“Si vis pacem, para bellum.” If you want peace, plan for war. The adage is attributed to the 4th or 5th century Latin author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus’s tract De Re Militari book 3. This fundamental wisdom is being ignored by President Obama, one of two recent Commanders-in-Chief who never spent a day in uniform, let alone under fire.

In a recent American Thinker commentary by Jim Yardley, he said, “It is apparent that the president, in developing his strategy, used the same extensive knowledge, his superior intellect, and worldly wealth of experience that he brought to his strategy for his $800-billion stimulus, his strategy for providing cost-free health care to millions of Americans, and his strategy for using ‘smart diplomacy’ to defuse not spots around the world.”

Perhaps receiving the Nobel Peace Prize barely months into his first year as President has convinced Obama that he is the man to get all our enemies to join hands and sing Kumbaya. Obama accepted the prize that has gone to other seekers of peace like Yassir Arafat, founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization or co-winners, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore. The IPCC and Gore have led the greatest hoax of the modern era, global warming, and Arafat rejected every effort at peace offered by Israel by going back on his word and using terrorism to achieve his goals.

There is no question that the announced cuts to the U.S. military budget are, in part, the result of the domestic run up of debt and borrowing the followed the financial crisis of 2008; itself the result of bad government policies regarding the wholesale granting of mortgages to people who could not afford homes, then bundling those bad mortgages and selling them as assets to the banks.

While the economy is showing some small signs of regaining its footing, the government is still borrowing forty cents of every dollar it spends and has shown no real intent to reduce spending.

While this is occurring we have a President who has made clear his antipathy of the role of the military. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial noted that “The Pentagon shouldn’t be immune to fiscal scrutiny, yet this Administration has targeted defense from its earliest days and has kept on squeezing. The White House last year settled with Congress on $450 billion in military budget cuts through 2012, on top of the $350 billion in weapons programs killed earlier,” adding “Taken altogether, the budget could shrink by over 30% in the next decade.”

Following a 1993 attempt to destroy the World Trade Center Osama bin Laden, a still largely obscure Islamic fanatic, declared war on the United States in 1996. In 2001, al Qaeda succeeded, killing nearly 3,000. To underestimate the intent of his successors to destroy the nation would be a grave error. To think that his assassination along with the killing of a relative handfull of other al Qaeda leaders has ended the threat is wishful thinking.

To think that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq will not at some point result in the possible breakup of that nation or the withdrawal from Afghanistan will rid us of the threat of Islamic fanaticsim is still more wishful thinking.

Right now and ever since 1979, the threat of Iran is the largest facing the Middle East and the West. Its leaders have never made a secret of its intent to acquire nuclear weapons, to threaten all other Middle Eastern nations, as well as Europe and America is on a par with the threat the rise of Nazism posed in Germany in the 1930s.

After World War Two, America emerged as a superpower and it took on the role of global policeman. No military prescience predicted the attack on South Korea by North Korea, nor was our strategy in Vietnam successful. We had earlier failed to anticipate the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor despite efforts to keep out of the war that had begun in 1939.

The lesson that should have been learned is that overwhelming military strength contributes greatly to avoiding wars.

President Obama is ignoring that. It is not, however, to say that he is taking Iran lightly. In early January, thousands of U.S. troops were deployed to Israel and senior U.S. military sources say they anticipate they will remain through the year. Obstensively, they are there to participate in joint U.S.-Israeli war games. They will be joined by a U.S. aircraft carrier and, as we know, we have a task force in place in the event the Iranians try to close the Strait of Hormuz through which passes one sixth of the world’s oil supplies.
The U.S. could be energy independent in a decade if the Administration and Congress would remove the obstacles to accessing our enormous reserves of coal, oil and natural gas, but that remains unlikely as this is written.

The decision to reduce the size of our military to 490,000 troops from 570,000 could not come at a worse time. Air and naval assets, we’re told, will be maintained. Holding evacuated or captured territory requires “boots on the ground.” The decision of former President Bush to “surge” in Iraq by increasing troop strength turned a potential defeat into a success. A war-weary America and the current Iraqi regime wanted us out and we are out.

Meanwhile Egypt that underwent “the Arab Spring” has fallen into the hands of a militant, anti-American and anti-Israel Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey has joined the Islamic frenzy, the future of Syria remains unknown, so anyone who thinks that military action anywhere, but especially in Iran, is not a real potential is not paying attention.

President Obama’s claim that “the tide of war is receding” is likely to rank with British PM Neville Chamberlains claim of “peace in our time” after a visit with Hitler.

It is wishful thinking or worse. It is the deliberate effort to ignore the dangers in the world. Shifting military personnel and assets to Asia acknowledges China’s rising power, but U.S. military leaders have warned against a war in Asia for decades. It is doubtful the Chinese want one.

What is not in doubt is that this is the wrong time to reduce our military strength and capabilities. We did that after World War One and paid a price for it. President Obama’s policies put us in the same peril.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

 

WesternFront America

First, allow me to explain that, yes, I know it is not popular, today, to point out the obvious. Ok. Maybe I should have phrased that this way: “…to point out what SHOULD be obvious.”

Before I proceed, I’d like to encourage my readers to browse the websites of foreign news services. If I have learned anything at all (since Al Gore invented the Internet) it is this: The US mainstream media cannot be trusted. They have an agenda and that agenda does not necessarily include dissemination of the truth. As a card-carrying member of the press for many years, I have always been aware of the left-leaning bias of the US media. That is not to say the same leftist bias does not exist in overseas media because it most certainly does.

