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Monday, April 5, 2010 EWROSS.COM UPDATE Beginning last week, The Daily Caller began posting selected EWRoss.com columns. You'll find links to last week's column, "Obama and Israel," this week's column, "Target-Rich Environment," and links to future columns posted at The Daily Caller, at the bottom of each column. Because of the increased traffic posting on The Daily Caller has brought to this site and to consolidate the multiple places where readers can comment on my columns, sidebars, and polls, I have created a companion blog site, Ed's Blog. The EWRoss.com poll results page no longer contains a comments section. Please follow the links to Ed's Blog where you'll find places to leave comments on all three. No registration or password are required. All that's necessary are your name and email address, however, your email address will not appear with your comment. You will also find an EWRoss.com RSS feed, links to other blog sites, and my most recent tweets on Twitter. EWRoss.com is in it's 5th year, thanks to all of you who visit the site regularly. Considering everything that is available on the internet and the seemingly limitless sources for commentary and opinion, I'm grateful for the thousands of people from around the world who visit EWRoss.com every month. Thank you for visiting EWRoss.com and Ed's Blog.
Monday, March 29, 2010 ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL Do President Obama’s attitudes toward Israel simply reflect his own biases or do they reflect a shift in broader American attitudes toward Israel? It’s a fair question to ask. Writing in US News & World Report, John Farrell points out that, “It has been more than 60 years since the victors of World War II agreed to the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East. The members of the great generation that fought and won the war are mostly gone. I bet that 100 times as many Americans could name the judges on American Idol as could identify David Ben-Gurion or Harry Truman.” Farrell has a point. While support for Israel remains strong among older Americans whose attitudes have been shaped by events long past, there is a growing segment of the population that doesn’t share them. Indeed, Barack Obama himself is in that group. Islamic influences on him as a child aside, there is little in his experience that fostered positive attitudes toward Israel or Israelis. For most of the 30 odd years since the Camp David Accords, and especially since the First Intifada, Israel hasn't been seen as a nation struggling for survival but as party to on-and-off negotiations about land, refugees, and issues few Americans really understand or appreciate. When violence breaks out between Palestinians and Israelis the media tends to show Israeli solders killing Palestinian civilians while it shows Palestinian youth throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. While the American people, since 9/11 the victims of Islamic terrorism themselves, have gained a greater appreciation for what Israelis have experienced for decades, I'm not sure this has increased support for Israel. Increasing numbers of Americans buy into the argument, as General Petraeus apparently has, that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to changing Islamist-Jihadist attitudes toward Americans. Israel, therefore, becomes more an obstacle to peace than an ally.
Monday, March 22, 2010 MY FIRST PROTEST During my 43 years of military and civilian government service I’ve frequently been on the receiving end of anti-government protests. I was besieged by anti-war protesters when I returned from Vietnam. I’ve been in the Pentagon when protestors threw blood on the building. I was personally attacked by POW/MIA conspiracy activists when I ran the Defense POW/MIA Office. Before last Saturday, I never participated in one. As much as I have written in opposition to Obamacare, I had no plans to participate in the noon Tea Party rally on Saturday, March 20, until I received a call from my sister-in-law in Kansas. She said she was flying to Washington to participate in it. Neither a Tea Party activist herself nor someone who had ever participated in a protest, she, like so many other Americans, felt she had to do something. The crowd, which ranged from young mothers with their children to the elderly and included Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans, was a cross section of Middle America. I took dozens of pictures of them and their signs and banners. I listened carefully to what they said and shouted. I didn’t see a single swastika or picture of Obama resembling Hitler. I didn’t hear anything I thought was inappropriate. One woman from the mid-west I spoke with said, “Just wait, the media will find a way to discredit us.” Sure enough, articles in the major newspaper and Internet news sites prominently featured accusations that protesters had used abusive and racially tinged language and behavior toward Democrat Representatives. Once again the media has labeled the forest for a few odd trees.
Monday, March 15, 2010 REPUBLICANS APPEAL TO UNDECIDED DEMOCRATS, BUT ARE THEY LISTENING? On Saturday, March 13, newly elected Senator Scott Brown (R MA) gave the Republican weekly response to President Obama's Saturday address. Articulating Republican talking points, his appeal was aimed more at undecided Democrat House members than the American people who have already made up their minds. Republicans chose Brown to give the response to President Obama's weekly address to remind Democrat Representatives, about to vote again on healthcare reform, what happened on January 19 in the Massachusetts special election. Brown defeated his Democrat challenger in one of the most liberal, Democrat states in the country. He won openly campaigning to become the "41st Senator," bring to an end Democrats filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and stop government-controlled healthcare reform dead in its tracks. Whether any House Democrats even heard or watched Brown's appeal, especially the five Nancy Pelosi has targeted, we can't be sure. No doubt their telephones are ringing off the hook, their email inboxes are full, and the lobbies of their offices are overflowing with people trying to influencing their vote. I doubt they had the time to listen to Brown. More unnerving, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has likely has invited them over to watch The Godfather with her, after which she intends to make them an offer they can't refuse. I hope Republicans have a plan B.
Monday, March 8, 2010 ACADEMY AWARD WINNING 'WAR MOVIES' How many of your favorite 'war movies' are on this list of selected Oscar winners? See mine here. 2006 - Letters from Iwo Jima - Best Sound Editing 2001 - Black Hawk Down - Best Film Editing & Sound 2001 - Pearl Harbor - Best Sound Editing 1986 - Platoon - Best Picture, Director, Film Editing, & Sound 1979 - Apocalypse Now - Best Cinematography & Sound 1978 - The Deer Hunter - Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, & Sound 1970 - Patton - Best Picture, Director, Actor, Set Decoration, Film Editing, Sound, & Writing 1953 - From Here to Eternity - Best Picture, Director, & Film Editing 1949 - 12 O'Clock High - Best Supporting Actor & Sound 1943 - For Whom the Bell Tolls - Best Supporting Actress 1932 - A Farewell to Arms - Best Cinematography & Sound 1927 - Wings - Best Picture & Effects Comment
Monday, March 1, 2010 60 MINUTES In 2008, Gregg Bergersen was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to five years in prison for selling secrets about US-Taiwan Military programs to Tai Kuo, a Louisiana businessman who turned out to be a Chinese spy. Now a video of Bergersen taking money from Kuo is part of a February 28, 60 Minutes segment on Chinese espionage in the United States.It was painful for those of us who knew and worked with Bergersen at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to learn of his activities. It's informative, however, to watch the video. It shows us how casually some people can betray their country, foolishly believing they can get away with it. The video and the 60 Minutes segment give us a glimpse of the sophisticated surveillance techniques FBI counterintelligence agents employ. The Bureau's 70-years experience catching spies and the latest technology make them good at it. Spies have to communicate, and when they do, the FBI is likely to be watching and listening. FBI double agent Robert Hanssen eluded them for 20 years, but eventually even he was caught. What US counterintelligence agents of the FBI, the CIA, and the US Armed Forces have learned over the years is what most Americans who spy on their country have in common--like Bergersen and Hanssen, they have a security clearance and they volunteer. Not because they hate their country, but for what appear to the rest of us as trifle reasons. As I wrote in my February 18, 2008, column The New Old Espionage, a little more counterintelligence awareness along with the counterterrorism awareness would be useful.
Thursday, February 18, 2010 ABDUL GHANI BARADAR The arrest on February 8, 2009, in Karachi, Pakistan, of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's top military commander, in a joint raid by the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is a major achievement. It strikes a serious blow to the Taliban leadership as US forces conduct a major offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It also signals a new level of cooperation between the US and Pakistan's ISI against the Taliban. The ISI has long been accused of sympathizing with the Taliban and providing it sanctuary. News about what the CIA and the ISI have done with Baradar since his capture, however, has been sparse. This is certainly justified. Baradar, the number-two Taliban leader behind Mullah Omar, possesses valuable intelligence information. He's one of the few people who likely knows the whereabouts of Mullah Omar and Osama bin-Laden. For now, the less the Taliban and al-Qaeda know about what his captors are doing with him and what he's telling his interrogators the better. Coming on the heels of the controversy over reading Christmas-Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights and the decision to try Khalid Shiekh Mohammed in a civilian court in New York City, however, it raises several questions. Who will have ultimate custody/jurisdiction over Baradar, the US, Pakistan, or Afghanistan? What interrogation techniques are his captors using on him? If he does end up in US custody, where will we detain him? We know what President George W. Bush likely would do with Baradar if he were president. Even if he didn't allow the CIA to use enhanced interrogation techniques, he would allow them to push the envelope to obtain every bit of useful intelligence possible. Because of how Obama has treated captured terrorists since he took office, we can't be sure what he will do. Hopefully, Obama has learned from his mistakes and the American people's reaction to them.
