making a good correlation of these concepts.

Now that I’ve gone there, “the will of the people” is a factor in the conflict.  Taking a quick jog down memory lane, I’d submit this:  The wars I’m going to reference were long and brutal, and littered with death and destruction, but they have a lesson for us:  Without “the will of the people,” you fail.

I have long thought the lack of military people that seems to align themselves with the left was a reason the Democrats didn’t seem to comprehend the issues of conflict.  As I began to type this, I fear I have missed the point.  They do understand conflict, but have chosen to not deal with it in the profession of arms, but in the minds of the people, backed up by the arms.  The left takes the path of Marx, Lenin and Mao, and more recently, Alinsky.  They do fight, just not on the battlefield environment I have so long studied.  So, it is no that they lack a method, as I convinced myself of until this day, but that they have the one around gathering the support of the people.  So did Lenin, and Mao, and Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh and Hitler, or at least they gave the allusion of that support, not to mention other such leaders in “modern times.”  I think the thing that speaks to the deficiency in the long run is those leaders convinced enough people to follow them, but in reality, were not interested in a democratic style of discourse along the way, maybe at first, to built the “marketing campaign,” but soon any one in opposition was…to be polite…disposed of.  Then, later, as a significant voice of the “run of the mill” citizen was raised, then the oppression came, in forms of watching and reporting neighbors, to disappearing from your home at night, never to be seen again, to entire areas having the population deported to Siberia, and new residents coming in, while the culture art, literature and other vestiges of the people who had lived that for centuries was destroyed.

Hitler had a fantastic military machine, that could manage tactically to trounce their opponents, but his overall strategy, which rested on economics, and logistics and “the will of the people,” was lacking.  The entire Communist world, that began manifesting itself in 1917 has largely been dismantled around the world (in less than a century), or, in the case of China and Vietnam, in order to keep from a massive uprising, has adopted the methods of the “capitalistic” societies that have made much more progress.

Analysis:  Right now, the Democrats and the very left end of the spectrum has great tactics.  They are able to organizes masses, show up and event, shut down a dialogue and claim it’s all their right.  Now, when people who disagree with a plan of the currant administration voice their opinion, the left claims it’s an organized mob, pushed by right wing extremists.  I think the ever necessary “will of the people” will quickly wear off, and President Obama and the Democratically controlled Congress will find out like the others who failed to truly comprehend the importance, and the actually concept of “the will of the people” and be left standing isolated, and rebuked.

In the meantime, it will not be a uniting time, as was promised.  We shall be more divided than we have been in just over a century and a very cursory study of history of that time will tell it was brutal.

Call to action:  Contact your representatives and let them know your will…you are “the people.”

I will presume, a person who has not studied history well, or has been taught only history from a perspective of “America the Evil,” does not fully appreciate there are many parties involved in the events that took place in Dresden during WWII, not merely US airmen dropping incendiary bombs.

I also presume, that he filters out that their own actions, regardless of who they are now, directly resulted in what came to their doorsteps. Between WWI and WWII, America was strongly isolationist. But, if you are looking for a scapegoat, it was one of President Obama’s heroes, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that deftly maneuvered us closer to entering the conflict using the Lend Lease Program for England and Russia, and a variety of interesting operations that put US Navy and US Coast Guard ships in harms way escorting convoys. The mood of the Nation, despite the many year long conflicts in both Europe and China, and the massive expansion of the Japanese control of the Pacific Islands, we sat to the sidelines and went about our “normal” lives.

Somehow, in this day and age, declaring you were a victim seems to be all the rage, and a defense against anti-social behavior, at a personal and national level. The President of the United States must believe those victims need our heart felt apology, and we need nothing from them.

Like what is happening all across our nation, the abrogation of personal responsibility is the accepted manner in which to live life. Walk away from a mortgage you never should have signed on for, for one torpical example. Let the Government coddle you and keep a roof over your head, and food on your table, and a “volunteer” job to go to daily.