Having said that – were you aware that right at the moment the Obama Administration is announcing plans to cut the US defense budget the US is preparing for another war in the Middle East? Did you know that we have been quietly building an armada of naval assets in the Gulf of Oman just off the shores of Iran? Did you know this naval armada consists of warships from the US, the UK, France, Israel, and others?

Looking west a bit we see US, French, and British warships, standing off the Syrian coast, facing off with Russian warships including a Russian aircraft carrier task force.

My regional newspaper is printed in a military town, home to one of the largest military bases in the US, and yet, I see very little information in it’s pages concerning this build-up of military might in the waters of the Middle East. Why?

I’ll make the answer as straight forward and simple as I possibly can. There re two parts to the complete answer: 1) Obama is seeking reelection. 2) Obama is seeking to reduce the military budget to gain more money to spend on his leftist agenda for America.

At the risk of being called an “alarmist” allow be to make it plain: I AM alarmed.

So when will this war begin. Well, let me put it this way: The Iranians should carefully watch Obama’s poll numbers. If those numbers continue their slide downwards, the Iranians are going get the heck bombed out of them.

Americans are extremely reluctant to change Presidents in the middle of a war. Obama knows this and is expected to act accordingly.

Some conservative writers and commentators expect that war in the Middle East is currently scheduled for October 2012. That would be the famed “October Surprise.”

On the other hand, those in my camp believe the Iranians, in all their hyped-up passion, will do something stupid like firing on a tanker or a US warship or aircraft, or even worse, make an attempt to close the Straits of Hormuz by sewing it with mines and other hazards to maritime traffic. That would be the spark that would bring down the considerable wrath of that naval armada lying off their shores.

Then there are the Israelis. They have had enough of Iran’s threats and Iran’s war on Israel by proxy. Israel’s secret war of sabotage in Iran can only deliver limited success at delaying and derailing Iran’s race to build or acquire a nuclear bomb. Israel could decide, at any moment, that enough is enough and launch their fighter-bombers and cruise missiles at Iran’s nuclear facilities. Even if it only buys a few months or a couple of years of breathing space for Israel, it is becoming clear there is no other way to effectively deter Iran from building their coveted Islam Bomb.

The situation in the Middle East today is far, far, more dangerous than the US media is reporting. A single spark will ignite a devastating war that will affect practically every nation on earth to some degree or other.

Those of us who continue to sound the warning bell of a huge war in the Middle East are being compared to the boy Peter in the story of “Peter and the Wolf.” An article at Haaretz.com noted that those who make such public comparisons seem always to leave out the end of Aesop’s famous tale of the boy who called wolf too much. In the end, the wolf actually DID come — and the sheep were slaughtered. (SOURCE)

So, with that ending in mind, I have no concern about continually pointing to those dark, foreboding, clouds gathering in the east. Since the mainstream media seems to be ignoring a certain war to protect Obama’s prospects in the coming election, someone must stand as a watchman on the ramparts and sound the alarm when clouds of dust from the approaching armies of the enemy is sighted and when the sound of distant war drums is heard.

Today those dust clouds are clearly seen over the horizon and the pounding of the drums can be heard in the distance — and we are sounding the alarm.

J. D. Longstreet
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VOTE CONSERVATIVE IN NOVEMBER 2012
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WesternFront America

Does Obama get out of bed each morning wondering how he can screw things up today?  Does the Obama Administration have a secret department within the bowels of the White House whose job assignment is to come up with ways to screw things up for the United States?  I mean – it just seems impossible for anyone to accidentally screw up so many things so often, and in some case, on a continuous basis.

President Obama is a prime example why I believe the United States needs a military man as President.

Look at Afghanistan.  Under the leadership of the current Commander-in-Chief, American causalities have skyrocketed.  And they will get worse as the Taliban rebounds.  All because an inexperienced American leader openly tells the enemy that he will be withdrawing Americans troops on a date certain.  Oh, you can rest assured that Americans deaths will continue to rise in Afghanistan until we rebuild our forces on the ground there, allow them to go after the insurgents, and untie their hands and allow them to decimate the Taliban in Afghanistan – and in Pakistan — or, get American troops out of Afghanistan – completely.

So what has the Commandeer-in-Chief screwed-up lately?  Well, according to news reports he is about to order a shocking draw down of American troops in Iraq.  Instead of decimating the enemy in Iraq, Obama is decimating American troop numbers to such a low level that US troops will be hard pressed to defend themselves — let alone train Iraqis to take care of themselves.  Look for American causalities to rise in Iraq very soon.

It is reported that American commanders in that theatre are “livid” at the Commander-in-Chief for this amateurish handling of the US military.  What this is, in my opinion, is total disrespect for the US military by Obama.   Our military deserves more, a hell of a lot more, from their Commander-in-Chief, especially after all their sacrifice.

A small contingent of troops will create another “Fort Apache” situation where US troops could potentially over-run and wiped-out.

