Tag: Syria

Obama Struggles to Find a Strategy With Which to “Defeat and Debase” a “Junior Varsity”

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

AFBrancoThe-Sword-9122014In an interview conducted by New Yorker Editor David Remick, back in January of this year, the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, said the following about a Muslim Terrorist Group, which he would later refer to as ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), and everyone else (except for the UN and some of Obama’s Minions in the Main Streat Media) would call ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham):

The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.

As the Terrorist Organization grew in power and aggression, invading Iraq, Obama was pressed to recognize the threat, and proceeded to drop bombs on the Muslim Barbarians and spy on their activities using unmanned drones,resulting in retaliation, involving the beheading of two American Journalists, while they captured a strategic dam on the Euphrates River, threatening to blow it up and flood the region around Baghdad, killing tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

Unfortunately, on August 29th, our skittish Commander-in-Chief reluctantly admitted that he did not have a clue as to what he was doing.

Fox News.com reported at the time, that,

President Obama is facing intense criticism for admitting Thursday “we don’t have a strategy yet” for dealing with Islamic State militants in Syria, despite warnings from top military advisers and others that the group must be confronted on that side of the border. 

The president made the comment during a briefing with reporters in which he overtly played down the prospect of any imminent military action in Syria. He tried to temper speculation that he was about to roll out a “full scale” strategy, one that might expand the current, limited airstrike campaign in northern Iraq. 

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet,” Obama said. 

As the White House later clarified, he was talking specifically about a military strategy for Syria. But Republican critics pointed out that the ISIS presence in Syria has been festering for a long time, and is only growing in strength. 

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the toughest critics in Congress of the administration’s Middle East policies, tweeted the president’s quote with a reminder: “#ISIS is largest, richest terrorist group in history & 192,000 dead in #Syria.” 

Karl Rove, Fox News analyst and former George W. Bush administration adviser, said he was “appalled” by the president’s comment. 

“He was warned about the role that ISIS was playing inside Syria, and he has had all that time to develop a strategy about what to do about ISIS in Syria and he still doesn’t,” Rove told Fox News. 

Finally, with public outcry and concern turned up to “11”, like Spinal Tap’s Guitar Amp (look them up, children), and his popularity at 38% and dropping, Obama suddenly came up with a strategy, which he would present to a worried nation last Tuesday evening.

Here are some excerpts from whitehouse.gov…

…In a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality.  They execute captured prisoners.  They kill children.  They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage.  They threatened a religious minority with genocide.  And in acts of barbarism, they took the lives of two American journalists — Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.

So ISIL poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East — including American citizens, personnel and facilities.  If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States.  While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies.  Our Intelligence Community believes that thousands of foreigners -– including Europeans and some Americans –- have joined them in Syria and Iraq.  Trained and battle-hardened, these fighters could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.

…Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.

The, he got vaguely specific:

1. A systematic campaign of airstrikes against ISIL

Working with the Iraqi government, we will expand our efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so that we’re hitting ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense.  Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are.  That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq.  This is a core principle of my presidency:  If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven. 

2. Increased support to forces fighting ISIL on the ground

In June, I deployed several hundred American servicemembers to Iraq to assess how we can best support Iraqi security forces.  Now that those teams have completed their work –- and Iraq has formed a government –- we will send an additional 475 servicemembers to Iraq.  As I have said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission –- we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.  But they are needed to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence and equipment.  We’ll also support Iraq’s efforts to stand up National Guard Units to help Sunni communities secure their own freedom from ISIL’s control.

Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition.  Tonight, I call on Congress again to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters.  In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its own people — a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost.  Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria’s crisis once and for all. 

3. Drawing on our substantial counterterrorism capabilities to prevent ISIL attacks

Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts to cut off its funding; improve our intelligence; strengthen our defenses; counter its warped ideology; and stem the flow of foreign fighters into and out of the Middle East.  And in two weeks, I will chair a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to further mobilize the international community around this effort.

4. Providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians displaced by ISIL

This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who are at grave risk, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities.  We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands. 

“This is our strategy,” the President said, adding that the United States has a “broad coalition of partners” joining us in this effort…

When ISIS started their invasions of Iraq, Liberals, in defense of Obama, blamed “Booosh!”, as he had originally set a timeline for our country’s military withdrawal from Iraq, which, for the sake of his own political advantage, Obama followed.

What all the apologists neglected to pay attention to, was the fact that President George W. Bush also warned what would happened if the next president suffered from “premature evacuation”.

Foxnews.com has the story…

A prophetic warning from then-President George W. Bush before he left office about what would happen if the U.S. withdrew troops from Iraq too soon is getting new attention in light of the Islamic State’s gains, as each of his predictions appears to be coming true.

Bush, as discussed on “The Kelly File,” made the remarks in the White House briefing room on July 12, 2007, as he argued against those who sought an immediate troop withdrawal.  

“To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States,” Bush cautioned.

He then ticked off a string of predictions about what would happen if the U.S. left too early.

“It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda.

“It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale.

“It would mean we allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.  

“It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.”

Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen says all these predictions have come true.

“Every single thing that President Bush said there in that statement is happening today,” he told Fox News.

To Bush’s first warning, the Islamic State terror group is effectively the successor to Al Qaeda in Iraq – and they’ve overrun several major cities in Iraq’s north while claiming broad swaths of territory in Syria. Further, the group has been behind mass killings of Iraqi civilians as well as the recent execution by beheading of two American journalists.

The Obama administration has warned that the group’s violence threatens to approach genocide levels.

Though President Obama says combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq, American troops are nevertheless returning in some capacity. The president on Wednesday announced an expanded airstrike campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria, and is sending hundreds more U.S. military personnel into Iraq.

Some lawmakers and analysts say this could have been avoided if the Obama administration had left a residual force in Iraq, or at least had responded sooner to ISIS’ gains in northern Iraq over the past year.

Bush, before he left office, signed an agreement setting the stage for U.S. troops to withdraw by December 2011.

Obama, though, was urged by military advisers to keep thousands of service members after that deadline to help the shaky Iraqi government. But when Washington and Baghdad were unable to reach a renewed agreement governing the presence of U.S. forces in the country, the Obama administration withdrew virtually all troops at the end of 2011.

“We needed to leave a stabilizing force behind, and we didn’t.  And of course, we know the rest is history,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Fox News.

It is “funny” how Liberals’ pomposity always comes back to bite them in the hindquarters, isn’t it?

But, I digress…

According to reports issues yesterday, ISIS Forces are increasing daily, now numbering over 31,000 Radical Muslims.

It is time for bold, decisive moves. Pussy-footing around with a “limited engagement”, which the administration is refusing to call a “war”, will lead us straight into another Vietnam.

And that, is something that this nation does not need to go through again.

Until He comes,

KJ

Last Night, Obama “Talked the Talk”. Today, He Must “Walk the Walk”. Never Forget 9/11/01.