Thursday, February 11, 2010 SNOWMAGGEDON This week's column was delayed by the historic blizzard that hit the Washington, DC, metropolitan area beginning Friday evening, February 5. It's still snowing as I write this on February 10 from a second major storm. Total accumulation outside is around 35 inches. Our power has been back on for about 42 hours after 41 hours without it. To people from places that routinely get this much snow, 35 inches is no big deal. To those of us who are long-time residents of the National Capital Region, however, this is, as President Obama and others have phrased it, "snowmaggedon." Residents of this area have a reputation for panic at the first signs of the smallest snowfall. Drivers struggle to control their vehicles, as snow tires and chains are a rarity. Supermarket shelves are emptied for fear of days without access to them. This time their panic was justified. As with all natural catastrophes, however, the men and women who must respond to this situation, as usual, have done a magnificent job. Snowplow drivers, power-company employees, policemen, and fire fighters are working long and difficult shifts. I salute them. Forty-one hours in the 19th century gives one a renewed appreciation for them. Looking on the bright side, the federal government has been closed for three days. It likely will be closed tomorrow and even Friday. Perhaps administration officials, senators and congressmen will take this time off to consider how much better off we all
Monday, February 1, 2010 WILL CHINA REACT DIFFERENTLY THIS TIME? China's previous reactions to major US arms sales to Taiwan over the past 20 years have followed a pattern. They issue strongly worded statements, warning of dire consequences. They break off military exchanges (when they have existed). And they reiterate talking points, saying that the US is interfering in the internal affairs of China, threatening China's national security, and, since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in Taiwan, inhibiting China-Taiwan détente. China also has put pressure on US business with divisions that sell defense equipment to Taiwan, although this has had limited effect as US companies are in no position to refuse participation in government-to-government sales to Taiwan through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system. In due course, however, US-China relations have always returned to their own equilibrium. Economic interdependence and political necessity constrain China from allowing the Taiwan to dominate the relationship. Will this time be different? China's political and economic stature have given it a self image of a world power equal to the United States. Chinese leaders may see US economic dependence on China's willingness to purchase US Treasury Bonds as leverage they can and should use. And they may believe that Barack Obama is a US President they can pressure. Chinese leaders have demonstrated in the past a willingness to subjugate national interest to national pride. They could overplay their hand. More likely however, they won't. They know they can't inflict pain on the US without inflicting pain on themselves. Their economic growth is too dependent on the US market and, since 1949, China-Taiwan relations have never been better.
Monday, January 25, 2010 The Interrogation Controversy We repeatedly hear that the reason we must close Guantanamo and refrain from the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" is that they do more harm than good. "They are a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda." Indeed, they are one of many on a long list that Islamist-Jihadist use to convince radicalized Muslims to become suicide bombers. But no one has yet produced evidence to prove that without them the there would be any fewer terrorist attacks. What we hear instead is that the terrorists themselves tell us this, so it must be true. On the other side of the argument, however, there is considerable evidence that the interrogation of captured terrorists after 9/11 provided information that resulted in the thwarting of terrorist attacks in the United States and Great Britain. Former Bush administration speech writer Marc Thiessen in his new book, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack, makes the case for the Bush administration interrogation practices. In his book and the video above he argues that we are no longer capturing and interrogating terrorists and that the Obama administration is denying the intelligence community the ability to acquire the information it needs to prevent another 9/11. This week the administration itself confirmed that it has no such capability. The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) does not yet exist; and when it does, given its limitations, it's not likely to be effective.
Monday, January 18, 2010 PROTECTING THE FORCE DoD released its report on the Fort Hood Shootings last week, "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood." The independent review headed by former Army Secretary Togo West and former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral (Ret.) Vern Clark is enlightening. As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in his press conference when he released the report, DoD's policies and procedures for dealing with internal threats is still rooted in the Cold-War. He acknowledged that DoD has to change and make them more relevant to the threats posed by people like the "alleged perpetrator," referring to Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The report's 47 findings and recommendations address shortcomings in DoD's personnel policies, force protection, emergency response, and support to DoD healthcare providers. Like the 9/11 Commission Report this one should go a long way toward correcting the problems and mistakes it highlights. One recommendation in particular caught my attention, and, I believe, has great saliency for those outside DoD charged with protecting us from terrorists. Finding 3.7 states, "DoD installation access control systems and processes do not incorporate behavioral screening strategies and capabilities, and are not configured to detect an insider threat." and "Detecting a trusted insider's intention to commit a violent act requires observation of behavioral cues/anomalies." It only sounds logical to me that if behavioral screening will detect people like Hasan we should use it to detect people like the underwear bomber. Are terrorists attempting to surreptitiously board commercial airliners not insider threats? I hope Secretary Gates sends Janet Napolitano a copy.
Monday, January 11, 2010 ACCOUNTABILITY A US Army Lieutenant Colonel I knew in Vietnam was relieved of his battalion command because one of his artillery batteries accidentally dropped rounds on a friendly unit during a combat operation. One of the battalion's batteries was firing in support of an infantry company engaged in an intense, close-quarters battle with a Viet Cong unit. The forward observer with the infantry company that called for the artillery fire was adjusting it as best he could under difficult circumstances. One volley landed on his own company killing and wounding several US soldiers. What struck me as odd at the time is that the colonel wasn't even commanding the battalion when the incident occurred. He was on leave in the United States. The battalion executive officer was in command. The exec, the battery commander, the forward observer, and the battalion commander all were reassigned. When I saw him a few weeks later after he had returned to Vietnam, I told him I was sorry that he had been relieved and questioned the brigade commander's decision. He quickly admonished me. He told me he would have made the same decision had he been the brigade commander. He said it was his battalion and he was responsible for everything it did or failed to do, regardless of whether he was on leave at the time or not. "When we pin on our insignia of rank, we become accountable for our actions and those of the people we command," he told me. "Don't ever forget that." And I never have. It may not always be appropriate to apply the same standards of accountability to civilian officials that we apply to military officers in the United States. Where the lives of American citizens are involved, however, that difference should be very small.
Monday, January 4, 2010 AIRPORT SECURITY Despite the inconvenience and annoyance they have caused us, however, they have provided a general sense of security to the flying public. The Christmas-Day attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, however, has made us acutely aware of the illusion that sense of security was. No security system exists that can't be penetrated, bypassed, or deceived by someone who is determined and dedicated enough to find the flaws in it. Reports out of Yemen reveal that al-Qaeda uses the latest security scanning equipment to practice deceiving it. Full-body scanners have been around for several years but not in widespread use. Now airports around the world will scurry to buy and use more of them, but they too are not foolproof. The most effective airport security systems, like the ones used at Israeli airports, do not rely almost exclusively on technology (metal detectors, x-ray machines, and body scanners). Screening by well trained security personnel with access to the latest intelligence and who employ multiple techniques, including questioning passengers and profiling to supplement scanners, are the most effective. The US and many other countries avoid profiling for political reasons and routinely delegate questioning passengers to untrained airline employees. If we truly want better airport security they we will have to accept more than security officers viewing our private parts on full body scanners.
Monday, December 14, 2009 CHRISTMAS IN A WAR ZONE Click Here for a Soldier's Christmas in Vietnam YouTube Video For me that first time was Christmas 1966. A brand new 2nd LT assigned to the reactivated 9th Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kansas, six months earlier, I deployed on 2 December with the 3rd Brigade aboard the USNS General William Weigal out Oakland, California. Twenty-one days later we moved by truck convoy from the port of Vung Tau, South Vietnam, to the 9th's new base camp at Bearcat southeast of Saigon. I spent Christmas eve sitting on a sandbag wall, cleaning my M-16 rifle, looking up at the stars, and thinking about my family 11,000 miles away. I'll never forget that lonely night because it made me aware of what Christmas is really all about--family, friends, and shared beliefs. A lot has changed in 44 years-- Remember our troops this Christmas. They'll be thinking about us.
Monday, December 7, 2009 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1941 As a US Army Captain, I was stationed on Oahu, Hawaii, in the mid-1970s. Our house in Pearl City overlooked Pearl Harbor. In the military and later as a civilian working for the Department of Defense, I visited Hawaii dozens of times until I retired from government service in 2007. Living there and visiting so often, I had a different perspective, of course, than the tourist who only visits Hawaii once or twice. Still, I couldn't drive by the USS Arizona Memorial or, after 1998, the battleship USS Missouri without remembering the events of December 7, 1941. And I couldn't stand on either and look down at the sunken hulk of the USS Arizona with oil still seeping from it and where bodies of 1102 of the 1177 sailors remain entombed without thinking about what it must have been like that day. I was only a few hundred yards from from the Pentagon on September, 11, 2001. I heard the plane crash into the building, saw the column of smoke, and smelled the burning jet fuel. A few months later when I visited Hawaii, I went again to the Arizona Memorial. This time I had an even deeper understanding of the shock and surprise the men of the Arizona must have experienced. With each passing year, the memory of that "day of infamy" fades further in the American consciousness. For many, the Arizona becomes just another tourist attraction. A nation at war, America would do well to keep the memories of the attacks of December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001 alive.