On the other hand the mad mullahs of Iran are beside themselves with joy!  They cannot believe their good luck.  They find it almost impossible to believe the American people would allow their President to show such disrespect for their nation’s warriors.  But — they are jubilant with the knowledge that this huge blunder by Obama will allow Iran’s influence to grow by leaps and bonds within Iraq and it will allow Iran to train and rearm a huge army of Iraqi insurgents along with a massive inflow of Iranian troops to retake Iraq and fulfill the Iranian goal of hegemony in the region.  In other words – Iran will own Iraq after all the American blood spilled on Iraqi soil – thanks to Obama.

You know, we Americans are one screwed-up people.  We have elected a leader who has managed to trash the nation, here at home, and internationally, and still nearly 40% of the electorate supports the “Trasher-in-Chief.”  How do you explain something like this?  How is it possible that descendents of pilgrims and pioneers have not stormed the White House demanding that Obama resign and leave the Oval Office? (One reason, of course, is that we are painfully aware that Joe Biden is waiting in the wings to step into Obama’s shoes.  That scenario is so scary that I don’t even want to go there!)

Here’s what I see in my somewhat dusty crystal ball for US/Iraqi relations:  The US will have to invade Iraq for a third time — to drive out the Iranians.  The problem with that scenario is that should we have to do that, we most certainly will have to drive into Iran itself to destroy the current Iranian regime and cripple the Iranian military and their nuclear bomb aspirations.

That will be no easy task.  It will be a very long and nasty war with more casualties that the Afghanistan and Iraq wars combined and, most likely, become a regional war involving most of the nations of the Middle East including Israel.

Its called “Thinking Ahead.”  Most successful leaders do it as a matter of course.  Unfortunately for America, our illustrious leader seems devoid of the ability to think ahead about anything but his reelection.

Presidents who win wars listen to their military commanders.  They draw from that well of training and experience dug by the men who actually have to fight the wars by committing American sons and daughters to “Harm’s Way,” and then have to write the letters to their families when those same men and women lose their lives as a result of the commands THEY give.  THEY KNOW about fighting and defeating America’s enemies.  Civilian Presidents, as a rule, DO NOT!

Only 3,000 American troops on the ground in Iraq means they will have to assume a defensive mode and maintain it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  The stress alone will be awful on those men and women.

So why is Obama doing it?  Politics — plain and simple. It’s called “pandering” to the political left. And it will get worse until Mr. Obama is relieved of his duties in the Oval Office in November of 2012.

This is just another reason to vote for anyone with an “R” beside his or her name when you enter the voting booth in November of 2012.  Times are just that desperate in America today.

J. D. Longstreet

 

WesternFront America

The creation of a Palestinian state will do nothing to bring stability to the Middle East region. In fact, there will be more war, more instability, and more suffering.

A Palestinian state would effectively open up a front that starts ten miles from Tel Aviv and reaches 1,000 miles deep across the Arabian Peninsula to Teheran. That, alone, will be cause for Israel to go on their highest military alert and stay there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In other words… all the time.

The buffer zone Israel counts on to give her time to activate her reserves and get them mobilized will no longer exist. That short period of time, so vital for the defense of Israel, will be gone. Therefore, Israel will have no choice but to adopt what, for all practical purposes, will be a “state of war” as a normal, everyday, lifestyle.

There is a school of thought, in Israel, which says Israel would not be the first target of a Palestinian State military. That distinction, according to this theory, must go to the country of Jordan whose population is 80% Palestinian. This line of thinking has it that the Palestinians will want to complete the coup against the Hashemite Kingdom they began back in 1970.

A new Palestinian State will certainly want to clear the region of its one remaining moderate, western-oriented Arab state. Once that job is completed and their military enlarged by the “Jordanian/Palestinians,” THEN they can turn their attention to Israel.

How dimwitted is it for the US to put any trust in the government of a state whose children’s textbooks teach “holy war” against Israel?

Lets see: Right now we have Libya, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan giving The United States a pain in the posterior and the Obama Regime is dead set on adding even more trouble with a state of Palestine? Again, I ask, how dimwitted is this?

But, I forget! We have the “creame de la creame” in DC, the “best and the brightest” of the academicians, many of whom seem to be educated beyond their collective abilities, concocting these schemes from left-wing dreams of “group-hugs” among nations.

So, we must ask ourselves just how prepared are the Arabs (aka Palestinians) for statehood, anyway? Has there been any preparation for oh, say, industrialization? How about their work on developing export markets? Have they given any thought to negotiating trade arrangements with their next-door neighbor, Israel? I think we all know the answer to all the above is… NO.

So, it is safe, then, to assume that a state of Palestine would be wracked with poverty which will require billions of dollars in foreign aid from which the chieftains will bleed off their shares and get rich while piling up hordes of cash in numbered bank accounts far from the Middle East.

A recent report from Arutz Sheva(www.IsraelNationalNews.com) said the following: “ … Meanwhile on Wednesday, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said the PA statehood bid would likely jeopardize all existing agreements between the PA and Israel.

In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Oren said the move would render invalid economic treaties, including export, import, and water sharing, as well as security cooperation agreements.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Wednesday the statehood bid at the United Nations is a greater threat to Israel than terrorism.

“This Palestinian initiative represents a more serious threat than that posed by Hamas,” Steinitz told Voice of Israel radio.”

Too, there is the very real concern that should the UN grant Palestine statehood, Iran will very quickly turn it into an Iranian state. The conflagration we are experiencing in the Middle East today is a stroll in the park compared to what would happen with Iran and Israel sharing a common border.