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

911firefightersThe President of the United States of America appeared before the citizens he is supposed to be protecting, promising action against the Muslim Terrorist Organization, known as ISIS.

The New York Times reports that

The president took pains to distinguish between the military action he was putting in motion and the two wars begun by his predecessor, President George W. Bush. He likened this campaign to the highly targeted airstrikes that the United States has carried out for several years against terrorism suspects in Yemen and Somalia, few of which have been made public.

After enduring harsh criticism for saying in a news conference two weeks ago that he did not have a strategy for dealing with ISIS in Syria, Mr. Obama sketched out a plan that will involve heightened American training and arming of moderate Syrian rebels to fight the militants. Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide bases for the training of those forces.

The White House has asked Congress to authorize the plan to train and equip rebels — something the Central Intelligence Agency has been doing covertly and on a much smaller scale — but Mr. Obama said he had the authority necessary to expand the broader campaign.

“These American forces will not have a combat mission — we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq,” Mr. Obama pledged, adding that the broader mission he was outlining for American military forces “will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; it will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”

For all of Mr. Obama’s efforts to reassure the public, his remarks were a stark admission of the threat posed by the militants, whose lightning rampage through Iraq and Syria and videotaped beheading of two American journalists have reignited fears of radical terrorism.

The president’s remarks, on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will thrust the United States into a civil war in Syria that he had long sought to avoid, and will return the country to a significant military presence in Iraq, from which Mr. Obama withdrew the last American combat soldiers at the end of 2011.

It is ironic that Obama chose to make a speech in which he finally, forced by a growing public backlash, addressed the reality of the Muslim Terrorist Group, ISIS. For today, our nation remembers the 13th anniversary of the worst Terrorist attack ever perpetrated on American Soil. Over 3,000 Americans lost their lives that day, including the heroic First Responders of New York City, who ran into Hell, while others were running away from it.

Here is the tragic toll  of 9/11/01, broken down by the numbers.  Courtesy of nymag.com:

The initial numbers are indelible: 8:46 a.m. and 9:02 a.m. Time the burning towers stood: 56 minutes and 102 minutes. Time they took to fall: 12 seconds. From there, they ripple out.

  • Total number killed in attacks (official figure as of 9/5/02): 2,819
  • Number of firefighters and paramedics killed: 343
  • Number of NYPD officers: 23
  • Number of Port Authority police officers: 37
  • Number of WTC companies that lost people: 60
  • Number of employees who died in Tower One: 1,402
  • Number of employees who died in Tower Two: 614
  • Number of employees lost at Cantor Fitzgerald: 658
  • Number of U.S. troops killed in Operation Enduring Freedom: 22
  • Number of nations whose citizens were killed in attacks: 115
  • Ratio of men to women who died: 3:1
  • Age of the greatest number who died: between 35 and 39
  • Bodies found “intact”: 289
  • Body parts found: 19,858
  • Number of families who got no remains: 1,717
  • Estimated units of blood donated to the New York Blood Center: 36,000
  • Total units of donated blood actually used: 258
  • Number of people who lost a spouse or partner in the attacks: 1,609
  • Estimated number of children who lost a parent: 3,051
  • Percentage of Americans who knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks: 20
  • FDNY retirements, January–July 2001: 274
  • FDNY retirements, January–July 2002: 661
  • Number of firefighters on leave for respiratory problems by January 2002: 300
  • Number of funerals attended by Rudy Giuliani in 2001: 200
  • Number of FDNY vehicles destroyed: 98
  • Tons of debris removed from site: 1,506,124
  • Days fires continued to burn after the attack: 99
  • Jobs lost in New York owing to the attacks: 146,100
  • Days the New York Stock Exchange was closed: 6
  • Point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average when the NYSE reopened: 684.81
  • Days after 9/11 that the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan: 26
  • Total number of hate crimes reported to the Council on American-Islamic Relations nationwide since 9/11: 1,714
  • Economic loss to New York in month following the attacks: $105 billion
  • Estimated cost of cleanup: $600 million
  • Total FEMA money spent on the emergency: $970 million
  • Estimated amount donated to 9/11 charities: $1.4 billion
  • Estimated amount of insurance paid worldwide related to 9/11: $40.2 billion
  • Estimated amount of money needed to overhaul lower-Manhattan subways: $7.5 billion
  • Amount of money recently granted by U.S. government to overhaul lower-Manhattan subways: $4.55 billion
  • Estimated amount of money raised for funds dedicated to NYPD and FDNY families: $500 million
  • Percentage of total charity money raised going to FDNY and NYPD families: 25
  • Average benefit already received by each FDNY and NYPD widow: $1 million
  • Percentage increase in law-school applications from 2001 to 2002: 17.9
  • Percentage increase in Peace Corps applications from 2001 to 2002: 40
  • Percentage increase in CIA applications from 2001 to 2002: 50
  • Number of songs Clear Channel Radio considered “inappropriate” to play after 9/11: 150
  • Number of mentions of 9/11 at the Oscars: 26
  • Apartments in lower Manhattan eligible for asbestos cleanup: 30,000
  • Number of apartments whose residents have requested cleanup and testing: 4,110
  • Number of Americans who changed their 2001 holiday-travel plans from plane to train or car: 1.4 million
  • Estimated number of New Yorkers suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder as a result of 9/11: 422,000

9/11/2001 was indelibly seared into the memories of Americans on that fateful day, regardless of the present-day wishes of a minority percentage of our population.

It was a another day, “which shall live in Infamy”.

It must not happen again…ever.

I hope and pray that Obama was not just blowing smoke last night, as he is wont to do. If decisive action is not taken against ISIS over there in the Middle East, they will be knocking on our door, very soon.

Last night, President Barack Hussein Obama talked the talk.

Today, he must walk the walk.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Former Sec. of State Clinton has “Memory Lapse”… Throws Obama Under the Bus For His “Failed Foreign Policy”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

Hillary Ramirez CartoonYesterday, I wrote about the relative morality and situational ethics of the American Political Scene.

Now, as if on cue, the Poster Girl for sleaze in American Politics, Hillary Rodham Clinton, yesterday threw her former boss, President Barack Hussein Obama,  “under the bus”.

Theatlantic.com reports that

President Obama has long ridiculed the idea that the U.S., early in the Syrian civil war, could have shaped the forces fighting the Assad regime, thereby stopping al Qaeda-inspired groups—like the one rampaging across Syria and Iraq today—from seizing control of the rebellion. In an interview in February, the president told me that “when you have a professional army … fighting against a farmer, a carpenter, an engineer who started out as protesters and suddenly now see themselves in the midst of a civil conflict—the notion that we could have, in a clean way that didn’t commit U.S. military forces, changed the equation on the ground there was never true.”