Monday, November 30, 2009 CLIMATEGATE The hacking and dissemination of thousands of emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England that reveal deception and data manipulation may be a game-changer. They don’t prove that long-term global warming isn't happening or that humans aren't responsible for some of it. What they reveal is that the paleoclimatology branch of climate science has become politicized to the point of engaging in “unethical and probably illegal behavior.” They should serve as a warning to countries around the world on the eve of the Copenhagen Climate Conference that it is premature to plunge headlong into binding international treaties that limit CO2 emissions and permanently impinge on individual freedom. The real “inconvenient truth” is that former Vice President Al Gore and many of those who preach from the pulpit of the “church of climatology,” have been serving up tainted Cool-Aid. They've been using junk science as a tool to bring about a fundamental change in the world order--massive redistribution of wealth and global governance. I’m not a climate change believer, nor am I a climate change denier; and I believe that pumping too much “stuff” into the atmosphere that we weren’t pumping into it 150 years ago isn't a good idea. Before we take drastic steps based on unsettled science, however, we should demand more compelling evidence. Honest, ethical, and objective scientists have discovered much about our world and our universe. They’ve made us aware of how complex it is and, when it comes to the odd six-mile-wide asteroid, how quickly life on earth can change. They’ve also shown us what true scientific research is all about--withstanding the most critical debate and skepticism without resorting to deception and the demonization of people with contrary views.
Monday, November 23, 2009 CONFUSED ON TERRORISM The Obama administration's actions on Nidal Malik Hasan and Khalid Shiekh Mohammed confuse our men and women in uniform. At a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I. RI.), Mr. Walid Phares, an expert on Islamic jihad at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, regarding whether Hasan was a terrorist or not, testified; "It will be 'terrorism' per Obama's team only if it is proven that there was a terror organization or a regime involved." Apparently, Hisan's emails to al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki are not sufficient to demonstrate Hasan's desire to become a member of al-Qaeda. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Attorney General Eric Holder, “Can you give me a case in United States history where an enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?” Holder responded, “I don't know. I'd have to look at that. I think that, you know, the determination I've made . . .” Before Holder could finish his sentence Graham interjected, “We're making history here, Mr. Attorney General. I'll answer it for you. The answer is no.” Graham went on to tell Holder that his policy was confusing our soldiers on the ground. What were they supposed to do when they captured another terrorist on the battlefield, question him for intelligence information or read him his Miranda rights. Has the Obama administration really thought through their policies with regard to the Fort Hood shootings and punishing the people behind the 9/11 attacks? You'd have thought that Eric Holder should have known the answer to Sen. Graham's question; and you'd think they'd understand that Hasan is a terrorist. Their actions in both cases only confuse our men and women in uniform who fight terrorism and embolden our terrorist enemies.
Monday, November 16, 2009 CRIMINALS VS COMBATANTS Too often, the debate over whether certain terrorists are criminals or enemy combatants is conducted on ideological and philosophical grounds where partisan politics gets in the way. It ignores the practical reasons why this isn't a good idea and why it makes us more vulnerable. Many argue that fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the battlefield is one thing, but we should use the criminal justice system to bring foreign terrorists who attack us in the US to justice. They find the idea of "a war on terror" to deal with them objectionable. They believe it puts us at odds with the Muslim world and gets in the way of winning hearts and minds with outreach to them. We should prevent terror attacks with good police work. The problem with this is that the criminal justice system is ill-suited for that task, especially protecting Americans from international terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. The focus of the criminal justice system is collecting evidence, preserving it for trial, and protecting the Constitutional rights of the accused. Captured foreign terrorists (enemy combatants) do not have the same Constitutional rights as US citizens, and granting them such rights inhibits our ability to deter, prevent, and defend against terrorist attacks. Collecting and preserving evidence inhibits intelligence collection and intelligence sharing. When we catch a Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after the fact on foreign soil, it's far more important that we use every lawful technique to learn everything he knows rather than reading him his rights and giving him a lawyer so as not to prejudice the case against him in court. In an age when terrorists may soon possess nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, we can not afford to do otherwise. The most precious American value is the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The paramount responsibility of government is to defend us against their loss.
Monday, November 9, 2009 VETERANS DAY 2009 This Veterans Day, the victims and heroes of the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5 will be much on the minds of those who take time to think about and honor American veterans. We understand and appreciate the risks they take in combat zones, but we don't expect them to come under attack on a secure military base in the United States. We certainly don't expect the attack to come from one of their own. If there is anything positive to reflect on in this tragedy, its the way our military personnel and their civilian counterparts reacted to it. Despite the large number of casualties at Fort Hood, it appears that the number could have been much higher. Major Nidal Malik Hasan is reported to have fired more than 100 rounds from his semi automatic pistol into a crowd of 500 soldiers. The quick reactions of Department of the Army police officer Kim Munley and her partner Sgt. Mark Todd and their close-range gun battle with Hasan prevented him for killing and wounding more than he did. Speaking of Munley, LTG Robert Cone, the senior commanding general at Fort Hood, said "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer." Munley and Todd weren't the only heroes. LTG Cone cited numerous other acts of heroism by soldiers who used their combat life-saving skills on wounded soldiers until the first ambulances arrived. Other soldiers responded instinctively, leading their buddies out of the danger zone. We've come to expect this kind of behavior from our brave men and women in uniform, but we should never take it for granted. Since 9/11 we seen all too often the great sacrifices our military veterans and civilian first responders so often are called upon to make. As they in the past and will in the future, at Fort Hood the worked side by side to stop the killing and save lives.
Monday, November 2, 2009 TUESDAY'S ELECTIONS For an off-year election the races of 2009 have stirred up a hornet's nest. Of special interest are the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and the special election in the 23rd District of New York. I addressed all three in last week's column. As usual, the winners, most likely the Republicans in at least two out of the three, will interpret the results in broad national terms. The losers will remind us that all politics is local. Both are correct. The trick for both parties is interpreting their relative significance and applying lessons learned to the races to come in 2010. More immediately, what message will Tuesday's election results send to senators and representatives in Congress who will vote on healthcare-reform legislation? Republicans hope that victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York will send a powerful message to "vulnerable" House Democrats who all must face reelection in 2010. Why else were Democrats in such a hurry to pass reform legislation? Tuesday's election results may sway some votes in the House, but it would be folly for Republicans and Americans opposed to current healthcare-reform legislation to invest too much hope here. Nancy Pelosi's leverage with House Democrats is considerable. I suspect the current bill before the house will pass. When that happens, the ball will be in the Senate's court where the dreaded "public option" has less support but likely will make it to a floor vote. Odds are that an amendment will remove the public option from the Senate bill. What emerges from the conference committee won't be everything Democrats wanted, but it may still be sweeping, radical reform. Herein is the key to 2010 and 2012. If Democrats force through healthcare-reform legislation that the majority of Americans abhor, they may have signed their own pink slips.
Monday, October 26, 2009 MY ENEMIES LIST I've decided to come clean this week and reveal my enemies list. Like the White House, I will continue to deal with the people on my list, but I won't allow their evil deeds to get in the way of my providing honest information the the American people. 1. People who design automated telephone answering systems for businesses, especially those who make it impossible to ever speak with a human being. 2. City governments who use speed cameras, especially those in 15 mph zones. 3. Companies that only manufacture men's clothing in even numbered sizes. 4. Stores that only have shopping carts with three functioning wheels. 5. Movie theaters that believe freezing temperatures and 100 db sound systems enhance the movie-going experience. 6. Minivan drivers that have to pass you so they can slow down and block your view of the road ahead. 7. Cable news stations that believe Americans still want 24/7 news coverage of the "balloon boy" story after everyone knows it was a hoax. 8. Cable news networks that run 'BREAKING NEWS' banners under stories they have been reporting for the past 8 hours. 9. The dozens of white-tailed deer that believe my back yard is Motel 6 and my shrubs are the free morning buffet. 10. Consumer electronics manufacturers that introduce new, more capable products faster than I can afford to buy them.
Monday, October 19, 2009 JONATHON WINTERS There's nothing like a 3-hour one-on-one in the back of a cargo plane in the middle of a Vietnam monsoon with Jonathan Winters to pump up a soldier's morale. In the spring of 1967 comedian Jonathan Winters headlined a USO tour to South Vietnam. One of his stops was to the 2nd Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division's base camp at Dong Tam in the Mekong Delta. Winters put on a hilarious evening show for the troops, of which I was one. He had everyone in stitches. Mid-morning the next day a US Army Caribou cargo plane was parked on the tarmac next to my small observation H-23 helicopter. Winters and his fellow entertainers were onboard awaiting takeoff to his next destination. As I was walking to my doorless helo the clouds burst and a torrent of rain began to fall. Sitting under the Plexiglas bubble of the H-23 provided little cover. I was soaked to the bone. I heard a voice call out, and I looked toward the Caribou rear ramp where I saw Winters waiving to me to get in out of the rain. Once inside, Winters guided me forward in the aircraft to a place away from the others. For the next three hours, wind and rain buffeted the Caribou as if it were flying through it. Winters alternately talked with me and entertained me in his typical style. I laughed and cried as he told me stories about his own service in World War II. "I was a Marine on the only US aircraft carrier not hit by a kamikaze," he told me, using hand gestures and accents to make his point. Other than that, not once during the three hours did he repeat any of the jokes and stories he had told the night before. When the rain stopped and the tower gave permission for waiting aircraft to take off, I thanked him, we shook hands, and I returned to my aircraft and the war with a much appreciated diversion from it. The contribution Winters, Bob Hope, and many others made to troop morale in Vietnam is beyond measure.