No, a Palestinian state will only ensure the continuation of war, terrorism, and bloodshed. The one thing we can be sure of is — it will not bring anything resembling peace to the Middle East.

J. D. Longstreet

 

WesternFront America

I’m Shocked, Shocked, I tell you!

Like the famous scene from the classic movie “Casablanca” the whole thing concerning Iran trafficking in weapons in Iraq is a sham. I mean, of course, our government’s expression of surprise and pretended annoyance. It has been common knowledge for YEARS. Why, now, is it suddenly being spotlighted?

Anyone with the slightest interest in America’s war efforts in the Middle East has known this was a common occurrence all along. Why, all of a sudden, is the Obama Administration making a big deal over it?

Maybe we should investigate WHY we feel it necessary to dissect any and every action of our vaunted leader in the White House.

We have become so accustomed to the double dealing, the constant stream of lies and near lies, coming from this administration, that we have come to view everything out of the Obama White House (and its Czars and flunkies in charge of the various government “agencies”) through the lens of truth endeavoring to filter out the untruths and as much deception as we possibly can. It ain’t easy!

Look, America has been fighting a proxy war with Iran for, well, nigh on to ten years, at least, just in Iraq and Afghanistan. That doesn’t even take into account all the other trouble spots around the globe where the US is in some degree of conflict with forces sponsored by the “mad mullahs” of Iran.

And it didn’t begin with Iraq or Afghanistan. It began with the Carter administration and the dethroned Shah of Iran. Iran and America have been at direct and indirect odds ever since.

It is a pretty sure bet that Iran will simply take over Iraq when the last American troops leave. The stage is being set for that eventuality even now.

In Afghanistan, the shadow war is a little less clear but the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half brother of Hamid Karzai the President of Afghanistan, would lead one to believe that efforts to gain a vantage point from which to take control of Afghanistan, when the Americans leave, is on-going.

If makes no sense to me that the American military is involved in Libya, in a limp-wristed attempt to unseat Gaddafi, and not involved in operations to destroy Iran’s fast moving efforts to acquire nuclear bomb making skills and materials. Has the Obama administration decided the US CAN live with a nuclear-armed Iran? It certainly seems that way. If so, then THAT is another reason to show Mr. Obama the door in November of 2012.

Make no mistake about it. The US IS going to face off with Iran in a shooting war — sooner rather than later. It seems to me that fighting an enemy that does not have nuclear capabilities is better than going head to head with another atomic power.

Procrastination is NOT our friend, especially when the enemy is working around the clock to develop weapons to potentially wipe a small nation of the map, and smash even moderately sized nations (such as those in eastern Europe) back to the Stone Age.

The world has been warned, many times over, that Iran is seeking hegemony in the Middle East. Once they acquire nuclear weapons they will have it.

Waiting for Israel to take out Iran’s nuclear capabilities is not going to work. Not so long as Obama is in the White House.

Israel does not trust Obama and his minions. They believe he has shown entirely too much favor toward Islamic nations and too much DISFAVOR towards Israel, to be trusted as an ally in any kind of military action against an Islamic country. They reason, rightly, that one cannot continuously look over one’s shoulder while in mortal conflict. With Obama as an ally, Israel reasons that deciding who is the greater threat to them (in the midst of battle) would be a deterrent to Israel in winning a military confrontation with Iran. Therefore, whatever Israel does against Iran — expect it to be totally covert with no notice to the US until their actions are a fait accompli.

In the meantime, removing American troops from the Middle East only allows Iran to slip its leash.

America needs a huge military base, of its own, in the Middle East for ongoing and future operations in that theatre. I suspect such a base now exists … in Iraq. However, that doesn’t mean the Obama administration will not abandon it to the Iraqis/Iranians. Such is the naiveté of Obama and his cohort in both the White House and the Congress.

Most everyone, with common sense, knows America is leaving Iraq … temporarily. We will be forced to return to Iraq, and probably Afghanistan, in the not too distant future. Whether fighting Iraqis, Afghanis, or Iranians, America’s job is NOT DONE in the Middle East!

So long as America depends on the nations of the Middle East for the fuel to run our republic, we have no choice but to remain engaged with them — even if that means going to war against them, or defending them.

Until America comes to it’s senses and decides to use its own petroleum resources and stop relying on tribal countries and socialist countries for the life blood of our economy we will be harnessed to them much the same as a man having a wolf by the throat. He (we) can’t turn loose. To be free of the wolf, the wolf must be “put down.”

America is in desperate need of leadership with common sense. We need a leader who will confront Iran and plant the flag declaring we will not tolerate Iran’s efforts toward hegemony in the Middle Eastern powder keg. The world is tired of the constant bickering, squabbling, fighting, killing, and general “hell raising” from a group of countries that refuse to grow up and join the 21^st century world.

Obama is NOT that leader!

J. D. Longstreet

 

WesternFront America

A problem with which American administrations have grappled since the days of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency has been Arabs and the Middle East. The Marine anthem mentions “the shores of Tripoli” because, in 1801, Jefferson sent them to there to put down the Barbary pirates.

One of the best books on this subject is “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present” by Michael B. Oren who, with exquisite irony, is currently serving as the Israeli ambassador to the United States, the nation of his birth.

Regarding the Middle East, if you have had the feeling that the Obama administration has been spectacularly inept as it takes its turn at bat, you’re right. Barely six months into his first year, on June 4, 2009, the newly-minted President gave a speech in Cairo.