Well, his former secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, isn’t buying it. In an interview with me earlier this week, she used her sharpest language yet to describe the “failure” that resulted from the decision to keep the U.S. on the sidelines during the first phase of the Syrian uprising.

“The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” Clinton said.

As she writes in her memoir of her State Department years, Hard Choices, she was an inside-the-administration advocate of doing more to help the Syrian rebellion. Now, her supporters argue, her position has been vindicated by recent events.

Professional Clinton-watchers (and there are battalions of them) have told me that it is only a matter of time before she makes a more forceful attempt to highlight her differences with the (unpopular) president she ran against, and then went on to serve. On a number of occasions during my interview with her, I got the sense that this effort is already underway. (And for what it’s worth, I also think she may have told me that she’s running for president—see below for her not-entirely-ambiguous nod in that direction.)

Of course, Clinton had many kind words for the “incredibly intelligent” and “thoughtful” Obama, and she expressed sympathy and understanding for the devilishly complicated challenges he faces. But she also suggested that she finds his approach to foreign policy overly cautious, and she made the case that America needs a leader who believes that the country, despite its various missteps, is an indispensable force for good. At one point, I mentioned the slogan President Obama recently coined to describe his foreign-policy doctrine: “Don’t do stupid shit” (an expression often rendered as “Don’t do stupid stuff” in less-than-private encounters).

This is what Clinton said about Obama’s slogan: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”

She softened the blow by noting that Obama was “trying to communicate to the American people that he’s not going to do something crazy,” but she repeatedly suggested that the U.S. sometimes appears to be withdrawing from the world stage.

During a discussion about the dangers of jihadism (a topic that has her “hepped-up,” she told me moments after she greeted me at her office in New York) and of the sort of resurgent nationalism seen in Russia today, I noted that Americans are quite wary right now of international commitment-making. She responded by arguing that there is a happy medium between bellicose posturing (of the sort she associated with the George W. Bush administration) and its opposite, a focus on withdrawal.

“You know, when you’re down on yourself, and when you are hunkering down and pulling back, you’re not going to make any better decisions than when you were aggressively, belligerently putting yourself forward,” she said. “One issue is that we don’t even tell our own story very well these days.”

I responded by saying that I thought that “defeating fascism and communism is a pretty big deal.” In other words, that the U.S., on balance, has done a good job of advancing the cause of freedom.

Clinton responded to this idea with great enthusiasm: “That’s how I feel! Maybe this is old-fashioned.” And then she seemed to signal that, yes, indeed, she’s planning to run for president. “Okay, I feel that this might be an old-fashioned idea, but I’m about to find out, in more ways than one.”

Excuse me, Mrs. Clinton…aren’t you leaving out one important fact?

For the first four years of the Obama Presidency, you were responsible for administrating this “failed Middle East Foreign Policy”, you are now criticizing your former boss about.

To the Wayback Machine, Sherman!

One week after Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States, on November 4, 2008, he called Hillary and offered her the job of Secretary of State, despite the fact that she had no Foreign Policy experience. It was a suspicious choice at best, considering that fact that when they were running against each other in the Democratic Primaries,Obama had specifically criticized Clinton’s Foreign Policy credentials and the initial idea of him appointing her had been so unexpected that she had told one of her own aides, “Not in a million years.”

The fact that she had campaigned unreservedly for Obama after he defeated her for the Democratic Nomination, led to speculation that the Secretary of State job was a “reward for her loyalty”.

Hillary accepted the position, and now, 5 1/2 years later, even the Main Stream Media is hard-pressed to come up with anything she accomplished as Obama’s First Secretary of State.

It is obvious that Hillary is  distancing herself from her rapidly-tanking former boss in order to run for the Democratic Nomination for their candidate for the office of the President of the United States of America.

Last night, as I read about the interview and considered the possibility of Hillary Clinton running for President, a great many thoughts entered my head…some of them even repeatable.

In fact, there are a lot of images that race through my mind, as well, as I sit here at my computer this morning.

I remember the image of a lone terrorist, brandishing a machine gun, standing in front of the burning Benghazi Consulate.

I also remember the image of Benghazi barbarians dragging a murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens through the streets, taking pictures every few yards, with their cell phones.

My mind envisions the image of two brave Americans, up on a roof holding off 100 Muslim Terrorists, trying desperately to hold out for help which was denied to them, until finally the overwhelming numbers which comprise the horde of barbarians, murdered them as well.

I imagine Ambassador Stevens’ elderly mother, making the trip from the West Coast to the East Coast to pick up the lifeless body of her abused and murdered son, whom she and her entire family were so proud of.

Finally, I remember the show of hypocrisy involving members of this anti-American Administration solemnly welcoming the bodies of those brave Americans home.

And, later, what Former Secretary of State Clinton said, when grilled by Congressman Darrell Issa, in his House Sub-Committee:

What difference, at this point, does it make?

Former Secretary Clinton…the truth makes a big difference…to the families of those that were so savagely murdered that fateful night…and to the millions of Americans who still believe in this “Shining City on a Hill”.

Americans deserve the truth.

And, you should be ashamed to even consider running for President of the United States.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

The Bombing of Iraq: “Smart Power!” is an Oxymoron

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

Islam cartoonI say to America the Islamic Caliphate has been established and we will not stop.  Don’t be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House. – Abu Mosa, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Press Officer 

Yesterday, I reported on the Obama Administration’s Plans to drop aid to Kurds trapped on a mountaintop in Iraq, surrounded by the Muslim Terrorist Forces of ISIS, and President Barack Hussein Obama’s reluctant plan of “limited war” to assist them.

The New York Times reports that

To longtime opponents of the Iraq war, the president’s decision represented a step back down a dangerous path, one that may once again entangle the United States in a bloody and destructive venture. Far better, in their view, to find alternatives like urging the United Nations to help the Iraqis conduct their own humanitarian airdrop mission.

“This is a slippery slope if I ever saw one,” said Phyllis Bennis, a scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, a research organization for peace activists. “Whatever else we may have learned from the president’s ‘dumb war,’ it should be eminently clear that we cannot bomb Islamist extremists into submission or disappearance. Every bomb recruits more supporters.”

Others disagreed. “I don’t think this is a slippery slope; this is an isolated circumstance,” said Representative Adam Smith of Washington State, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, saying he supported intervening on behalf of the Kurds, as opposed to the unpopular Baghdad government. “The Kurds are worth helping and defending.”

To some, this is a crisis Mr. Obama brought on himself by not trying harder to leave a residual force behind at the end of 2011 and neglecting to recognize the growing threat as the civil war in Syria next door increasingly spilled over into Iraq. Some argued that a virtual state under ISIS control posed more than the humanitarian threat Mr. Obama seemed to be focused on.

“This is about America’s national security,” said Ryan Crocker, who was ambassador to Iraq under Mr. Bush and to Afghanistan under Mr. Obama. “We don’t understand real evil, organized evil, very well. This is evil incarnate. People like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” the ISIS leader, “have been in a fight for a decade. They are messianic in their vision, and they are not going to stop.”