Now, if one was to be fair and balanced, how might these questions be answered:

Who stand from the Saudi Arabian Kingdom and apologize to the African nations and the ancestors of the slaves of the 1600s, 1700, and 1800s?
Who from Japan will go to Nanking and apologize to the Chinese?
Who from Germany will go to Warsaw and apologize to the Poles?
Who from Japan will travel to Malaysia and Singapore and Myanmar and Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and apologize to the people of those countries?
Who from Germany will go to Volgograd and apologize to the Russians?
Who from Germany will go to Paris and apologize to the French?
Who from Germany will travel to Morocco and Egypt and Libya and apologize to the Allied Forces?
Who from Germany will go to London and apologize to the English for the Blitz?
Who from Japan will travel to Pearl Harbor and apologize to the US military?
Who from Germany will travel to Rome and apologize to the Italians?
Who from Germany will come to Normandy and apologize to the Americans, the French, the English, the Poles, and all the nations warriors who came to take back their lands?
Who will come from North Korea to Seoul and apologize to the South Koreans?
Who will come from Beijing to Seoul and apologize to the South Koreans?
Who will come from Moscow to Seoul and apologize to the South Koreans?
Who will come from Hanoi to Saigon and apologize to their countrymen?
Who will come from Hanoi to Cambodia and Laos and apologize for the aftermath of the US involvement in SE Asia?
Who will come from Hanoi to a VFW convention and apologize for the treatment of the POWS in their custody?
Who from Iraq will come to Kuwait City and apologize to the Kuwaitis?
Who will come to New York City and Arlington, VA and Shanksville, PA and apologize to the families of the 9/11/2001 victims?
Who from Pakistan will go to Mumbai and apologize to the Indians?
Who will come from Germany to Jerusalem and apologize to the Jewish people?
Who from Turkey will stand and apologize to the Armenians?
Who from Iraq and Iran will come and stand at Arlington National Cemetery and apologize to the families of those men and women in uniform who were killed as a result of their hate crimes? After all, they hated us because we were “Infidels” and I believe that would come under the Hate Crimes legislation in this country, if someone were to speak a religious epitaph during the commission of a murder.

I know the list is woefully short of all the apologizes necessary, in this day and time, for all the bad behavior, that has resulted in death and destruction, at the hands of tyrants.

Mr. President: I know we have done things in this Nation, that are worthy of contemplation for the immoral paths taken, but we are not the source of all evil in the world, nor in all of history. It was this society that threw off the mantle of a monarch that has given you this platform to speak and to be part of the legacy that has freed peoples and helped along the cause of greater worldwide prosperity since its inception. If this is unsettling to you, you are in the wrong job, and maybe there is another land that would welcome a leader who is disgusted by their own historical behavior, so much so, he will make a point to point it out at every opportunity., and even travel abroad at the people’s expense to trumpet that feeling in large and small venues.

If you, Mr. President, are using this opportunity to set a worldwide tone of reconciliation, then you need to place that standard in the open, and look other country’s leaders in the eye and say: “We (not “I”) have done our (not “my”) part, now I expect the same from you and your people.”

Somehow, I doubt this is your plan.

Somehow, I expect you to tell the world how mean we have been through out our 232+ year history, and why they should not respect us any longer, by your words and actions.

Mr. President: One president in our history went to Berlin, Germany to demand the end of tyranny. Millions are free as a result of that speech. I presume you go there to endorse tyrannical behavior, not call it out, and I will be listening to your words in your important speech in Dresden. President John F Kennedy did not shy from facing down tyranny, either, in Berlin, as did President Reagan.

And, when you’re done with that, I’m sure the D-Day visit shall hold for us more degrading rhetoric at the hands of you and your speech writers. I’m projecting this outcome, based on your G20 World Apology I Tour results.

First he took over the major banks with the leverage of TARP funds. Now, the ones who want to give it back could be without FDIC backing.

He directed his people to provide bonuses to those who are trying, in the publicly held financial firms, to get things back to normalcy, then decided it looked bad to his supporters and called upon the mob rule to harass those who were the benefactors of the law passed. They received death threats and had to hire security, and some committed suicide, others gave the money back, money rightfully owed to them by their employment contracts, and by Federal LAw, until it became “an inconvenient truth” in the open press.