“I’ve come to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles—principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

Obama’s impressions, aspirations, or re-write of history, past and present, clashes with the reality of current and past events. He has, in fact, adopted virtually all of his much maligned predecessor’s policies in the Middle East and took a bow for authorizing the long awaited assassination of Osama bin Laden.

As this is being written, the White House is debating the levels of military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases the public is alternatively told that the leaders of those two nations either want the U.S. to leave or to stay. Where the truth falls no one seems to know.

It is very instructive to read what is being published in the newspapers that serve readers in the Middle East. Suffice to say that neither the President, nor his policies, is well regarded. One can read daily translations of articles from their press, as well as Asia and Europe at an interesting site, .http://watchingamerica.com/News.

I would argue that no amount of “hands on” involvement with the events unfolding from the Maghreb nations of northern Africa to those that form the heart of the Middle East will significantly alter the outcome of events occurring there.

In addition to the uprisings to throw off the shackles of despotism from Tunisia to Libya to Egypt to Syria, Bahrain to Yemen, the common denominator for these and other Arab nations is their well-deserved sense of having been the victims of various regimes. They are all likely to be united in their fear of the rise of Iran, a Persian nation, and one that will soon achieve nuclear parity with Pakistan, India and, yes, Israel.

The world has lived with “the bomb” since the end of World War Two in August 1945. Nuclear weapons have not been used since, but Iran is the wild card. It will not yield to international sanctions. Its cabal of ayatollahs will not be overthrown from within. It must either suffer a massive attack on its nuclear and military facilities or it will fill the skies over Israel and other nations with mushroom clouds.

The leaders of Western nations seem unaware that, immediately upon the death of Mohammed in 632 A.D., Islam split into two factions, Sunnis and Shiites, who have been in conflict with one another ever since.

The history of Islam consists of waging war on everyone else as well either for the purpose of conversion, looting, or the collection of taxes laid on non-Muslims. This history has been broken by rare, short periods of tolerance, but Muslims, convinced that their Koran is the absolute word of Allah, have been indifferent to the values of the West and the advances of modernization that have usually been imposed on them through colonialism.

Islam has been around nearly 1,400 years and gives no evidence of reforming itself away from the Arab culture in which it took seed and away from the brutal punishments that pass for justice. It was and is a savage “religion” bent on global domination.

Even when Muslims find hospitality in non-Muslim nations like those of Europe they immediately set upon an effort to impose Sharia law, usually through intimidation, on the indigenous population. In the Middle East, hands and heads are still cut off, rape victims are stoned, and a charge of blasphemy or apostasy can get you killed.

As this is being written, Christians and the few Jews still residing in the Middle East and the Maghreb are fleeing for their lives as their churches are being burnt to the ground and their lives are at risk.

One would think that, after U.S. involvement—invasions—of Afghanistan and Iraq, we would have figured out that Islamic nations are impervious to any concept of Western style democracy. Islam’s claims to be a religion are framed within a political system run by theocrats.

Elections have managed to put Hamas in charge in Gaza and Hezbollah in charge of Lebanon. The ayatollahs grabbed power in Iran and turned that nation into a prison. The mobs in the streets of Syria are trying to overthrow the Assad dynasty, warring against an Alawaite minority tribe ruling as Baathists. Yemen is a basketcase and Somalia is even worse.

The ignorance of these facts has cost Americans billions, if not trillions, with our adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has led President Obama to intercede in Libya for no good reason. It is a desert under which oil exists. Beyond that, it hardly matters which dictator is in charge. Gadhafi’s dabbling in terrorism cost him more than it was worth.

So long as Obama is President, the U.S. will pursue unrealistic and often stunningly stupid policies and actions as regards Islam and Muslim nations.

By way of one small example, in April Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, appointed Arif Alikhan, a devout Muslim, as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development. Alikhan was born in Damascus, Syria. I am sure you feel safer now knowing that.

Are there nice Muslims? Sure. Are there “moderate” Muslims? Possibly, but they are outnumbered by the millions who are not. Oil money and various illegal enterprises support terrorism. Even Americans contribute because the Obama administration will not permit exploration or drilling for an estimated 150 billion barrels of our own domestic oil.

And you still wonder why President Obama actually bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia? Or that George W. Bush ignored the fact that all but one of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were Saudis? No President wants a repeat of the 1973 Saudi oil boycott.

Nothing good can come out of the current turmoil affecting most Arab Muslim nations. The U.S. would be wise to maintain its military power, but the fact is our Navy is being reduced, our Air Force is flying aging aircraft, and the combat divisions of our Army and Marines are worn out from repeated tours in the Middle East.

Obama is as clueless as Woodrow Wilson who thought he could bring “peace in our time” and only managed to help set in motion the run-up to World War Two. He has put America at risk in so many ways I am losing count.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 

WesternFront America

By Alan Caruba

Anyone such as myself who lived through the long years of the Vietnam quagmire knows that the United States is repeating the same errors in the Middle East that we did with that nation. We seem incapable of recognizing a civil war when we see one and incapable of not inserting ourselves in the midst of it.

I speak specifically of Libya and the inchoate decisions and measures taken by the Obama administration. To suggest that the present White House and State Department have a Middle East “policy” is to vastly overstate and misunderstand their ignorance of that region of the world and the forces at work within it.