But if not, then the question arises: How far is Mr. Obama willing to go? He said on Thursday that there is “no American military solution” to the Iraqi insurgency, pointing again to the need for a new politically inclusive government in Baghdad. What he might do if that fails he did not say. And while aides stressed this is a narrow mission, they acknowledged scenarios in which it could expand.

Mr. Obama likewise strived to explain why this humanitarian emergency demands American military intervention when others elsewhere have not. Just a week ago, at a news conference, he made the point that the United States cannot intervene everywhere there is a crisis.

“Nobody has the sense about why in some cases and not in others,” said James B. Steinberg, a former deputy secretary of state under Mr. Obama and now dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. “His last news conference just leaves you scratching your head. Yeah, we can’t do everything. But what matters to us?”

Iraq, of course, offers a special case, given the amount of American blood spilled since Mr. Bush’s invasion in 2003. Beyond that, Mr. Obama said that this was an instance where there was a genuine calamity in the making; the government of the country requested help, and the United States had the capacity to step in and make a difference.

“The United States cannot and should not intervene every time there is a crisis in the world,” he said. But in this case, he added, “I believe the United States cannot turn a blind eye.”

In a related story, on April 7, 2010, in a post titled, “The Attack of the Killer Casseroles”, I wrote that

[The White House, according to sources, is in the process of rewriting the United States National Security Strategy Document.  They are eliminating any reference identifying Islam as the source of Terrorist activities.  This comes on the heels on yesterday’s announcement that Scooter Obama has decided to enter into a non-proliferation and nuclear arms reduction treaty with the Russian Bear, trusting without verifying.  And we are not going to retaliate with nukes unless it is a very naughty country like Iran.   Hey Scooter, want to buy some beachfront property in Arizona? 

Gone will be the terms Islamic Extremist,  Islamic Jihadist, and Islamic Fundamentalism.  They are going to replace those terms with Very Angry Person of Middle-Eastern Descent Who Disagrees with the Flawed Foreign Policy of Boooosh…or something like that.

“You take a country where the overwhelming majority are not going to become terrorists, and you go in and say, ‘We’re building you a hospital so you don’t become terrorists.’ That doesn’t make much sense,” said National Security Council staffer Pradeep Ramamurthy.

Ramamurthy runs the administration’s Global Engagement Directorate, a four-person National Security Council team that Obama launched last May with little fanfare and a vague mission to use diplomacy and outreach “in pursuit of a host of national security objectives.”

Since then, the division has not only helped change the vocabulary of fighting terror but also has shaped the way the country invests in Muslim businesses, studies global warming, supports scientific research and combats polio.

I hear they also sell autographed pictures of Scooter sinking a jump shot. 

So, Obama is worried about offending devotees of Islam by linking them to extreme behavior.   After all, those weren’t Muslims that killed 3,000 people in the Twin Towers on 9/11.  Those weren’t Muslims that killed 220 Marines in their barracks in Beirut Lebanon in 1983.  Those weren’t Muslims that killed  sailors on the U.S.Cole in the waters off of Yemen.  Those weren’t Muslims that hijacked the Achille Laro.  That wasn’t a Muslim that blew up Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270.  No.   We must have been mistaken all these years.  All the Islamic Fundamentalists, err, devout religious practicers, are as peaceful as that private madrassa, err, school Scooter attended when he was living in Indonesia as a child.

According to the White House and their sycophants, err, Democratic Congressional leaders, the real enemies of America are all the Seasoned Citizens and Average Americans of all races attending the Tea Party Rallies.  And, for gosh sakes, be careful around those Southern Baptists and Chamber of Commerce members like me.  We might attack you with one of those killer casseroles.]

President Obama is in a trap of his own making. It started with his Speech to the Muslim World at the University of Cairo, shortly after his first Inauguration as President, in which he sounded like a subservient dhimmi. 

In the years that followed his genteel Foreign Policy toward the Barbarians of the Muslim World, known as “Smart Power!”, has led to a never-ending Radical Islamic Revolution in the Middle East, known as Arab Spring, through which Moderate Muslim Dictators are being replaced by Radical Muslim Dictators, the increased threat of the extermination of Israel, and the changing of NASA into a Muslim Outrach Program.

The sixth President of the United States of America, John Quincy Adams, wrote the following about the nature of Islam:

THE ESSENCE OF HIS [MUHAMMAD’S] DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE [Adams’ capital letters]… Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant… While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and goodwill towards men…The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.

Islam and Christianity present two very different Deities, who may share some similarities, but who have different identities and ultimately different standards. To pretend they are the same is not only to be clueless of the faith of 78% of the citizens of this nation, but, to be ignorant of an integral part of our American Heritage, the legacy of Christian Faith, which our Founding Fathers bequeathed us.

I’m sure that there are those among you saying, “Well, KJ, what about all the nice Muslims, who aren’t involved in this mess?”

I have met many nice Muslims in my life. My question, though, is, “Why aren’t those Muslims who have pledged allegiance to OUR flag speaking up against this wanton violence?

Hmmmmm?

Now, I am not saying that every Muslim is on a jihad against “the infidels”.

However…

When Christians become “radicalized”, we want to share the testimony of what God has done for us through His love, with everyone we meet. We get involved in our local church and we become better fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and American citizens.

When Muslims become “radicalized”, they want to “kill the Infidels” in the name of “Allah the Merciful”.

In the case of the Chechen Muslim brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, their immersion into Radical Islam led them to “kill the infidels” that horrendous day.

For Liberals to deny that, is disingenuous at best, or just plain out-and-out lying, a collective and intentional naivete which has led this present Administration into a failure of a Forein Policy and our country on the brink of another war.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Hundreds of Civilian Contractors Under Siege in Iraq…Obama Goes Golfing and Fundraising

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

ObamaclownsI’m so mad I could chew iron and spit out nails.

After reading this, you should be, too (if you’re not a Anti-American piece of trash).

…In 1974, the island nation of Grenada was granted independence from Britain. The new government, led by Sir Eric Gairy, slowly unto a dictatorship, which triggered a revolt.

When Gairy was in New York, speaking at the United Nations in March 1979, Maurice Bishop, a well-liked and educated leftist, led a bloodless coup to overthrow the Grenadan government.

Bishop championed a government to be based on the New JEWEL Movement (New Joint Endeaver for Welfare, Education, and Liberation), a rural activist association. JEWEL had merged with the Movement for Assemblies of the People (MAP), an organization whose sprung out of the Black Power movement. Bishop’s Marxist beliefs caused him to ally with Cuba, Russia, and other left-wing countries.

Bishop invited Cuban engineers to his island to build an international airport, “in order to enhance tourism”. That was seen by President Ronald Reagan as a threat to the United States because the airstrip could be used to build up an arms cache, and propel a military build-up in the Caribbean.