Monday, October 12, 2009 COLUMBUS DAY J udging from the wayWe have to wonder how much longer it will be before Congress passes a bill dumping Columbus and naming the holiday after someone else. Now that he's won the Nobel Peace Prize, I'm sure there are plenty of Democrats who would like to make it Barack Obama day. With their majorities in Congress they could pass such a bill without a single Republican vote. Of course, the president is too smart to sign it, so we'll either have to stick with Columbus or find someone else. Columbus wasn't the first European to discover America anyway. Leif Ericson is widely regarded as the first European to have landed in North America 492 years before Columbus. But we already have a Leif Ericson Day, and I don't think we want to name a national holiday after a Norwegian. It might give the Norwegian Nobel Committee the wrong idea. Then there's the claim that Henry Sinclair of the Knights Templar came to America in the 1300s. Given that many of his fellow knights were burned at the stake as heretics, you know what textbook writers would do with that. How about the ice-age Europeans that some believe crossed the Atlantic along the ice shelf between Europe and North America? Unfortunately GEICO already has the rights to their image locked up tight. Oh well, I guess we'll have to stick with poor old Columbus for the time being.
Monday, October 5, 2009 THE McCHRYSTAL REPORT Reading Gen Stanley McChrystal's unclassified 66-page report to Sec. of Defense Gates, I could not help but think back to my two tours of duty in Vietnam. I kept substituting South Vietnam for Afghanistan and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) for the Afghan National Army. The Vietnam and Afghanistan wars are two vastly different conflicts, of course; and the US armed forces that are fighting in Afghanistan are much different from their Vietnam War predecessors. Nevertheless, the two wars have something important in common. The right counterinsurgency strategy was the key to victory then, and it's the key to victory now. When General Creighton Abrams assumed command from General William Westmorland in June 1968 he abandoned Westmorland's search-and-destroy strategy and began pursuing a clear-and-hold counterinsurgency strategy, and he expanded training and equipping the ARVN. His strategy was extremely successful and led to major South Vietnam victories over the North Vietnamese Army. Unfortunately, the 1968 Tet Offensive had turned American public opinion against the war, and it was too little too late. General McChrystal's and CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus' recommendations reflect their understanding of the lessons of the Vietnam and Iraq wars. We've been at war in Afghanistan for eight years already, and, as during Vietnam, the American people are war weary. It's not too late in Afghanistan, however, to do the right thing. President Obama should accept McChrystal's recommendation and avoid what happened in Vietnam.
CAPRAESQUE Capraesque movies that promote the social effects of individual acts of courage are passé these days. Hollywood prefers blockbuster action movies that extol superheroes' acts of courage with boilerplate social commentary on the side. Movies packed with serious social commentary tend to promote the "progressive" values that Hollywood prefers. Still, every Christmas, millions of American families tune into It's a Wonderful Life on broadcast or cable television and watch it with their families. Its enduring message is one they still believe in.The question many people ask themselves when they watch movies like this is do they still represent what America is about today or only what it once was? As Michael Medved points out in his September, 16, 2009, column, "The Real Political Divide: Attitudes about America," the great issue between the two political communities (liberals and conservatives) is how they feel about the nature of American society. According to Medved, "what liberals mostly see when they look at this country is injustice and oppression of every kind." What conservatives see is "a nation shaped by a complex of traditions, principles and institutions that has afforded more freedom and, even factoring in periodic economic downturns, more prosperity to more of its citizens than in any society in history." Was George Bailey a liberal or a conservative? He saw injustice and oppression and worked against them; but he certainly fought for conservative values. Whatever he was, as far as I'm concerned he's still a pretty good role model.
Monday, September 14, 2009 MISSILE DEFENSE THAT "WORKS" Despite the great progress the US has made in recent years in missile defense (MD) the debate over its use and effectiveness continues. The roots of that debate remain firmly planted in Cold-War thinking. Mutually assured destruction (MAD) doesn't maintain stability if one side has a MD advantage. Therefore, countries like the Russia and China will always oppose US MD and demand concessions, like Russia's demand that the US cancel the Czech-Poland MD program, as a precondition for arms control and other strategic negotiations. The proliferation of short, medium, and long-range ballistic missiles by countries like North Korea and Iran, however, make MD an absolute necessity for the United States--North Korea and Iran pose no threat to Russia and China. No one said it better than President George W. Bush in a speech at the West Point Military Academy in 2002. "The gravest danger to freedom lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. When the spread of chemical and biological and nuclear weapons, along with ballistic missile technology--when that occurs, even weak states and small groups could attain a catastrophic power to strike great nations. Our enemies have declared this very intention, and have been caught seeking these terrible weapons." President Obama frequently states that he favors MD that "works." Most people interpret "works" to mean can it reliably intercept missiles. Works can also mean does it maintain stability between the US, Russia, and China. Democrats have a long history of opposing MD on that basis. Understanding this logic is key to understanding President Obama's cancellation of the Czech-Poland program. MD that does not provide a capability to intercept long-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles is woefully inadequate, and the US must, therefore, develop and deploy such systems. It cannot allow Russia, China, or domestic opponents to dissuade it from that course.
Monday, September 14, 2009 COVERING UP IS HARD TO DO The belief that President Roosevelt knew in advance about Pearl Harbor has long been put to rest for all but the most die-hard conspiracy theorists. By late 1941 Military Intelligence officers and Roosevelt administration officials expected that Japan would ultimately attack US forces somewhere in the Pacific. They just didn't know where, and they didn't expect an attack while discussions with the Japanese were ongoing. The world has now long known that we had broken the Japanese codes and that even the last message decoded on December 7 did not reveal the target of their attack. The Warren Commission did not have all the facts when it published its 1964 report on the Kennedy assassination. Since then, however, numerous independent groups, including CBS News, have studied them and have agreed with the commission's findings. No credible inside information has ever corroborated accusations that the US government covered up involvement of anyone else complicit in Kennedy's assassination other than Oswald. In order for hundreds or even a few living American servicemen to have been knowingly left behind in Vietnam after 1975 by the US government hundreds, if not thousands, of US military personnel and government employees would have had to have been complicit in the cover up. That's how many people had access to the most sensitive classified information on POWs and MIAs. At the Direction of President George H.W. Bush, all information dealing with the Vietnam POWs and MIAs was declassified. Despite claims to the contrary, no credible evidence exists to prove any living American remained in captivity after the war.
Monday, September 7, 2009 President Barak Obama has had a very bad August. Opposition to Democratic healthcare reform proposals erupted at townhall meetings across the country. A broad spectrum of Americans revealed their fear of and anger at government attempts to nationalize healthcare, out-of-control spending, and the state of the US economy. The "green jobs czar" Van Jones controversy drew attention to the dozens of "czars" Obama has appointed and how they were vetted; and it revealed a level of radical activism in the White House staff that reminded Americans of Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayres. Obama's personal approval rating has dropped to below 50 percent faster than any modern president except Gerald Ford. President Obama has an opportunity this week to turn things around and demonstrate whether he has what it takes to be a great president. He can resist the pull of the left wing of the Democratic Party, reject their efforts to radically transform America in ways the overwhelming majority of American people don't want it transformed, and work with moderates and conservatives to achieve a national consensus. Or, he can continue along the path he's on. Many of Obama's opponents would like him to keep doing what he's been doing in the hope that he'll only further alienate moderates and Independents. But it's still a along way to the 2012 election, and America has many great challenges before then. We can't afford a political civil war, which is what is likely to occur if the Democrat majority attempts to impose its will. Far too much is at stake. I'm skeptical, but prepared for Obama to surprise me
Monday, August 31, 2009 People who oppose using enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) on terrorist detainees regularly cite two arguments against using them. The first is that they don't work. The second, which contradicts the first, is that we don't know that we couldn't obtain the same inform by other means. The CIA Inspector General's 2004 "Review of Counterterrorism and Detention Activities" belies the argument that EITs didn't work. It's un-provable that other interrogation techniques might have allowed interrogators to obtain the same information. Even if that were true, would that information have been obtained in time to thwart the attacks that were prevented? On moral grounds, people argue that the ends do not justify the means--or do they. If you shoot someone in the back because you want to steal their money, it's murder. If you shoot someone in the back because they are about to murder your children, it's justifiable homicide. You don't know if you could have prevented them from doing that by other means, but you didn't want to risk taking the time to find out. Under the laws of church and state, taking someone's life is justified to save your own life or those of others. My point here is that morality depends much on intent and the gravity of the situation. In a society so loathe to judge the behavior of people who behave badly, we must be careful how we label our leaders when they make difficult moral choices to defend the lives of the American people. Life is full of moral dilemmas. Judges and courts decide when government officials violate the law. Only God and our own conscience know when we have been immoral.