The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001, shortly after 9/11. What should have been a short sortie to inflict punishment on the al Qaeda and the Taliban has turned into a classic “quagmire”. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 reflects this as well.

Like many, I thought that the application of U.S. military intervention would somehow drag the Middle East into the 21st century, but clearly the region remains subject to the seventh century religion of Islam and its schism between the majority Sunnis and the minority Shiites. Islam, plus a tribalism that reaches back millennia, renders the Middle East intractable to the West’s efforts.

Billions have been squandered in Afghanistan and Iraq, while the real enemy, Iran, has been allowed to go unscathed in its pursuit of regional hegemony and its pursuit of nuclear parity with its “neighbors”, Pakistan, India, and Russia.

As this is written, Saudi Arabia has concluded that the United States will take no action to stop the Iranian nuclear program and is seeking to pull together a Gulf State coalition to end the expansionist ambitions of the Iranian ayatollahs. The Saudis have also consulted with Israel.

Forty years seems to be the limit that Middle Eastern populations will tolerate the various despots that have controlled Islamic nations. In Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria those in charge have found themselves under siege and, in some cases, removed.

In two cases, Libya and Egypt, the Obama administration has openly sided with the rebels. At the same time, it has incomprehensibly offered a weak defense of Syria’s dictator, Bashar el-Assad, Iran’s strongest ally in the region. Sensing a shift in power, even Egypt’s new ruling body has reached out to Iran to thaw decades of antipathy.

The only consistent Middle Eastern policy of the Obama administration has been its hostility to Israel, the region’s only democracy and America’s traditional ally since its founding just over sixty years ago. For all the caterwauling about the Palestinians, they have long since been abandoned by the Arab nations and are now well within the Iranian orbit of influence and support.

The Palestinians could have had a separate state decades ago but have always pursued an all-or-nothing policy aimed at the destruction of Israel. It is widely believed that they will initiate a new war as Iran’s proxies, from Lebanon in the north and Gaza in the south.

The Palestinians, in fact, have a sovereign nation. It is called Jordan which lost the West Bank, part of ancient Israel, to modern Israel after attacking it in 1947-48 and 1967.

Iraq has made it clear to the United States that it wants to see American troops withdrawn as agreed by the end of the year. Its Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki recently ordered an attack on Camp Ashraf, home to 3,500 Iranian dissidents for the past twenty-six years. That should tell even the casual observer that Iraq is now in the Iranian orbit. This is true as well of Lebanon, first occupied by Syria for decades and now in the grip of the Palestinian Hezbollah.

As to the Iranian people, the Obama administration made it clear they have been abandoned after protests against Mamoud Ahmadinejad’s stolen election last year received no support whatever by a U.S.

America has severely weakened itself since 9/11 with ill-advised military excursions that, like the Vietnam debacle, have proven costly in treasure and lives sacrificed in an area that is resentful of our unwanted incursions, coupled with our addled “nation building” schemes.

There is a massive realignment occurring as the result of the popular uprisings against despots across the North African Maghreb and the heart of Middle Eastern nations, several of which were the artificial creations of Western interests. Resentments against the tyrannies of former despots will likely give way to new despots, not democratic reform.

There is no end to the resentment against America and the West.

Lacking any kind of cohesive policy toward Arab nations except for the oil they provide, the only sensible policy America should pursue would be to drill for our own extensive oil reserves to prevent a severe shock to our economy and security. So long as Obama is President, this will not happen.

There is no perceivable policy in place to stand against Iran and has not been since the Carter administration abandoned the Pahlavi regime in 1979. The fall of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt’s Mubarack, Syria’s Assad, and the resistance to Gadhafi, along with unrest in Yemen and Bahrain will be seen, in retrospect, as inevitable.

What remains is a Maghreb and Middle East in a volatile struggle to determine whether it returns to an Islamism reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire or an enlightened embrace of Western values.

There is little reason to hope for a good outcome.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 

WesternFront America

By J. D. Longstreet

You should know that the Zionist regime has reached the end of the line and no one can save this regime.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a speech Thursday April 7^th, 2011. (SOURCE)

Earlier, on April 4^th, Ahmadinejad said: “A Mideast without Israel and America is now possible.” (Source)

American evangelical Christians are backing Israel now, more than ever, as they interpret Obama’s rejection of Israel as the fulfillment of Bible prophesy in reference to the so-called “end-times.”

In the Scriptures, as the huge armies gather from, in my opinion, Russia, China, and the Arab Nations to bring all their power to bear in a combined effort to destroy Israel, it becomes clear that the US will not intervene on Israel’s behalf.

The alignment of nations against Israel today is eerily like the alignment of the great nations from the North (Russia), from the East (China) and from the South (the Arab Nations) … in fact, EXACTLY as laid out in the scriptures.

(As Iran is backed by Russia, we have to add Iran to the Army from the North. Remember, too, the Iranians are not Arabs. They are Persians.)

Students of Bible prophecy, observing the events unfolding in the Middle East today, are fairly trembling with anticipation. Observing the events they have studied for so long seem suddenly to be prophecy no longer — but real world fact — is sending shock waves of jubilation through certain denominations within the Christian faith.

Why?

Because their faith teaches that when they see these things happening — then their “redemption is nigh.” In other words, the Rapture of the Church is at hand.