While this was going on, hard-line Marxist Bernard Coard, Bishop’s deputy prime minister and “friend”, decided that Bishop didn’t operate far enough to the left. On October 19, 1983, Coard, backed by his own military, seized power in a bloody coup, leading to the execution of Bishop and members of his inner circle.

That latest attempt to install a Marxist-Leninist government within the U.S. sphere of influence freaked out the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, causing them to ask the U.S., Barbados, and Jamaica to intervene.

At stake was not only a struggle of ideologies, but also a threat to about 1,000 medical students living on the island, many of whom were Americans.

On October 25, the president dispatched an invasion force, dubbed “Operation Urgent Fury,” to liberate the island and rescue the students.

Grenadan troops numbered about 1,200, with about 800 Cubans (mostly construction workers with handguns) and 60 advisors from the Soviet Union, North Korea, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Libya. That small contingent was soon confronted by a U.S.-led international force of about 7,300 men.

The operation was a success, with minimal U.S. casualties (19 killed, 106 injured), and was wrapped up in mid-December. Coard, his family, and close advisors were arrested. Coard was tried and sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. The remaining Cubans and other survivors were arrested; native Grenadans were released, and a pro-American government took power.

Fast forward to today where…

A U.S. contractor in Iraq told WND the Iraqi Air Force has begun evacuations from Balad Air Force Base, where 200 American contractors were trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad. 

A contractor with Sallyport Global, who asked not to be named, told WND through a Skype instant message that he was transported from Balad to Baghdad and was communicating from a C-130 preparing to take off to Dubai.

He said 300 in total have been evacuated from Balad, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, and another 100 are still awaiting airlift. He said the Iraqi Air Force is trying to evacuate everyone by midnight local time.

WND previously reported Friday that private contractors who have recently returned to the U.S. from Iraq said their former colleagues effectively had been abandoned by the U.S. military and were fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

The U.S. contractors were at Balad to help the Pentagon prepare the facilities for the delivery of the F-16 aircraft the Obama administration has agreed to provide the Iraqi government.

The surrounded Americans said they were under ISIS fire from small arms, AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs.

The contractors had been able to hold the base, but those on the scene reported it was only a matter of time before the ISIS terrorists succeeded in breaking through the perimeter. The sources confirmed the contractors were still under siege, despite an Associated Press report Thursday, citing U.S. officials, that three plane loads of Americans were being evacuated from Balad.

Some reports claim that the number of civilian contractors under siege, actually numbers 500.

Civilian Contracts have played a huge role in both the Iraqi War and its aftermath.

As the Christian Science Monitor reported in March of 2013,

By 2008, the US Department of Defense employed 155,826 private contractors in Iraq – and 152,275 troops. This degree of privatization is unprecedented in modern warfare.

One of the most important lessons of the Iraq war is that this military privatization is likely to continue in future conflicts. This could be a good thing, as contractors can enhance US military capacity. But any large-scale use of private military contractors also entails risks. Recent US experience with private security contractors, in particular, holds several critical lessons for the future.

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OPINION: After US withdrawal from Iraq, a tallying of the balance sheet
Of course, private contractors are not new to war zones. They supported all the major US conflicts of the late 20th century, including in Vietnam, the Balkans, and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. But in these cases, they mainly provided logistical and base support.

Now, the US military has developed a growing dependence on private contractors – and for a wide range of functions traditionally handled by military personnel. The Army spent roughly $815 million ($163 million per year, or about $200 million per year in 2012 dollars) to employ contractors under its Logistics Civil Augmentation Program between 1992 and 1997. But between 2001 and 2010, that expenditure grew to nearly $5 billion per year. Of course, this latter cost coincides with US involvement in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.

A more pertinent question – and what truly sets the Iraq war apart – concerns the role of these private civilian contractors. Throughout the war, the majority (61 percent) of contracted jobs continued to be base-support functions. The next-largest group (18 percent) of Department of Defense contractors were security contractors. They provided security services, such as guarding installations, protecting convoys, or acting as bodyguards.

Moreover, this outsourcing trend continued in Afghanistan, where there were 94,413 contractors in 2010, compared with 91,600 US troops.

Our nation owes these brave men and women a great deal of gratitude.

So, where is the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama? Is he working to get our citizens our of this tumultuous Middle Eastern Nation, which he left to his “Muslim Brothers”?

Ummm…. NO.

With the situation in Iraq at critical mass and Baghdad on the verge of falling into the hands of the Islamic militant group known as ISIS, and the impending humanitarian crises unfolding on the southern border with Mexico, folks were simply astonished at what they were seeing.

Mark Knoller @markknoller
From ND, Pres Obama heads to CA for a long weekend that includes golf in Palm Springs, another commencement & Dem fundraiser on Saturday.
5:55 PM – 12 Jun 2014

You are not hallucinating. With American Citizens under siege during an invasion of Iraq by ISIS, a murderous Muslim Terrorist Group, the President of the United States is turning his back to them, to go golfing and fundraising.

Last Thursday, Georgetown Law professor, Foreign Policy magazine columnist and former Obama administration official Rosa Brooks summed up tthe Obama Administration’s responses to the situations in Syria, Russia and Iraq with one little Tweet:

US respnse 2 Syria,Russia,Iraq:
1)Huh?
2)We’re watching this closely
3)With concern.
4)Hey, stop-
5)We won’t tolerate that!
6)Mmm. Whatever.
8:04 PM – 12 Jun 2014

Can we impeach this Can we impeach this Anti-American, Muslim, Marxist B******d, yet?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Why Graduating West Point Cadets Gave Obama the Cold Shoulder

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

west pointYesterday, the President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, spoke to the graduating Cadets at West Point. To say that he was not received warmly, would be an understatement.

Once, you read this description of the purpose of West Point Military Academy, you will realize that Obama was talking at cross-purposes.

Per usma.edu,

The United States Military Academy has been educating, training, and inspiring leaders of character for our United States Army and for the nation for more than 200 years. West Point provides a 47-month leader-development program steeped in academic rigor, military discipline, and physical challenges, all built upon a moral-ethical foundation. The academy is an internationally recognized institution for academic, military and physical excellence, and we are proud that today’s cadets will become tomorrow’s military, public and private-sector leaders.

West Point’s purpose is to produce leaders of character who are prepared to provide selfless service to our Army and the nation. West Point provides a broad-based and balanced curriculum to ensure graduates acquire knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for them to effectively address the complex and uncertain challenges they will face in their personal and professional lives. When students enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, they are beginning a profession. Career development starts on the first day; everything cadets experience is focused on developing them as leaders of character who will serve as officers in America’s Army upon graduation, when they are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. As they begin their military careers, they become leaders of Soldiers, and each new promotion brings additional responsibility and increased opportunity.