Then he fired the CEO of a public corporation, on the grounds that they had been given taxpayer money. Then he took another corporation and handed over the a sizable portion of the control to the UAW.

The threat of severely restricting the right of the 2nd Amendment hangs in the air, as a country, unable to provide for its own domestic peace, would say it is the fault of the American gun owners who have caused the conflict across our borders, and he did not tell them they must accept the responsibility for their current struggle, for years of failed policies of the past, as he tells us that is where our current problems come from.

He’s now poised to force the entire medical care system of the nation into his vision of health care.

All the while, he is empowered with the money he is taking in from the tax base, which he is looking to make even more of a burden to those who produce the very things the entire economy, not just the Federal Government rely upon to stay in existence. The consummate politician: He cannot generate his own capital, he must take it to enable him to buy the allegiance of others, and to control their behavior.

Our money is being exploited for the gain of power by the Federal system. Power over things that are not enumerated in The Constitution of the United States.

Along the way, he is now directing the Governor of the largest state as to who will benefit from any decisions being made locally, even while the economy of that state is about to fail. His leverage? Do it or no bailout money for you and your citizens.

Wonderful. The President of the United States takes money from all over the country, launders it through thousands upon thousands of civil servants, then dictates to a state governor how the sate will conduct it’s business.

At what point will the governors of this land bring a case to the Supreme Court to tell the President his acts are Unconstitutional?

At what point will the American populace say “NO! Not with my tax dollars!”

Didn’t we have a war about this in the 1860s?

We won’t dictate to the rest of the world, who are murdering their own people and saying they will murder the people in Israel, but we will listen to them and heed their demands. He will tell Americans how they will pay tribute to him, because he won, and he will muzzle their speech, be it directly, or by threat of the power of the FCC, IRS, EPA, OSHA, CDC, etc….

This is beyond a not so funny thing. It’s becoming a nightmare. Barely over 100 days in office, and he is openly defying The Constitution and all we get is how Bush and Cheney and Palin should be waterboarded from comedians, while he sits there and laughs.

Where are the men and women in the highest offices who will step into the well of the houses of Congress and state, without reservation, what is happening and that they will oppose it?

The Republicans wonder why some people, when contacted say, no thanks to giving. Why should they be paid for doing nothing in the face of a socialist takeover of the nation?

There is a trend here: He told Joe the Plumber and few believed him. Those who did, and pointed it out in public, were shouted down. All above I have mentioned speaks clearly to exactly what he said he would do.

It may be the one promise everyone can count on him to keep…to all of our detriment,and to the rest of the world, as well.

Further, he denigrates the Nation on the stages of the World. He calls on his staf anf the press to call out private citizens for their criticism of him. It is sport to him. Honestly, it is a polite way of doing what many others, who sought total power have done – sidelining the “competition,” within and outside of the circle of the most powerful.

Better call those in Congress, who “represent” you (and I use the term loosely), before your pay is determined by the local union or the local ACORN Chapter, and it’s still not enough to keep a roof over your head and your family fed.

When the capability of this nation is handed over to the ineffectual Federal Government, against the specific language our forefathers crafted for just such a time as this, our consumer market will die off, and those other nations, on the opposite end of the “Balance of Trade” numbers shall have few to buy their goods, and they shall also whither. We are using many resources, and we are paying others around the world for them, which keeps the world in business.

How much will they love us when we can buy no more from them? Maybe we should ask ourselves how angry will they be, when their lives were beginning to get better, are now dropped back into poverty, the likes of which we do not see in our country, as the scourge of Communism and socialism were pushed back, in a great measure by the power of capitalism?

One day, if this trend continues, all we own shall become property of “The State,” and all we are given will be according to the needs as determined by the faceless bureaucrats, who will ration all in our lives, even our ability to make decisions.

A few pirates in a lifeboat can bring the the entire US response to a standstill, but not without using up lots of taxpayers dollars. Ships don’t run for free. P-3 Orions have a thing called “flight hours” with a dollar value attached to them.