Monday, August 24, 2009 Lockerbie is a word that history will always associate with one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern history--the December 21, 1988, murder of 259 people aboard Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 people in on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.The release on August 20 of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi--the Libyan intelligence officer convicted of mass murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for that crime--by the Scottish government is outrageous. It's an insult to the families of the people al Megrahi killed, and it sends the wrong message to terrorists everywhere. Scottish officials have rejected a scathing and appropriate rebuke by FBI Director Robert Mueller, saying that "compassionate release might not be part of the US justice system, but it is part of Scotland's." Al Megrahi's release, claims by Colonel Gaddafi's son Seif al Islam that British oil and gas contracts played a role in his release, and the hero's welcome he received upon his return to Libya, however, leave a foul odor in the air. Actions have consequences. Consequences for the Scottish government should be more than just a rebuke by Director Mueller. Until al Megrahi is incarcerated in Libya, we should not reward Libya and Gaddafi, who seek improved relations with the United States, by showing them favor. Scheduled visits by US diplomats and DoD officials to Libya should be indefinitely postponed. Their counterparts should not be welcome in the United States. When Gaddafi comes to the United Nations in September US diplomats should give him the cold shoulder.
Monday August 17, 2009 There is a simple reason for the enormous popularity of 'Star Trek' since the original television series debuted 43 years ago. Gene Rodenberry's vision of our future is one Americans in particular have found compelling and believable--yes, believable. Not only have we been entertained by great characters, stories, and special effects, but we have been seduced by the portrayal of life in an age of intergalactic space travel that we want to believe one day will be a reality. Strip away the Klingons, the Borg, "beam me up, Scotty," and other purely science-fiction aspects of Star Trek and think about the basics--a social and political system based on the principals found in the US Constitution that has kept pace with advanced technology and that works well. Wars, prejudice, and the lust for power h ave not gone away; human beings and other intelligent species cope with them in a more enlightened manner. While Star Wars is largely a saga about a social and political system that's failed, Star Trek is about one that's succeeded.It's no coincidence that Star Trek came on the scene in the middle of the Apollo Moon program. Manned space flights captured people's imaginations and Star Trek took advantage of that. Although the original series was cancelled after the third season, it has gone on to become one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. It would be a shame if we allow Star Trek and other science fiction about our future to be a substitute for pursuit of the real thing.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 TARGET FIXATION As a forward observer in Vietnam I watched a US Air Force pilot I was talking with on the radio fly his F100 fighter/bom ber into the target he was attacking. From the way he talked I concluded that he had 'target fixation.' That’s when the brain is so intently focused on the target that a person becomes oblivious to danger, forgets to take action, and crashes into it. If radical healthcare reformers aren’t careful, their fixation will result in a collision with their target--the American people.It is increasingly obvious that a majority of Americans do not want to reform the entire US healthcare system. They especially do not want the government to micromanage healthcare or a 'public option' that inevitably will lead to a 'single-payer' system. Despite all the outrage at townhall meetings this month liberal reformers have branded their critics as an unruly mob and are ignoring their legitimate concerns. From the way they talk, it's apparent that they are fixated on their target and are determined to ram through radical healthcare legislation this year, oblivious to the dangers. They still have time to pull back on the stick, however, level out, and go around. When they come back again they need to focus on carefully selected targets that won't inflict massive collateral damage on the country and themselves.
M onday, August 10, 2009"FISHY' I have to wonder how many people have reported my columns critical of Democratic healthcare proposals to the White House. If you think this week's, last week's, or my July 20 columns contain "fishy" information about healthcare reform, you may be one of them. On August 3, former ABC and CBS reporter Linda Douglass appeared in a video on the White House website asking anyone who came across "fishy" information about Democratic healthcare proposals on the web or in an email to send that information to flag@whitehouse.gov. Many people have questioned this tactic, some say it's illegal and a violation of the 1974 Freedom of Information Act.Whether or not this is a violation of the law, I don't know. You would think that the White House general counsel's office reviewed all this before the video was posted on the web. Whether this tactic has a chilling effect on criticism of the government in this day and age, also is questionable. What's certain is that the person responsible for this initiative needs a vacation and a refresher course on common sense. While such tactics may be appropriate for the Democratic National Committee, they are unseemly for the White House. In the United States of America, the government doesn't ask Americans to inform on their fellow citizens. Thursday, August 6, 2009‘ASTROTURF': RIDICULE IS NOT AN ARGUMENTAs I indicated in Monday's column we should expect an all out effort by liberals in entertainment and the media to ridicule voices of opposition to what Democrats in Congress are doing; and they have been. This week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined them. Speaking to San Francisco's KTUV News, Pelosi, referring to angry people at Democrat's town-hall meetings, said "This [tea party] initiative is funded by the high end--we call call it Astroturf, it’s not really a grassroots movement. It’s astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class." (link) Far-left liberals like Speaker Pelosi refuse to recognize that Americans, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, are genuinely concerned and angry. The Democratic Congress is mortgaging the country's future for programs (the stimulus package) that haven't worked and reforms in energy and healthcare that won't affect climate change or improve American's quality of life. They feel like they're getting the bum's rush. Anti-war protests during the Bush administration and pro-healthcare-reform rallies organized by the Obama administration are described as grassroots expressions. Those the left disagrees with are 'Astroturf.' What's new?
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 CLINTON AND KIM We can only speculate for the moment what behind-the-scenes deal was struck between the United States and North Korea for Kim Jong-Il to release Americans Euna Lee and Laura Lin from incarceration. I doubt, however, that Kim was satisfied with just a picture of himself and former President Bill Clinton. While all Americans should be happy to see these two women journalists released from the national gulag we call North Korea, we have to question what price the Obama administration paid for them. Kim, as inept as he is at running his country, has been a master at manipulating the United States. From the moment Lee and Lin were arrested they were a bargaining chip for Kim to play at the most opportune moment. While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that the release of the two women and North Korea's nuclear program should remain separate, it's difficult to imagine that the nuclear issue did not come up during Clinton's discussions with Kim. Also, the reason the US Government does not pay ransom to terrorists or make concessions to rogue states is because by doing so it puts a price, monetary or policital, on the head of every American. Three Americans were recently arrested in Iran. What price must we now pay for their release? As soon as Lee and Lin are safely back on American soil the Obama administration should fully disclose to the American people the substance of all agreements made with North Korea for Lee and Lin's release.
Monday, July 27, 2009 TEMPORARY DIVERSION President Obama's criticism of Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley temporarily eclipsed healthcare reform as the top news story. Next week, as legislators return home to their states and districts for Congress' August recess, healthcare reform will be back on top. Democrats will continue their efforts to convince their constituents that we need a wholesale replacement of the current system with a new one run by the federal government. That system, they will argue, will guarantee healthcare to everyone, pay for itself, and lower costs to American families. They will play down the tradeoffs--bureaucrats involved in the relationship between patients and doctors, inefficiency, and rationing. Republicans will point out the negative aspects of the Democrats' plan, and they will argue that it will only further swell the deficits and hasten bankrupting the country. They will point out that the overwhelming majority of Americans are happy with the healthcare they receive and the insurance plans that cover them. It's not necessary to swap the current system for a worse one, only target what needs fixed in the current system. It should come as no surprise that I side with the Republicans on healthcare. You don't trade in a Cadillac you like for a gas-guzzling Suburban when the Cadillac is cheaper to own and operate and all it needs is a tune up and a new set of tires.
Thursday, July 16, 2009 TORT REFORM & HEALTHCARE One of the most important things the Congress of the United States can do to bring down the cost of health care in America is enact tort reform. The exponential rise in malpractice insurance premiums and the excessive judgments levied against hospitals and doctors by juries in civil law suits are prime drivers of the spiraling increases in health care costs. Oddly, tort reform is nowhere to be found in the Democrat health care bill before Congress. Trial lawyers are one of the most influential interest groups in the Democratic party and they contribute millions to Democratic candidates. Instead, the Democratic plan proposes unnecessary government micromanagement of the American health-care system which will only increase cost, reduce efficiency, and result in the denial of health care to older Americans as limited resources are rationed by Washington bureaucrats. Coupled with tort reform, tax credits and other incentives to allow those who are currently uninsured to obtain private health insurance will go a long way toward insuring that quality, affordable health care is available to all Americans. If the Democratic health care plan becomes law, the quality of health care in the United States will only decline.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 NO SELF CONTROL For a while it appeared that Democrats would resist the overwhelming desire of those on the far left of their party to investigate members of the George W. Bush administration, including the president, the vice president, and the CIA. President Obama quickly realized what a bad idea that was when he saw the reaction to his release of top secret Bush administration memos on CIA interrogation techniques. He said he wanted to look forward, not backward. Apparently, however, the temptation has proven too great. Now, Democrats want to investigate Cheney and the CIA over a statement by current CIA Director Leon Panetta that Cheney directed the CIA not to brief Congress on a program to assassinate al-Qaeda leaders after 9/11 that credible sources say was never operationalized. At the same time, Attorney General Eric Holder is seriously considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate CIA personnel who may have gone “too far” in their interrogations of terrorist detainees. Like all special prosecutors, once empowered, he won’t stop there. Wise heads in both the Democratic and Republican parties understand that pursuing these investigations might satisfy those who believe Bush, Cheney, and many people in their administration are war criminals, but it will do more damage to Democrats than to Republicans. Those who suffer from Bush/Cheney-derangement syndrome already think that way. They don’t need an investigation to confirm what they believe. Fair-minded Americans, however, don’t what to see any US presidential administration prosecute its predecessor for what amounts to policy and political differences. President Obama is already losing airspeed and altitude with his out-of-control spending that isn’t curbing unemployment. Investigations of Bush, Cheney, and the CIA will only drive his approval numbers lower and lose more seats for Democrats in the House and Senate in 2010.