Look. This is important stuff! Whether you are Christian, or not, whether you are a believer, or not. Whether you are Gentile or Jew, agnostic, atheist, or secularist, there can be no question that an event of earth shaking importance is about to happen in the Middle East. In fact, I believe it has already begun.

In my opinion, it is sensible to believe that, at some point, Iran will attack Israel with nuclear weapons — unless, of course, Israel takes Iran’s nuclear capability away. Israel has first AND second strike nuclear capabilities … NOW.

The situation in the Middle East is so fluid that it is difficult to stay abreast of it on a daily basis. There is one thing fairly certain. That is that Iran is in there, somewhere, pulling the strings that will leave them in the catbird’s seat when things begin to settle down.

The creation of an Islamic caliphate has been suggested as Iran’s motivation. That is certainly a possibility but I think it is much simpler. It is, I believe, a power grab by the mad mullahs and their puppet Ahmadinejad.

Do not be so naive as to believe that Israel has been sitting in its bunker while all the surrounding Muslims have been clawing at each other’s eyes. Israel has, quite possibly, the best intelligence service existing on the planet today… far better than either the US or British intelligence services. If anyone knows what Iran is up to, what all the fighting in the Arab countries surrounding them is REALLY about — it is Israel’s Mossad. And that intelligence is in the hands of Israel’s IDF and their Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, himself, a former member of the Israeli Special Forces.

Looking past religion … take a look at the price of gasoline today. Now, consider this: When the Muslims turn their rage on Israel, there is every reason to believe that the US oil supply from the Middle East will be cut off –completely. The Suez Canal will last … maybe… 48 hours, as will the Straits of Hormuz. That means, what … eight or ten dollars a gallon gasoline? We should be so lucky!

Now, I am not a theologian. I’m not a prophet. I’m not an “expert” on anything I am aware of … believe me. I’d like to think I’m a fair “pamphleteer” … and that’s about all. But, I am aware of what’s going on round me. I make a real effort to stay informed on current events … and I don’t mean the lives of movie and TV celebrities and/or royalty.

Too often I have had friends say to me, when I question them about current events: “I don’t worry about that because there is nothing I can do about it, anyway.” That cop-out won’t fly any longer. Do you realize that a virtual hand-full of Americans changed one half of the national legislative body of the United States last November?

By this coming fall, I expect we will see a strong push by the Obama Administration, in league with the UN, to force upon Israel a Palestinian state — and in the process take away a portion of the city of Jerusalem in the deal. Any fool can already see that such a move will only bring on war between the two states and Israel will conquer and take back that which is rightfully her’s and, I expect when the dust is finally settled, Israel will own ALL of the land God gave them … not just that sliver they hold today.

So. When is the Battle of Armageddon? I have no idea. But this I do know: Hung out to dry by the US and much of western Europe and the English speaking world, Israel will still have any ally. See. Like so many others of my generation – I have read the book – and I know how it ends. Israel will win — decisively!

Oh. Israel’s ally? Just God.

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

E-Mail: longstreet1862@gmail.com

 

WesternFront America

By Alan Caruba

In the months and years leading up to the beginning of World War Two, all the parties knew full well Hitler’s intention to start a war. When he struck a deal with Stalin to divide Poland, the die was cast. The invasion came in September 1939. Previously, diplomats had met with the Nazis to offer them the former Czechoslovakia and turned a blind eye to other provocative events.

World War Two was preceded by Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” that spelled out his plans for Europe’s Jews and the torrent of lies that led to war and the genocide that became known as the Holocaust.

It is not surprising that history is repeating itself as in the case of an April 7 letter to The Wall Street Journal by Alireza Miryousefi of the Iranian Mission to the U.N. “There is no evidence of any military diversion” in Iran’s nuclear facilities claimed Mr. Miryousefi, who went on to assert that “the real threat of nuclear proliferation” was Israel which he described as “the Zionist regime.”

Despite Iran’s support for two terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas, it was Israel, said Mr. Miryousefi, that was “the biggest terrorist and apartheid regime.”
Today, everyone knows the Iran’s crazed ayatollahs intend to secure nuclear weapon capability and everyone knows that, when they do, they will attack Israel with them. They have never ceased to call for its destruction. It is not a question of if, but when.

How close is “when”? The Iranians just released a video titled “The Coming is Near” that describes the current events in the Middle East as the prelude to the coming of the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi, a figure particular to the Shiite branch of Islam and one that Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.

In a nuclear age, as Nikita Krushchev, a former Premier of the Soviet Union, once said, “The living will envy the dead.” Those were the days of the Cold War and, with both the U.S. and Russia possessing nukes, the concept of mutually assured destruction, MAD, was understood. This, however, does not apply to the ayatollahs. They need massive destruction to bring about their Islamic End Times scenario.

In a recent Wall Street Journal interview with Bernard Lewis, the West’s leading scholar on the Middle East, he pointed out that the mullahs “are religious fanatics with an apocalyptic mindset. In Islam, as in Christianity and Judaism, there is an end-of-times scenario—and they think it’s beginning or has already begun.”

The result, said Lewis, is that “mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent—it’s an inducement.”

In the days leading up to World War Two, the diplomatic choice was appeasement. Today, hope is that the mullahs can be deterred long enough that Iranians will somehow bring about regime change from within. The computer virus, Stuxnet, had the affect of interfering with the enrichment process necessary to weaponize uranium, but may not now be a factor.