History has been here before, only then, the pirates were actually agents of their governments, making a good life off of stealing the goods of others, and enslaving the crews of the vessels. Finally, while the other nations of the world kept paying for protection, we got tired of it and sent the frigates, the Senator Jefferson argued against building, to make the point that we wouldn’t tolerate such behavior. We got our way, but it seem President Obama is too tied up trying to nationalize health care to be able to protect our citizens outside our borders, even when the might of the US Navy is sitting right there, on scene, observing the scenario play out. On top of that, somehow Eric Holder believes he has some decision making role in the drama, not having any idea this is, in the clearest context, a job for the military forces to handle. The FBI does not patrol the sea lanes of communications, the US Navy does.

Now, as we diddle and send a capable warship (USS HALYBURTON) to the scene, the pirates are doing what the spineless, but cagey terrorists do: Bring in the human shields.

Here’s an idea, if you want to treat his as an LE op: How would the duty SWAT team handle this? They’d have snipers ready (granted covered boat, roll and pitch, and relative motion between two targets (not one) in addition to windage in the equation), as well as many as close to the threat as possible, ready to rush and engage.

Would they allow a breach in the cordon to allow the bad people to have their friends come over, with more weapons and ammo, and also more hostages? No ……..in’ way.

My point: This administration hasn’t a clue as to what they are doing. If it’s a military/international operation, we are about to go from a position of strength, to one of extreme weakness (we can’t manage collateral damage anymore, even a hang nail on a bad guy).

If this is supposed to be in the LE realm, then we have blown it, too, telling them (a report I read) they won’t negotiate, and either to hand the Master over, or die, and we haven’t the guts to follow up. The LE now becomes a joke to the pirates/criminals/thugs/hoodlum or the seas.

How will they get out of this? Well, when you’re gonna spend over a trillion, what’s $2M to save a life? Hey, the world will still love us (a delusion at best)!

No grasp of the law of unintended consequences, where our citizens will become like those in SA and Mexico that are being captured as a money making operation…and it’s been paying.

No grasp of history, that of some guy, I think his name was Jefferson (but he, being a white, European oppressor), why study his administration and a little tiff in the Mediterranean? Might have some clues as to mistakes and corrective measures…

Further consider WHEN the Administration authorizes payment and parachutes the money (will it have those cute little exploding money packs, so we can see who has the dye on them?), that our tax dollars will be directly funding terrorism.

Was it Lenin or Stalin that said something about the capitalist will see them the rope to hang themselves with? Maybe he didn’t realize the peoples to his south would be more successful that they would be…

Now watch what John Bolton has to say and note comments by the President and the Attorney General in the report.

The outcome of our “test results,” as a nation are going to establish the “Obama Doctrine.” I project that will be “We aren’t worthy and deserve anything you want to do to us, for we have been arrogant and have dictated to you. We’ll now let you take what you will as reparations.” That policy, much “equal rights” has no end on it. No one can say when the rest of the world has extracted thier due. It’s endless.

“They” told us we had to do this right away, to fix the economy, beginning in Sept 2008.

“They” got $750B to fix it.

“They” told us it wasn’t working fast enough, and told us they needed $787B more “RIGHT AWAY!”

“They” told us this and that special circumstance arose and took more.

“They” told us we could not afford to wait, that doom resided around the next corner, and was on it’s way to our door step.

It was a crisis, for sure, but now it is a crisis of a different type: It began as a financial one, and now it is a systemic one, encompassing politics, national security, the culture, jobs, cash flow, interest rates, and the ability to speak your mind freely.

It has made a system “of the people and by the people” into a hierarchy “of the politicians, by the politicians and pollsters, dismissive of the people.”

Barack Hussien Obama, the President of the United States lied, in how fast we needed to proceed, and how he and his administration would handle all of this, and not only is the US Economy dying, but with it major components of American society.