Monday, July 13, 2009 DEMOCRATS ARE PLAYING POLITICS AGAIN WITH THE CIA According to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, Director Leon Panetta, in a classified briefing, told them he had terminated an eight-year-old program not previously briefed to them because former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to. They immediately demanded an investigation into the program and Cheney's role, making accusations they could not back up without revealing classified information. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden reacted angrily. He said that he personally kept "top members" of Congress well-informed during his tenure. House Republicans charged that all House Democrats were doing was trying to give Speaker Nancy Pelosi political cover for her accusations that the CIA routinely lied to Congress after she denied receiving a CIA briefing on waterboarding. Also we learned that Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's CIA interrogation practices, in contradiction to President Obama's stated desires. Because we don't know the details of the program Panetta briefed to Congress and we don't know if CIA interrogators broke any laws, it's appropriate for a bi-partisan group of investigators reporting to the House and Senate Intelligence committees to conduct a classified look into these matters. According to Senator Dianne Feinstein on Fox News Sunday, they are. If they discover any wrongdoing they can refer it to the Justice Department. Democrats are taking big risks at the CIA's and the nation's expense if they continue to make this a public political issue and if Holder appoints a special prosecutor. Americans want their CIA protecting them from terrorist attacks, not constantly deterred from doing their job for fear of recrimination. They also expect the CIA to conduct its activities within the law, but they don't want to see it handcuffed and frog-marched in public before it's convicted.
Thursday, July 9, 2009 PAGLIA VS DOWD Why is Camille Paglia just about the only liberal feminist who ever has anything good to say about Sarah Palin. While liberal-feminist journalists like Maureen Dowd regularly ravage Sarah Palin in her New York Times column, Paglia has spoken admiringly of Palin while often critical of Palin’s policy views on which they disagree. A good example of Dowd’s opinion of Palin is Down’s July 8 column which mocks Palin with a fictitious diary entry. “No one understands me. It’s like I’m speaking some Eskimo dialect or something. Andrea Mitchell follows me all the way to Kanakanak Beach and I get a French manicure and set up this huge photo op for her, even though she spooked the salmon.” Paglia cuts to the chase. “Whether Palin has a national future or not will depend on her willingness to hit the books at some point and absorb more information about international history and politics than she has needed to know in her role as governor. She also needs a shrewder, cooler take on the mainstream media, with its preening bullies, cackling witches, twisted cynics and pompous windbags.” I wonder if Dowd was the cackling witch Paglia was referring to? At any rate, if Camille Paglia finds something to admire and respect in Sarah Palin, then the soon to be ex-governor of Alaska can’t be a total dunce. Perhaps what Paglia sees in Palin is what so many other people who like Palin see in her. She, like Paglia, believes what she believes not because that’s what other people expect her to believe or because that’s what you have to believe to called a liberal or a conservative but because she came to her conclusions using her own intellect. That’s what the horde of liberal feminists don’t like about dissident-feminist Paglia, and that’s what they don’t like about Palin.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 Two events dominate the news this week, Sarah Palin’s resignation and the continuing coverage of Michael Jackson’s death and memorial service. Both are newsworthy events that, unfortunately, commentators, entertainers, and pundits will talk about ad infinitum. Two other events this week will receive only scant attention in the media. One is the death Monday of former defense secretary and architect of the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara. The other is the commemoration Wednesday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial of the 50th anniversary of the first American combat casualties in the Vietnam War. US Army Master Sgt. Chester Ovnand and MAJ Dale Buis died on July 8, 1959, when their compound was attacked by North Vietnamese communists. Theirs are the first two names on the Wall. These latter two events may not warrant the news coverage Palin and Jackson receive, but they are worth noting. They mark the beginning, and perhaps the end, of a 50-year American Odyssey that was far more controversial than either Palin or Jackson. For Vietnam War combat veterans like myself, the commemoration for Ovnand and Buis and McNamara’s death give us pause to reflect. Sometime this week, whether you’re watching someone pontificate about Palin, eulogize about Jackson, or something altogether different, take a moment to think about the 58,000 men and women whose names are inscribed on the Wall. It will help you put things in perspective.
Monday, July 6, 2009 When President Barack Obama arrives in Moscow Monday for meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, he will be under intense pressure to cancel US plans to build missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) expires on Dec 5, and Medvedev will hold a new treaty hostage in exchange for Obama's concessions on missile defense in Europe. The Democratic left will encourage Obama to make those concessions. They've been opposed to missile defense from the outset, agreeing with those, including the Russians, who believe it's destabilizing and undercuts arms control agreements. But if Obama truly believes it's time to put Cold-War thinking behind us and face the realities and treats of the future, he won't negotiate away capabilities the US needs to defend and deter against Iranian ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons. Unless the US or Israel does something about Iran's nuclear weapons and missile programs, Iran's far smaller arsenal will be a greater threat to US national security than Russia's because of the greater likelihood Iran would use it. How Obama reacts to Russian and left-wing pressure to abandon missile defense in Europe will tell the American people and our enemies much about how Obama intends to defend America. (link)
Monday, June 29, 2009 REGIME CHANGE As various pundits have observed this week, it’s difficult to see how President Obama can continue with his policy of engaging the senior Iranian leadership in direct discussions and negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program after the brutal crackdown on its own people. Any pretense of legitimacy the Government of Iran had and any hope Obama had of broad support for direct negotiations with Iran went out the window when it started shooting its own people. It appears that President Obama is left with two options. He can do nothing and perhaps wait for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, involving us, whether we like it or not, in a very dangerous situation. Or he can work with our friends and allies to impose strict sanctions on Iran while supporting the Iranian popular movement for regime change. The US is far more likely to garner support for such a policy from our European partners now than we have in the past. China and Russia, countries that on occasion shoot their own people when the get out of line, aren’t going to provide much help. The US will have to work outside the UN to achieve any success. The popular uprising in Iran was a defining moment in the history of that ancient land. If it ultimately succeeds, and I believe it will, it also will be a defining moment in the history of the Middle East and the World. President Obama should stop rejecting everything and anything associated with President George W. Bush and his administration. On Iran, Bush had it right. A government in Iran that represents the people who took to the streets over the past two weeks is far more likely to negotiate in good faith with the US over Iran’s nuclear aspirations than the existing theocracy. The sooner it comes to power the safer we’ll all be.
Friday, June 26, 2009 MICHAEL JACKSON Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t understand how people can get so worked up at the death of Michael Jackson. Like many Americans, I liked Jackson’s music, or at least I did until I learned of the allegations that he sexually abused children. I don’t know how true they were, but as I watched Jackson morph into something rather weird over the years, the child molestation acquisitions were just too much. After that I stopped listening to his music. I was a huge Elvis fan. I grew up loving and singing Elvis’ songs. His death saddened me, but not enough to make me want to make a pilgrimage to Graceland. His drug use disappointed me, but like most Elvis fans I chose to focus on his service in the Army, love of family, and legendary generosity. To the best of my knowledge he never maliciously hurt anyone except himself. Farrah Fawcett also died Thursday. She too was an icon, but certainly not as big as Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley. Her death was duly noted in the media; mostly it talked about her brave struggle with cancer and how she died with dignity. As a retired US Army officer living in the Washington, DC, area, I’ve attended dozens of funerals in Arlington National cemetery for people killed in battle or who died long after their service to America. In every case, no matter how well I knew that person, tears filled my eyes as I listened to the bugler play Taps. Two hundred years from now, I don’t know what people will know about Jackson. Presley or Fawcett, but some tourist from small-town America will walk through Arlington reading the names on the tombstones of the men and women buried there. All he’ll know about them is that they served their country. And that’s all he'll need to know.