West Point is about choosing a direction in life that puts service to the nation first and allows each graduate to be a standard-bearer for their generation and the generations that follow. The cadets who graduate as commissioned officers and serve the nation are our lasting legacy and are what makes West Point great.

Even CNN was forced to describe the response from the Cadets as, “an icy reception”

This excerpt, courtesy of whitehouse.gov, helps to explain why:

Together with our allies, America struck huge blows against al Qaeda core and pushed back against an insurgency that threatened to overrun the country. But sustaining this progress depends on the ability of Afghans to do the job. And that’s why we trained hundreds of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police. Earlier this spring, those forces, those Afghan forces, secured an election in which Afghans voted for the first democratic transfer of power in their history. And at the end of this year, a new Afghan President will be in office and America’s combat mission will be over.

Now, that was an enormous achievement made because of America’s armed forces. But as we move to a train-and-advise mission in Afghanistan, our reduced presence allows us to more effectively address emerging threats in the Middle East and North Africa. So, earlier this year, I asked my national security team to develop a plan for a network of partnerships from South Asia to the Sahel. Today, as part of this effort, I am calling on Congress to support a new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity, and facilitate partner countries on the front lines. And these resources will give us flexibility to fulfill different missions, including training security forces in Yemen who have gone on the offensive against al Qaeda; supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia; working with European allies to train a functioning security force and border patrol in Libya; and facilitating French operations in Mali.

A critical focus of this effort will be the ongoing crisis in Syria. As frustrating as it is, there are no easy answers, no military solution that can eliminate the terrible suffering anytime soon. As President, I made a decision that we should not put American troops into the middle of this increasingly sectarian war, and I believe that is the right decision. But that does not mean we shouldn’t help the Syrian people stand up against a dictator who bombs and starves his own people. And in helping those who fight for the right of all Syrians to choose their own future, we are also pushing back against the growing number of extremists who find safe haven in the chaos.

So with the additional resources I’m announcing today, we will step up our efforts to support Syria’s neighbors — Jordan and Lebanon; Turkey and Iraq — as they contend with refugees and confront terrorists working across Syria’s borders. I will work with Congress to ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators. And we will continue to coordinate with our friends and allies in Europe and the Arab World to push for a political resolution of this crisis, and to make sure that those countries and not just the United States are contributing their fair share to support the Syrian people.

Let me make one final point about our efforts against terrorism. The partnerships I’ve described do not eliminate the need to take direct action when necessary to protect ourselves. When we have actionable intelligence, that’s what we do — through capture operations like the one that brought a terrorist involved in the plot to bomb our embassies in 1998 to face justice; or drone strikes like those we’ve carried out in Yemen and Somalia. There are times when those actions are necessary, and we cannot hesitate to protect our people.

But as I said last year, in taking direct action we must uphold standards that reflect our values. That means taking strikes only when we face a continuing, imminent threat, and only where there is no certainty — there is near certainty of no civilian casualties. For our actions should meet a simple test: We must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield.

There is a reason that the President of the United States received such a cold response from America’s Brightest and Best:

They recognized a BS Artist when they saw one.

While Obama was speaking in platitudes, and preparing to ask Congress for $5 Billion of OUR money to “train ‘Partner Countries'” our American Veterans are dying due to horrible mistreatment by the government who is supposed to be serving them…for serving us.

While at the same time, a lone Marine sits, waiting to appear before a Kangaroo Court in Mexico, also ignored by Obama and his Administration.

Is it just me, or does anybody else see a United States President who cares more about other nations, like the Islamic Nation of Syria, home of those Rebels, (al Qaeda Members) whom he tried to get us to help a few months ago, than he does the country which he took an Inaugural Oath, twice, to protect?

I guess Obama is just “standing with the Muslims”, now that the “Political Winds” back home have “blown in an ugly direction”.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

 

A State of the Union Address You Will Not Hear Tonight [A KJ Political Parody]

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

ObamalyingMy fellow Americans (as far as you know)…

I come to you tonight after 5 long years of the worst presidency in American History. I ran on the promise of “Hope and Change”. And now, thanks to my incompetency, your hope has been diminished and there’s no change left in any of your pockets.

It probably should have given you suckers a clue when I called all of you” bitter clingers”. But, because you wanted to be in on something historic, the naive among you elected me as your first black President of the United States.

So here I stand, 5 years later, reelected by 47% of the population, who do not care that I am a socialist, as long as they do not have to get up off the couch and will continue to receive their “benefits”.

Since this is, after all, the State of the Union address, I will summarize the present state of the United States of America under my leadership.

Of course, I could do it in one word, but there are children present.

Regarding the Economic Depression which our nation still finds itself in, I have one thing to say: IT’S NOT MY FAULT!

It is the fault of my predecessor. Nevermind, that my party has been in control of Congress since 2007. It also does not matter that I have spent more of your money than any president in history. For those of you who have lost their jobs and are having trouble surviving, just relax and think of your situation,  as I have told you before, as a “fun-cation”. Uncle Sugar will take care of you.

Next, please allow me to speak a few words about my signature legislation:  Obamacare.

I realize that five million of you have lost your health insurance because of Obamacare. However, just as has been the case during the building of every other socialist paradise, some sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.  After all, from each according to his ability to each according to his need.

Oh, and by the way, don’t worry about not being able to see your favorite doctor anymore. That guy was a quack anyway.

On the subject of Amnesty, I want to assure you “bitter clingers” out there that these new citizens will not be taking your jobs away from you. There are no jobs left to take.

Regarding the assertion that I and my fellow Democrats are buying their votes, but not their loyalty to America, let me reassure you that they will be just as patriotic as I am.

Concerning the issue of “gay marriage”, I believe that every American has the right to be as miserable as I am. Err…ummm… I meant as happy as I am. Isn’t that right, Reggie…err… Michelle?

By redefining the word marriage, we are making things fair and equal for all Americans.

Pay no attention to what those haters, the Christians, say. The antiquated notion that the traditional family unit is the “backbone of our nation” is nothing but a bunch of poppycock. For example, look at how well our nation’s black population is doing in coping with a 75 percent illegitimate birth rate. I mean it’s not like there’s a nationwide gang problem, or anything.

And, all this horrible weather that we are experiencing in our nation is structly a coincidence.

Concerning the legalization of marijuana, as I recently stated, I believe that marijuana is no more harmful than the effects of alcohol..and when you drive your car after smoking a bowl, you are no more dangerous to the public at large, than if you just left your local bar at closing time. Oh…and according to my own National Drug Control Policy ,  it’s a Gateway Drug that will leave your lungs as black as tar , cause brain damage, and lower your IQ.  But, hey…that’s a small price to pay for a good buzz, huh? And, besides, you don’t need to think anyway. I will do that for you.

On the subject of Foreign Affairs, please allow me to reassure you that America is safe. We will not be nuked anytime soon. The Mullahs in Iran have given me their word on it.