The political structure is no longer willing, capable citizens, who accept less pay than they could make, or see the effort worth the sacrifice to serve the people, for a time, but now people who have made an entire long term career of sitting in Washington and peddling their influence for personal gain, or that of a few close relatives and business partners on the “outside.” Pork is the main dish, and it comes from the hides of the very people who pay the rent, the salaries, the petty cash, and the other expenses for a class of people who have made a fine art of “relativity” in matters of the law, in which, the “house” almost always wins, and when it appears that it may not get the upcoming win, it begins to use the power of the Federal Govenrment to pave they way, at the expense of the citizens and their rights, for a successful outcome.

They have become an amplified version of the unions of this nation, and they come with the same attributes: Work part of the time allotted, collect a full paycheck, and the guys at the top skim off the inflated, guaranteed earnings, to live a life style of the rich and famous, and use what’s left over to buy legal protection of the money stream, or the manner in which they choose to operate. That’s what Congress has become, and, in league with the Presidency, the perks of high office are passed back and forth, too.

My own Congressman, in response to my voice about the GIVE Act, told me he voted for it, because America needed to regain the spirit of volunteerism. And he’s been a pretty right of center, vote against the stupidity of the left Republican. I’m not speechless, but left wondering, just when is it the place of the Federal Government to demand individuals around the nation volunteer? Top that off with a dose of common sense, if they have any: Just where in your life have you seen an efficient operation where people were told thay had to attend and they had to work? Can anyone show me a model of tremendous effectiveness and efficiency for a Community Service program, mandated by judges and probation officers? I doubt we could find more than a handful of people, all across the nation, directed with the power of the system into same, who excelled and really put their heart into the effort. I know there would be some, but not enough to call the entire system functional.

Now, after being told as a citizen, that all these billions, well, over a trillions dollars, flowing from my wallet, to the needy was needed, how the taxpayer was making “an investment!” and we would actually see a return on the investment (and I suspect, if someone had the stones, they could show, legally, the Federal Government has no authority to become a large investment firm, using any monies, let alone those of the citizens), I find out that the Federal Government won’t let the institutions return my money.

From what parallel universe am I living in, that I am unable to understand how the money not coming back into the US Treasury is going to help the Federal Government is going to help me, and all other taxpayers, see return on “the investment!”?

One of two things is occurring: The President is consciously and purposefully destroying the very engine of this nation, or he and his staff are so woefully ignorant, they don’t even comprehend what their investment advisers have been doing with their money all these years….loaning it, then getting back the principle and interest…thereby allowing that process to be called an investment.

In either case, it’s wrong.

Overlay, if you will, the decades of imposed Federal Government mandates, in violation of states rights: 55 MPH, No Child Left Behind, handgun waiting periods/registration, and numerous other dictates, using the money extracted from the earnings of the citizens of states, then used as a bludgeon by Congress on what states will do, or forgo billions of dollars of taxpayer money (taken from the states!). See the picture? We are funding our own loss of freedom, by letting Congress and the President take it, then only let us have it back on their terms. And don’t forget they will send it around to compliant states, if you push back or object against the mandates handed down.

Back to the actions, not the words, coupled with the above paragraph: If the act of taking tax money, and handing it out, to get a return, it still sounds like a bad idea to me, but, the intention may have been good, but, with good intentions, an open and honest discussion would have followed. Can I know the thoughts specifically of the President and his staff? No, by by my observation of the then and now, the rush to get the TARP and bailout funds through was to make sure no one would have time to address this very, logically derive circumstance and insert a remedy in the legislation. What does that mean? The logical thinkers know. The real mind-numbed robots will still think it’s about change…and when the disaster arrives on their very personal doorstep, they will still be inclined to say, no, he didn’t abuse his power, and no Congress didn’t either…we needed it.

However, don’t forget, the trump card in all of this is “Manufactured Rage,” to impose a reversal of specific law, duly written and passed in both legislative houses, then signed by the President of the United States. Using this tactic, even a law in the works, and with every one thinking it is a settled circumstance, becomes meaningless in a single news cycle, and the people call their congressional office and demand the laws be ignored so we can feel better…for a moment, until later, when we realize that mob rule is a bad idea….for us…but…not for others.