Thursday, June 25, 2009 CAN'T PUT THE GENIE BACK IN THE BOTTLE Today’s news out of Iran isn’t good. “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Khamenei has unleashed the full force of Iran’s security police and militias against the Iranian people who remain in the streets protesting a rigged election and a repressive regime. They’re using deadly force to suppress the demonstrations and the death toll is mounting rapidly. Verifying the accuracy of reports accompanied by cell phone videos and Twitter messages is difficult, but it’s increasingly obvious that the situation is dire. As much as Americans would like to see the popular uprising in Iran succeed, that’s not likely right now. Unfortunately, they’re not that well organized, not that well led, and completely out gunned. And despite claims by the Iranian government that the CIA is behind the demonstrations, it’s highly doubtful that President Obama has let the CIA get anywhere near the demonstrators. That’s also unfortunate. The US has a mixed record when it comes to CIA support for opposition groups in countries with governments we don’t like; and the risks are big. Then again, the risks of allowing the current Iranian government to remain in power and on course to produce nuclear weapons are even greater. At least the White House finally rescinded the invitations for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at our embassies overseas. Nevertheless, Khamenei and his henchmen can’t put the genie back in the bottle. They may win this round, but the theocracy in Iran is ultimately doomed. Iranians, especially women and the young have had enough of their oppression. They want the same freedoms and democracy Muslins in Turkey and now Iraq have. They’ve been paying close attention to what’s been going on in Iraq. People laughed when Bush claimed the seed of democracy would take hold in Iraq and spread across the region. We’ll see who has the last laugh.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 SPEAKING OUT ON IRAN President Obama went further today in criticizing the government of Iran in his news conference than anytime since protests broke out following the Iranian election 11 days ago. Still, he modulates his words, concerned about how the Iranian government might use them, and he won’t disinvite Iranian diplomats to US Embassy July 4 celebrations. Is it that easy for the Ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad to turn the president’s words against him by invoking memories of the US involvement in the 1953 overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadegh and the US support of the Shaw? I doubt it. Certainly there are Iranians, Ahmadinejad supporters and members and families of the Revolutionary Guard, who harbor ill will for America. But the Iran of 2009 is not the Iran of 1979. The Shaw’s oppressive secret police, Savak, has long been replaced with the Ayatollahs’ secret police. The anti-American fervor that allowed “students” to hold American diplomats hostage in their own embassy for 444 days has long passed. The Internet and digital cameras didn’t exist then, making it much harder for the outside world to know the truth. And most Iranians weren’t even born then. Their unpleasant memories are of the devastating Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and the continuing oppression by religious clerics and their henchmen. Attempts by the ruling regime to shift blame for the uprising to America by making accusations that CIA agents are behind it would have no credibility. The world and Iranians on the streets would see them for what they are--feeble attempts to change the subject. Protesters carry signs in English not to criticize America but to plead for America’s and the English-speaking world’s support. Let’s not let them down; and if any Iranian diplomat has the courage to show up at a July 4 celebration let’s hope he gets an ear full.
Monday, June 22, 2009 THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY No one, not even the protesters on the streets of Tehran, knows how the popular uprising in Iran will turn out. The Iranian people, who have had enough of the oppressive theocracy that runs Iran, are up against the formidable forces of an autocratic police state. Regardless of the outcome, however, the protesters and everyone who supports them is on the right side of history. We’ve seen all this before many times in the capitals of Eastern Europe, Moscow, Manila, Beijing, and elsewhere. It doesn’t always end well. Shouts and hastily drawn posters are no match for bullets and tanks. What tips the scales in favor of freedom and democracy is the contagiousness of the desire for them burning in the hearts of those who take to the streets to demand them. If enough people catch the fever, no government can stand against them. Support from free peoples around the world is the medium by which that contagion spreads. Whether you twitter, email, or just express that support when you talk to your friends, I assure you, Iranians on the streets will feel it. What President Obama should or shouldn’t say about the uprising is for his national security advisors and experts on Iran to debate. It certainly wouldn’t hurt, however, for him to take his cue from Ronald Reagan who figured out how to support the dissidents while dealing with the Soviet government. Regardless of what our government does, however, those of us who believe in freedom and democracy should do whatever we can to support the Iranian people who are risking their futures and their lives. This opportunity may not come around again any time soon.
Friday, June 19, 2009 BACK TO THE MOON NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and a companion spacecraft today aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. This return to the moon with the first US unmanned spacecraft in over five years is part of an international effort to eventually place human beings on the Moon permanently. Right now space-based telescopes, the LRO, India's lunar orbiter, and several ground-base observatories will try learn more about the Moon’s composition. Most important it will look for signs of water ice--essential to sustaining human life on the Moon for protracted periods. It’s just too expensive to transport that much water there from earth. With all our problems here, I know it’s tough for most people to get excited about permanently stationing people on the Moon. On the whole, we’ve generally become bored with men and women in space, until there’s an accident. It’s all too routine, and we don’t like to think about what it costs. The Star Trek and Star Wars fans among us still like to think about our decedents someday traveling to the stars, but we know that will never happen in any of our lifetimes. Increasingly, however, we’ve very much become aware that human extinction is just a large asteroid away. They only way human life will survive after earth becomes uninhabitable, when that inevitably happens, is if we get off this planet and begin the long slow migration to others. A permanent base on the Moon is the first step toward doing that. As for me, I’d just as soon spend billions on that than on the hundreds of wasteful so called stimulus projects we’re spending money on now.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 WHAT TO DO ABOUT IRAN Popular uprisings against authoritarian and oppressive governments are funny things. When you see tens of thousands of unarmed demonstrators on the streets protesting a fixed election or supporting an opposition leader you believe might bring positive change, at the very least you sympathize with them. If you’re active on the Internet, you share your sympathies with your friends in emails or on social networking sites. That’s easy to do, and it gives you the feeling that you’re doing something to help, and when enough people do it, it does. What’s more difficult is deciding what you want your government to do. The US government has a long history of involvement in popular uprisings. It’s even started a few. There was a time when a little money from the CIA, a few well-placed operatives, a pirate radio station or two and a little luck did the trick. And if you had the Pope on your side and your name was Ronald Reagan, you could overthrow an empire. But you always have to be careful. If you misjudge, a lot of people end up in pine boxes in unmarked graves. Tiananmen, describes that situation. So what should the US government do about Iran? Should it speak out for freedom and democracy and perhaps opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi while working quietly behind the scenes? Or should it say as little as possible to avoid “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenie and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from making the US the Bogie Man. If it believes Ahmadinejad and Khamenie are the leaders Iranians really want and an Iran with nuclear weapons is just fine, it should probably remain silent. If not, I suggest it get busy. Time’s a wastin’.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 JOHN WAYNE & THE UIGHURS All I know about the Uighurs recently released from the Guantanamo detention facility is what I've learned about them from the media. I do, however, have lasting images of the Uighurs I met when I visited Xinjiang, Province, China in 1983. While serving as the assistant US Army attaché in Beijing my wife and I flew to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, where we rented a car and a tall, husky Uighur driver, whom we dubbed "John Wayne" because of the way he walked. We spent the better part of a week in that car with "John" and covered over 1,000 kilometers visiting the Turfan Oasis, Buddhist caves, and ancient ruins. Of course, you can't learn all that much about a people from hanging around with one of them for a week, but we did our research before and after the trip and observed how Uighurs in Urumqi and in the countryside lived. We also observed how John behaved every time we encountered one of the ever-present Chinese policemen or soldiers we encountered. He bristled. Like Tibetans, Uighurs are an oppressed minority in China. They have become increasingly radicalized in recent years by their al-Qaeda and Taliban neighbors to their west. Indeed they have conducted terrorist attacks in China directed at the Chinese government in Beijing, and some of them have been found fighting in Afghanistan. But when I see video clips of released Uighurs swimming in the ocean off Bermuda, I think about John and wonder what ever happened to him. They also remind me that not everything is black and white. As the old cliché goes, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 LETTERMAN APOLOGIZES Last night David Letterman apologized, on his program for his bad jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter. No doubt all the heat he was taking because of them played a big part in his decision. At least one advertiser is reported to have pulled its ads from the program in response to protests. Tonight protesters plan to picket outside his studio, calling for CBS to fire him. Nevertheless, an apology is an apology. We can only hope that it was sincere. I'm sure Sarah Palin will graciously accept it and everyone will move on. What will be interesting to watch going forward is how this incident will affect the jokes others make about Palin and her family. If they lighten up a bit and avoid the stupid jokes intended to demean and degrade the governor, then some good will have come out of this affair. Palin will remain a target of the left, but that's politics. Palin got the best of this round, but she needs get the focus off of her personality and her family. When people see or hear her or stories about her, they need to be on policy issues they care about if she ever wants to win the Republican Party's nomination for president.
Monday, June 15, 2009 CONFRONTING NORTH KOREA Since North Korea's most recent nuclear weapon and missile tests, Kim Jong-Il is behaving like a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum. He warns that any sanctions on North Korea are a declaration of war. UN Resolution 1874 authorizes inspection of air and sea cargoes suspected of containing materials used for the development of nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. Unfortunately, it fails to authorize the use of force to inspect ships and aircraft that resist inspection. Unless the US and other countries halt these shipments, however, the UN sanctions will have little effect. We either do what's necessary to enforce the sanctions, or we accept that North Korea may build and sell all the nuclear weapons and missiles it wishes. Like the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the threat of force comes risks. The question we have to ask is, is that risk now worth preventing the uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear weapons and missile technology later?