I mean, its not like they would kidnap any of our people and hold them for 144 days. Why,that could never happen. The next thing you’ll be telling me is that the Muslim Brotherhood is a Terrorist Organization.

And, regarding that little incident at the Benghazi Compound in Libya, that evil YouTube Video Maker is still safely in jail, so our new Muslim friends have no reason to get “agitated”, again.

As far as Syria and the rest of the Middle East is concerned, I am certain that as Arab Spring continues, the transition of power from Moderate Muslim Governments to governments supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, will go just as smoothly as it did in Egypt.

In summary, as you may have heard, I recently announced that I was going to use my Authority as President to rule by diktat, err, write Executive Orders, to bypass Congress, if they did not pass legislation that I wanted them to.

An ABC/Washington Post poll released yesterday, shows that 63% of you do not trust me to make sound decisions. In response to that, I say BIG HAIRY DEAL!

I have never listened to you before. Why should I now?

Besides… look at how it has worked out so well so far.

For me and my family that is, not so much for you guys.

Thank you for your support…all 38% of you. Good night.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Syria Situation: Style Over Substance

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

ObamaSyriaOptionsWell, it’s 1…2…3 what are we fightin’ for?

Don’t tell me, I don’t give a da!@,

The next stop might be Iran.

Telegraph.co.uk reports that

Opposition forces battling Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria now number around 100,000 fighters, but after more than two years of fighting they are fragmented into as many as 1,000 bands.

The new study by IHS Jane’s, a defence consultancy, estimates there are around 10,000 jihadists – who would include foreign fighters – fighting for powerful factions linked to al-Qaeda..

Another 30,000 to 35,000 are hardline Islamists who share much of the outlook of the jihadists, but are focused purely on the Syrian war rather than a wider international struggle.

There are also at least a further 30,000 moderates belonging to groups that have an Islamic character, meaning only a small minority of the rebels are linked to secular or purely nationalist groups.

The stark assessment, to be published later this week, accords with the view of Western diplomats estimate that less than one third of the opposition forces are “palatable” to Britain, while American envoys put the figure even lower.

Fears that the rebellion against the Assad regime is being increasingly dominated by extremists has fuelled concerns in the West over supplying weaponry that will fall into hostile hands. These fears contributed to unease in the US and elsewhere over military intervention in Syria.

Charles Lister, author of the analysis, said: “The insurgency is now dominated by groups which have at least an Islamist viewpoint on the conflict. The idea that it is mostly secular groups leading the opposition is just not borne out.”

That goes against the narrative that Obama, Kerry, McCain and all of the rest of the new “Warhawks” have been issuing , about how “noble” the Syrian “Rebel Forces” are.

Another bit of rhetoric from Obama and his supporters has been their denial that, if we get involved in Syria’s Civil War, there will be no need for our servicemen to put their “boots on the ground”.

…Defense Department officials were less certain Thursday on whether U.S. military personnel might be sent to help secure or destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little gave a vague answer when asked if U.S. troops were prepared to assist should an international agreement allow Russia to take control of the tons of chemical weapons believed to be in the stockpiles of President Bashar al-Assad.

“I’m not going to speculate on who may or may not be participating in a process that may or may not take place,” Little said. “We’ve got to see where the process goes” before the U.S. military considers involvement, he said.

The first steps in the process were taking place in Geneva, where Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting for a second day with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Moscow’s proposal to have international teams take control of the chemical weapons.

Syria has tentatively agreed to the Russian initiative and also agreed to join the international ban on chemical and biological weapons.

Lavrov has urged the U.S. to speed the negotiations by dropping the threat to launch strikes on Syria, but Little said “the threat of military action is driving the process forward.”

To back up the threat, the U.S. was keeping four destroyers off the Syrian coast and the Nimitz carrier strike group in the Red Sea, though some of the ships may be replaced if the negotiations are drawn out, Little said.

God’s gift to American Foreign Policy, the Lightbringer himself, appeared on ABC’s “This Week”, yesterday, where he said

“Folks here in Washington like to grade on style,” he said during an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” “Had we rolled out something that was very smooth and disciplined and linear they would have graded it well, even if it was a disastrous policy. … We know that because that’s exactly how they graded the Iraq War until it ended up blowing [up] in our face.

…“I’m less concerned about style points. I’m much more concerned about getting the policy right,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in which he talked about Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon and criticized House Republicans’ approach to fiscal negotiations, including an upcoming talk on increasing the federal debt limit.

Obama said the United States’ approach to Syria should show Iran that there’s the potential for diplomatic solutions to arms standoffs.

But he says Iran shouldn’t assume that his preference for diplomacy means the U.S. won’t strike Tehran.

Obama said Iranians understand that their pursuit of a nuclear weapon is “a far larger issue for us” than the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The president also said he has exchanged letters with Iran’s new president, but the two have not spoken directly.

Obama said he believes Iranian President Hasan Rouhani understands the potential for a diplomatic solution to his country’s disputed nuclear program but will not “suddenly make it easy.”

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

On June 4, 2009, in his “Speech to the Muslim World, titled “A New Beginning”, given at the University of Cairo, United States President Barack Hussein Obama said,

It’s easier to start wars than to end them. It’s easier to blame others than to look inward. It’s easier to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There’s one rule that lies at the heart of every religion — that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. (Applause.) This truth transcends nations and peoples — a belief that isn’t new; that isn’t black or white or brown; that isn’t Christian or Muslim or Jew. It’s a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the hearts of billions around the world. It’s a faith in other people, and it’s what brought me here today.

When Obama became President, Britain and Israel were our allies, and the Islamic Terrorists Organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda, were our sworn enemies.

Now, in 2013, Britain and Israel have been cast aside and the Muslim Terrorists have been invited to our White House, wined and dined, and supported in their efforts to take over the Middle East by our Administration.

Oh, these Terrorist Groups still want to kill each and every one of us infidels, but that doesn’t matter to Obama. He has another Nobel Peace Price to win.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Elizabeth O’Bagy and the Syrian Emergency Task Force: Taypayer-Funded Regime Change

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

Elizabeth O'BagyYou’re the Secretary of State of the United States of America. Your job is to carry out the Foreign Affairs Strategy of the President. Of course, you can’t do it by yourself. You need help.

So, who do you turn, too? Henry Kissinger is not available and Former Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, thinks you stink on ice.

Well, I would think that you would reach for whatever resources you could…especially, if you were trying to justify inserting America’s Armed Forces into another nation’s Civil War, in an effort to assist the very Terrorist Group that killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11/01 and 4 brave Americans in Benghazi on 9/11/12. Perhaps, you would even accept the expert opinion of an op ed writer for the Wall Street Journal, whose own viewpoint matches your own.

Why, she even had a PhD! Or…maybe not.

The Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-ed piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for lying about having a Ph.D., the group announced on Wednesday.