In the meantime, the Gulf Cooperation Council, composed of six GCC states are discussing a proposal to identify and deport an estimated 20,000 Shiites linked to Iran. In Kuwait the plan would focus on Lebanese Shiites with links to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It is believed that many Iranian agents have been activated this year and, as such, pose a security threat. Said one GCC insider, “For years, the GCC knew of these people, but looked the other way. We can’t look the other way anymore.”

The news, unfortunately, just keeps getting worse and worse. In the muddle that represents the effort to overthrow Libya’s Gadhafi, DebkaFile reports that the “rebels” have sold thousands of chemical shells found in Benghazi to Hezbollah and Hamas, two puppet organizations funded by Iran.

When you add to that the thousands of rockets cached in Lebanon by Hezbollah and the rocketing that has been reinstituted from Gaza by Hamas, you have a trigger for a wider war.

Specifically, you have the elements of the destruction of Israel by the Iranians and the so-called Palestinians, a stateless group that have been the pawns of Iran and Arab nations for more than six decades.

In late March, Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) were joined by twenty-five other Senators who sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to identify specific steps the administration is taking to press the Palestinian Authority to end the “dangerous incitement against Jews and Israel.” The letter was sent in the wake of the terrorist murder of the Fogel family in Itamar and a bombing of a civilian bus in Jerusalem. A school bus has since been attacked.

You don’t have to be a CIA analyst to know that events in the Middle East will be exploited by the Iranians to bring about their apocalyptic End Times aspirations and that the destruction of Israel is, in their view, the trigger. After Israel, the United States and Europe will be next.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 

WesternFront America

For one NOT to believe that Iran is behind the fall of the Mubarak government in Egypt requires a “head in the sand” detachment that I fail to grasp.

What we are seeing on our TV screens is Egypt going over to the “dark side.” Egypt is lost. Maybe not at this moment in time, but inevitably – lost.

To our liberal brethren we say: This is what we warned about when we stressed maintaining a strong military and an equally strong foreign policy with a president strong enough to command respect from our friends and enemies alike.

Instead, we elected a president who immediately launched an “apology tour” of the globe exposing America’s chest to the arrows of our enemies.

What we are seeing in the Middle East including Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and to some extent Jordan and Lebanon, is a direct result of the Obama administration’s failure to support Israel — and for Obama’s obvious favor of the Muslim nations surrounding our only democratic ally in the region.

As Obama’s own minister has said – the chickens are coming home to roost. The problem is, they are roosting on Obama’s Oval Office and his Clintonian State Department.

As I watched Obama’s Press Secretary, yesterday, squirm before the liberal press corps and stutter and stammer his way through a so-called press briefing, it was PAINFULLY obvious that the Obama administration is in WAY OVER ITS HEAD! I was compelled to shout aloud: “Where are the grown-ups?”

Look. When America is weak – Egypt and Iran is what we get! Yes, that IS a reference to the Carter administration. As someone said yesterday, “We’ve seen this movie before.” Indeed we have. It is the Carter administration, and his unbelievably dumb shenanigans with the Shah of Iran and the debacle that followed. Several decades later we are still paying, and paying in spades, for Jimmy Carter’s outstandingly naive approach to foreign policy.

Having learned nothing, Americans elected an even more naive president, Barack Obama. As I said, having learned nothing we are, indeed, doomed to repeat history.

Where does Obama hide when the defecation hits the rotary oscillator? Huh? He DOES seem to disappear until some adults can be gathered to figure a means to salvage the situation, brush him off, and stand him up in front of the teleprompters with a prepared text of flowing, lilting, oratory to hopefully offer balm to the troubled soul of the nation. (A little sarcasm there.) OK. So that is what they did early last evening.

Members of the liberal White House Press Corps asked yesterday: “Where is the President? Why isn’t he standing here, in person, speaking to the nation — and to the world?” The answer is simple. The president is trying to figure out what to do — so as to come down on the winning side—and look good doing it. After all, the election campaign for November 2012 has already begun. All the while his minions are frantically searching in the “round about” seeking someone, anyone, who knows, or MIGHT know, what to do when the ship hits the sand!

This is pathetic behavior from a pathetic White House! I cannot recall a presidential press secretary so at a loss for words as was Obama’s press secretary yesterday. Not all Tar Heels are that ineloquent. I’m sure he is a nice guy, but, for god’s sake, couldn’t we have someone who could string two or three words together without an “uh,” or an ‘er,” or, “you know.” The whole thing made me extremely uncomfortable and I feel certain it did not inspire confidence in the America people.

Are we seeing a White House undone? I don’t think there can be any doubt. They could not be more confused and clueless.

Americans will feel the pinch, once again, at the gas pumps as prices rise. Yes, it DOES sound like the Carter Administration!

There is a price to be paid for national stupidity. We Americans are paying that price for the election of Obama. And each day that painful price escalates.

As the Chief of the Global Police, Obama has failed miserably. America’s archenemy in the region, Iran, is gleeful over the events in Egypt and at Obama’s blatant failure to have little, if any, influence on what will, eventually, become an Egyptian Islamic state tied to Iran. With the fall of Egypt, Iran will become THE power broker in the region leading, inevitably, to a head-on clash with the US and Israel in what could be a nuclear confrontation spreading into Eastern Europe and Africa.

Yes, a regime change IS needed – in America!

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

E-Mail: longstreet1862@gmail.com

 

WesternFront America