Friday, June 12, 2009 SHAME ON LETTERMAN The left will continue to attack Sarah Palin because they want to damage her and make her unelectable in 2012. Despite her stumbles during the 2008 election campaign, her lack of foreign policy experience, and her folksy, down-home style that turns some city people off, liberals understand the appeal she has to voters. They don’t want to take any chances that her conservative, pro-life, pro-gun ideas might catch on. Palin is certainly fair game for political humor as is any politician; even if a good bit of that humor is deliberately intended damage her image. That’s nothing new. When a comedian does what David Letterman did Monday night, however, he crosses the line. Referring to Palin’s “slutty flight attendant look” and saying her daughter was “knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” at a Yankee’s game weren’t intended to be humorous at Palin and her daughter’s expense, they were intended to demean and degrade them. Left-wing bloggers have said worse about Palin, but only like-minded people pay attention to them. When a media personality of Letterman’s stature engages in this kind of behavior fair-minded people should condemn it so that others who might follow his example will understand this is unacceptable. Letterman should apologize.
Thursday, June 11, 2009 SHOOTING CRAPS WITH AMERICAN LIVES Rep. Mike Rogers, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee's Terrorism Subcommittee, recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan. He reports that FBI agents are reading high-value detainees their Miranda rights in an apparent effort to build cases against them that will stand up in US courts. Coupled with a recent report in the Los Angeles Times about the DOJ’s “global justice” initiative, it demonstrates that the FBI is taking a greater role in managing terrorist detainees in Afghanistan. A DOJ spokesperson stated that Justice had issued no blanket guidance on Mirandizing terror detainees in Afghanistan; but, it acknowledged it had. This, no doubt, is a reaction to CIA waterboarding, and many Americans may approve of it. But it’s a reversion to the pre-9/11 mentality of treating global terrorism as a law-enforcement problem rather than an intelligence and military problem. Reading captured top terrorists their rights and giving them access to lawyers may get them convicted in US courts, but it will seriously damage our ability to obtain critical and perishable intelligence that might prevent another horrific terrorist attack. It’s shooting craps with American lives.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 MAKE THE EARTH STAND STILL Arnoud de Borchgrave, writing in the June 1 edition of the Washington Times, asks the question “Is the world more dangerous today than it was at the height of the cold War?” Citing North Korea’s recent misbehavior, Iran’s nuclear program, the insecurity of Pakistan’s growing nuclear weapons stockpile, and nuclear proliferation, he gives the obvious answer that it is. For those of us who once thought of ourselves as cold warriors, that’s a frightening thought. Like most Americans we worried about nuclear annihilation during times like the Cuban missile crisis. But we always had the comfort of knowing that our Soviet adversaries had no more desire to go up in a mushroom cloud than we did. Good old mutually assured destruction (MAD) kept both sides’ fingers off the trigger. Today, however, countries and groups that don’t mind going up in the mushroom cloud with us are on the verge of possessing nuclear weapons. Any good odds maker will tell you that sooner or later one of them is going to use one. It’d be nice if, like in the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, a wise man from another planet landed in a flying saucer and put the fear of God in everyone so we’d do something about it. Unfortunately, since that won’t happen, we have to figure out how to do it ourselves.
Monday, June 8, 2009 EAGER TO SPY Last week two more Americans were arrested on charges of spying for a hostile foreign intelligence service. This time it was retired State Department employees Walter Myers and his wife Gwendolyn. According to the Justice Department they were recruited in 1979 and were motivated by a desire to help the Cuban government. FBI agent Robert Hansen, another long-term mole, worked for Soviet then Russian intelligence and was arrested in February 2001. He approached the GRU (the soviet military intelligence agency) in 1979 and offered his services. DoD employees Greg Bergersen, arrested in February 2008, and James Fondren, arrested in May 2009, spied for Chinese intelligence, illegally providing classified documents to a Chinese man they believed was Taiwanese, thinking they were helping Taiwan. The simple fact is that the overwhelming majority of Americans, like the Myers, Hansen, Bergersen, and Fondren, who spy on their country have top-secret security clearances and volunteer to commit espionage.
Friday, June 5, 2009 D-DAY PLUS 65 Tomorrow's 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion provides us an opportunity to reflect on how America’s approach to war and our enemies has changed over the past six-and-a-half decades. WWII in Europe was an all-out war against the brutal Nazi occupation of mainland Europe and its assaults on Great Britain and Russia. D-Day was an all-out commitment to victory and the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. The horror of WWII, in which more than 55 million people died, and nuclear weapons have deterred countries from pursuing all-out wars. The Cold War, proxy wars, limited wars, insurgencies, and terrorism replaced them. The US and its allies won the Cold War, but we’ve had limited success with the others, lacking international and national consensus. We should ask ourselves, however, whether the jihadists and rogue states with nuclear weapons we face today are any less a threat to our way of life and national existence than were the Nazis and whether any less a commitment to victory will defeat them.
Thursday, June 4, 2009 TILLER AND LONG The mainstream media has given great attention to Scott Roeder’s shooting of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller as he worked as an usher in his church Sunday morning. Left-wing bloggers have accused anti-abortion activists and media personalities who condemned Tillers’ late-term abortions on demand as responsible for inciting his killer. In contrast the media has given scant attention to the killing of 23-year-old Private William Long and the wounding of 18-year-old Private Quinton Ezeagwula at a Little Rock, Arkansas, recruiting station on Monday by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a convert to Islam who, like Roeder, was ideologically motivated. Similarly, President Obama issued a public statement calling Tillers killing a heinous crime, and indeed it was. As of this writing, however, the White House has issued no statement to the national media on the Arkansas incident. It's too late for the media to correct its error. It's not too late for the commander-in-chief.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 THE TIANANMEN MASSACRE Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Now just another footnote in modern Chinese history, the lingering memory of that day for Americans who watched news coverage of the student protests is the picture of the lone Chinese man blocking a column of People’s Liberation Army tanks. As someone who lived and worked in China in the 1980s and who has an affinity for the Chinese people, I was greatly saddened by the event. China has changed dramatically since then, but the lesson Tiananmen taught me is that if tanks couldn’t crush the desire for political freedom in the hearts of the Chinese people, and they didn’t, Beijing’s brand of capitalism won’t either. As Chinese on Taiwan have demonstrated, democracy is not incompatible with Chinese culture. Sooner or later, most likely later, the Chinese people’s quest for political freedom again will come in conflict with communist rule.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 NO TEARS FOR CHRYSLER & GM I wish I could shed a tear at the downfall of Chrysler and GM. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, my father bought a new Buick every other year. They were great cars. We loved them. I took my date to the senior prom in his 1961 Invicta; but mostly I drove my mother’s indestructible Plymouths. I went through a ’69 corvette, a ’70 Cougar, and a ’71 Thunderbird. Then the gas crisis came along and I switched to Japanese and later to German cars. Once I started driving them I figured out that they may cost more to buy, but they were better built, cheaper to operate, and lasted longer. Our second cars were Volvo station wagons and Jeep Grand Cherokees. The ’93 Jeep caught fire while my daughter was driving it and she barely escaped with her life. The Big Three have had 30 years to figure out what they were doing wrong and what the Germans, Japanese, and Swedes were doing right, and they didn’t do it. I’ll shed my tears for the American auto workers who have lost their jobs, not for the companies or the union and auto industry executives that ruined them.
Monday, June 1, 2009 OBAMA'S SPEECH TO THE MUSLIM WORLD When Barack Obama gives his speech in Cairo Thursday he should show his respect for Islam, Muslims, and Arabs without apologizing for American actions in the Muslim world over the past 100 years. He should remind them that the US has come to the defense of Muslims in Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan and to their rescue after the Tsunami in Southeast Asia as it has for people in need around the world. He should tell them that the US seeks a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the US will never ask Israel to sign its own death warrant by agreeing to a peace settlement that ultimately will lead to the destruction of the State of Israel. He should ask them to look inward. Have they done everything they could to help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Finally, he should ask them to look forward, speaking out strongly for freedom, democracy and human rights and sending a clear message to Mubarak and others autocratic Muslim leaders. EWR
Friday, May 29, 2009 DON'T DIS THE BRITS What is it with the White House? First President Obama takes office and returns the bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose mother was an American, to the British Embassy. Then someone in White House protocol decides an appropriate gift for current British PM Gordon Brown is a set of DVDs containing classic American movies. Problem is, no one noticed that they weren’t compatible with the PAL system used in Europe. If that weren’t classless enough the protocol office has Obama give the Queen an iPod with Obama’s speeches on it. Now it turns out that the Queen, the only living head of state who served in uniform in World War II, has been left out of the D-Day 65th anniversary ceremony. Even if someone else had made the decision not to include her, the White House should have insisted that she participate. Americans have no better allies than the British and the Australians. Whatever you think about Queen Elizabeth she represents 65 years of US-UK shared sacrifice.
Thursday, May 28, 2009 AHMADINEJAD’S DIABOLICAL SMILE I’m sure Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad is watching the current dustup over North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile tests with a diabolical smile on his face. The US has tried for years to dissuade Pyongyang from pursuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and has utterly failed to do so. Kim Jong-il and his regime speak out against the US and its allies in the most defiant and provoking terms, yet they never face consequences that might force them to alter their course. The US threatens action, but it ends up urging Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table, offering positive incentives for it to do so when Pyongyang has proven that even if it accepts those incentives it will give nothing lasting in return. What lesson does Ahmadinejad and Iran learn from this—that Iran has no reason whatsoever not to pursue its nuclear and missile programs with all deliberate speed?
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