Ladies and gentlemen…we had an unprotected election – we didn’t use our knowledge, we just went for it, caught up in the emotions and the heat of the moment, even when warned it’s a really, really, really good idea to not go to the voting booth without taking knowledge along, you know, in case you have to use it. A difference here: In school, we mandate the teaching of how to have safe sex, and, in retrospect, at the expense of teaching about how to have safe elections based on history, civics and economics, and some ability to do math, too.

Update 4/6/2009: Ah! A kindred spirit!

A tragedy.

And someone “takes advantage of a crisis.” Could this be the Taliban taking the fight to our streets? Could be..it is certainly along the model of a few people (in this case, one) slip across your borders, then wreak havoc in the middle of a peaceful neighborhood.

If true, it is a brilliant strategy by the Taliban. They can kill us 10 or 12 at a time, in our streets, at the mall, in our offices, and our leadership can declare things like “we have that many murders a week in Chicago (or DC, or many other places)” to make us think it’s “acceptable losses.”

You can bet the MSM won’t begin a body count, screaming “Number 100/200/300 deaths… next!” or such nonsense…the “movement line” will be the offended, the oppressed and they are only doing it because we are doing it to them sort of story line. You know…payback for the arrogance of America..and guess what? Our President even said we were, so we’ll have to bow our head in shame and “take what’s coming to us” because we earned it.

Just watch…they can “drip” on us, just a little at a time, so it can be dismissed as nothing more than our own internal violence of our “Mean country” does anyhow, so what’s the big deal? Easy to pull off, few logistics, not very costly, and many mini-Mumbais in America, it will be our lot.

It really is genius in a very evil way. From a pure operational planning viewpoint, one person escapes a lot of scrutiny, because they are just one. One person requires far less of a communication trail to coordinate their efforts, making them even more “invisible” to an intelligence gathering system. One person, can keep a secret better than a group. One person doesn’t get carried away at the local Starbucks and, during the conversation with their cohorts, and let something slip verbally, to be overhead and reported/retained.

The one person, can operate, in groups of many, all without the knowledge of the others, doing the same thing at locations across a wide area. It keeps the actual battle plan compartmentalized. It avoids the risk of a Jack Bauer style “tell me who else is involved!” approach, even if it was fully authorized by whoever gets to make that decision based on the political wind direction any given day. The other attacks proceed, and most likely, without a pattern that is discernible.

From a financial standpoint, housing and feeding one person, and supplying them with a vehicle and a gun, and about 100 rounds of ammo (probably can’t get more than this off, before the end comes, in a best case scenario) is a lot less costly than a whole group of people. And, a one bedroom apartment is not hard on the check book. If you’re running on the cheap, then having 5 or 6 guys in a one bedroom place also draws unwanted attention. One man, problem solved.

The attacks don’t have to be time sensitive in execution. In fact, if they are not, then it makes it more difficult to roll up the operation, and, from a media standpoint, someone trying to make the connections between seemingly disassociated events will be looked upon as a conspiracy theorist…up until the whole thing happens and is exposed (bad, bad news), or…if a high profile (read politically connected/political) person becomes either the direct target, or collateral damage of such an attack, at which point, the resources necessary will be applied. Before that…it’ll be “hey…just another crazy person with a gun…move along, nothing to see here…” mindset.

Oh, and then…the anti-gunners will jump on this and tell us it’s a reason we should take arms from the Americans, so the criminals and the Taliban/AQ/Mexican Gangs can roam freely in a “gun free” society, so this won’t happen again. And trust Eric Holder to make sure the LE can’t arrive in time to protect citizens. because they’re too busy protecting “society.”

This is scary at many levels. I hope, at least for the sake of making sure this is prevented in the future, that the scenario I presented above isn’t discounted, until it’s proven it’s actually not the reality of this situation. The model, most unfortunately, fits the mold of many attacks n the middle east the last few years.

Further more, it makes it even more difficult for a Nation to react to the source of the attacks, without looking like they have gone over the edge in the judgment arena, worse so than when 19 men in airplanes attack.