“The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms. Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University,” the institute said in a statement. “ISW has accordingly terminated Ms. O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately.”

O’Bagy told POLITICO in an interview Monday that she had submitted and defended her dissertation and was waiting for Georgetown University to confer her degree. O’Bagy said she was in a dual master’s and doctorate program at Georgetown.

Kimberly Kagan, who founded the ISW in 2007, said in an interview that while she was “deeply saddened” by the situation, she stands by O’Bagy’s work on Syria.

”Everything I’ve looked at is rock solid,” Kagan told POLITICO. “Every thread that we have pulled upon has been verified through multiple sources.”

Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, told POLITICO in a statement that “we were not aware of Elizabeth O’Bagy’s academic claims or credentials when we published her Aug. 31 op-ed, and the op-ed made no reference to them.”

“We also were not aware of her affiliation with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, and we published a clarification when we learned of it,” Gigot said. “We are investigating the contents of her op-ed to the best of our ability, but to date we have seen no evidence to suggest any information in the piece was false.”

O’Bagy started at the institute as an unpaid intern and was pulled into their work on Syria when a researcher needed a fluent Arabic speaker, which transformed her internship into a much longer gig. Kagan hired O’Bagy as an analyst around August or September 2012, and said her understanding was that O’Bagy was working toward her Ph.D. at Georgetown.

The website known as Right Web, an arm of the Institute for Policy Studies, has a profile of Dr. *cough* O’Bagy, which states

Elizabeth O’Bagy is a research analyst based at the neoconservative Institute for the Study of War (ISW), where she has written several reports on the Syrian opposition.[1] She has also worked as the political director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF),[2] a D.C.-based advocacy group closely linked to the Syrian opposition that “aims to expedite the fall of the [Assad] dictatorship regime,” according to a statement on its website.[3]

O’Bagy has traveled to Syria several times and visited with armed opposition groups there. She is the author of numerous reports and op-ed pieces calling on the United States to provide heavy weaponry to the Syrian rebels and to launch missile strikes on critical regime infrastructure. “Any swift and decisive decision to materially aid the Free Syrian Army,” she wrote for the Atlantic in June 2013, “will necessarily include degrading or destroying the runways and infrastructure of Syria’s military airbases and commercial airports.”[4]

However, O’Bagy’s dual affiliation with ISW and SETF has been the source of some controversy, particularly after the publication of an August 2013 Wall Street Journal op-ed in which O’Bagy claimed that extremist groups were less prominent components of the armed Syrian opposition than is typically reported.

Information now shows that al Qaeda and affiliated groups actually make up the majority of the “Syrian Rebel Forces”.

Okay. So, whose checks was this overpaid, under-qualified blooming idiot cashing?

“Most of the contracts that I’ve been a part of through the Task Force have been through CSO, which is the Conflict and Stabilization Office[sic],” O’Bagy told The Daily Caller. O’Bagy was likely referring to the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, a State Department-funded organization.

In other words, boys and girls…YOU AND I WERE!!!

Our money has been going to a bunch of pointy-headed bureaucrats, who have been trying to figure out a way to engineer a “regime change” in Syria.

The plot sickens.

Obama, Kerry, and all their “Warhawks” have been insisting that the goal of Obama’s “limited engagement” plan in Syria is not “regime change.”

If it is not, why has the Obama Administration spent Our Money studying a Civil War, which has no effect on the daily lives of Americans?

Methinks they doth protest too much.

Until He Comes,

KJ

A Reply to President Putin Concerning American Exceptionalism

On By kingsjesterIn Politics7 Comments

americaneagleflag

Over the past couple of weeks, I have felt like a witness to some macabre play, in which the United States of America is saddled with a weak, sniveling, clueless milk toast of a President, whose entire Administration is comprised of a bunch of unqualified and unprincipled neophytes, who have no qualms about embarrassing our country and making us look like fools on the World Stage.

And, today, I realize that what I am watching with such horror and disgust…is reality.

And, I don’t like it. One bit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, the new leader of the “Free” World, since United States President Barack Hussein Obama abdicated the role, says that every little t’ing is gonna be alright ( Hey. That would make great song. Oh…never mind.), if we just remember that America is now just another country.

I welcome the president’s interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria. We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.

If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

On July 17, 1980, Ronald Wilson Reagan, at the Republican National Convention, accepting their Nomination as the Presidential Candidate, spoke the following prophetic words:

The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership — in the White House and in Congress — for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us. They tell us they have done the most that humanly could be done. They say that the United States has had its day in the sun; that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems; that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities.

My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. The American people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for others by moving backwards ourselves. Those who believe we can have no business leading the nation.

I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose. We have come together here because the American people deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nation’s highest offices, and we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.

We need rebirth of the American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private life as well. The United States of America is unique in world history because it has a genius for leaders — many leaders, on many levels. But back in 1976, Mr. Carter said, “Trust me.” And a lot of people did. Now, many of those people are out of work. Many have seen their savings eaten away by inflation. Many others on fixed incomes, especially the elderly, have watched helplessly as the cruel tax of inflation wasted away their purchasing power. And, today, a great many who trusted Mr. Carter wonder if we can survive the Carter policies of national defense.

“Trust me” government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what’s best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs — in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind of compact.

You see, President Putin…President Obama, that is where the exceptionalism of America lies…not in the Halls of Power…but in the courage and spirit of the average American. The 9 to 5’er, working himself crazy to try to provide for his family. It was this same average Joe, who fired the shot heard around the world and began the War for American Independence, who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in World War II, who waded through rice paddies in Vietnam, and who swallowed sand in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The same average Joe who, as a New York City Policeman or Fireman, ran up the stairs of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, instead of running down them. The same average Joe, who simply wants things to be easier in this life for his children and grandchildren, than he had it.

The same average Joe who takes family and friends in, when they are in the midst of a life-altering tragedy. The same average Joe who gets misty-eyed when he sees an advertisement for St. Jude’s Children Hospital. The same average American who volunteers on a soup line or at a Senior Citizens Home.

Yes, President Putin, you have played our President and our Administration like a Stradivarius, pulling their strings like Gepetto pulled Pinocchio’s.

It doesn’t matter. They are professional political prevaricators. Men and women, whose ethics and morality change with the direction of the wind, and whose egos override their judgement…every time.

America is a Constitutional Republic. We are not ruled by a faceless all-powerful government. America’s politicians are OUR SERVANTS. “Average Joes”, like myself, are THEIR BOSSES. We can hire and fire them at our pleasure. You cannot understand this concept, because in your country, the Politburo ruled the Proletariat, until an American President, whom your leaders referred to as a “crazy cowboy”, told your president to “Tear down this wall!” and, that was the beginning of the end for the old Soviet Union.

And, yes, President Putin, God did create us all equal.

However, He blessed America.

Until He Comes,

KJ