Things haven’t changed much have they?
This speech by The Great Communicator sent chills up my spine. You can feel the audience is enthralled by words they’re never heard before.
Compromise: A little evil at a time
There’s a lot of talk about compromise these days. If you don’t compromise, you’re hard-headed, partisan, or stupid, right? That’s the message that’s being sent to Americans by President Obama regarding the current budget and debt ceiling. The President wants to raise the debt ceiling, and raise taxes on the rich; the Republicans are resisting both ideas. Some people are arguing that the Republicans and Democrats need to compromise; the debt ceiling should be raised and taxes should be increased. How is this a compromise? This sounds like the Left winning both counts and it seems to be the continued digging of America’s grave.
Should the alcoholic compromise? Just a few drinks today. The drug addict? Just one more needle…This is exactly the kind of compromise that got us where we are. Just a little more spending…
At some point people of character must stand up to this madness. The Declaration of Independence was a statement against compromise. The Emancipation Proclamation, too, stood starkly against sitting the fence.
all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free
We should not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. But we are facing an existential debt crisis. America is dying for all her decades of compromise. And for that, we’d best put people in power who know how to stop hedging.
We can and must do better
President Obama’s chance has come and gone. Americans must ask themselves, what exactly has President Obama done to improve America’s standing in the world. His disastrous economic policies will be his most enduring legacy. His foreign policy is nonsensical and erratic, at times pleaded for the forgiveness of America by her enemies, only to undertake the Libyan War campaign that didn’t have an iota of the necessity of the Iraq War and undertake the surge in Afghanistan that proved a failure. This, after his primary campaign message was that America got involved, too often, in places it shouldn’t.
American confidence and productivty are at an all-time low. And all the Democrats can do after almost 4 years in the White House is blame Bush. They have to do better than that, and so does our country.
I urge everyone to consider carefully what is happening to our country. Has Obama Care in any way made most American people’s lives better? We are very close to sliding over a tipping point with our debt. Don’t think it can’t happen. This is not a scare tactic.
I have faith, that if America elects someone whom returns to common sense economic policy, policy that from the beginning of our history been the engine of American greatness, we will recover and it will be within less than 2 years. The President who lowers taxes, lowers Federal spending and decreases regulatory burden will not have to blame Obama because that President will be basking in the glory of success, not constantly defending his failures.
Libyan debacle
Hi there. We’re al-Qaeda and we’re here to help. John Rosenthal explains why the American intervention in Libya was a result of amazingly credulous politicos.
Sherman rolls in his grave.
We never learn because the elites in Washington don’t feel the pain of the battlefield.
Karzai defaults to Islam’s standard excuse: It’s America’s fault
It’s no surprise. Afghan President Hamid Karzai now thinks America intends to dominate the AfPak region and believes the US poses a threat to peace between the Taliban.
It’s as old as the resentment the high school loner without a girlfriend has for the school’s quarterback. When you can’t get the job done yourself, blame the shining star.
I believe Karzai’s been co-opted. He stole the election, and President Obama recently told him that the needed changes to Afghanistan’s central government aren’t coming quickly enough. Karzai senses that American patience–and firepower are coming to an end, and now he needs to start hedging his bets. He’s shaking hands with Iran’s Ahmadinejad now and that’s never a good sign.
This is why I’m not a classic Neo-Conservative. I don’t think we can change culture with war, at least not a Western style of war. We could change it if we were willing to be brutal, but we’re not. Rome proved the that the pen is only mightier than the sword if the sword remains in the scabbard.
It’s time to admit that Afghanistan is no different from all the other countries is the Middle East, except for Israel (the only fully functioning democracy in the region and the one most picked at by liberals…strange eh?). It rejects wisdom, clings to myth, and is quick to blame others for its failure.
Karzai stole his election, but we’re stuck with him. But we don’t have to go down with his sinking ship.
Attack the Taliban
Crassus: Knew that soccer ball giveaways were overrated.
Search through history and you’ll find something about counterinsurgency that won’t please those who want bloodless conflict: It almost never works.
Actually, counterinsurgency techniques may play into the insurgent’s hand. The techniques take too long and the insurgent wishes to draw a conflict out, to bleed his militarily superior enemy of political and public will.
Martin van Crevald, military historian and analyst, states rightly, that the problems for the superior military power in confronting the guerilla force is not so much political or military, but moral. In order to truly defeat most insurgencies, atrocity may be the only option. In the Third Servile War (73-71 BC), Crassus had 6,000 captured slaves, once led by Spartacus, crucified and hung along the Appian way which linked Rome to Capua. The message was clear as the blood was deep: You revolt against the Empire and you die.
It may be that we cannot win, most times, these types of wars if we adhere to Western values. This is not a value judgement on my part, merely an observation. We must choose what we are to do. There are three options. 1)Attack the enemy viciously, letting morality stand second in line to victory. 2) Involve our fighting men in wars in which many times will result in long, drawn out conflict and end stalemate. 3) Refuse to get involved in insurgencies whatsoever. Fight, destroy, then leave as quickly as possible.
Insurgencies arise from perceived injustice. Insurgencies in Western culture are rare, because the nature of Democracy tends to address, to a large degree, perceived injustice. When a segment of our society feels with significant passion that they have been wronged, they have a vote that gives some sense of power. They can protest. In other societies and in empires of the past, the truly dispossessed have no inalienable rights. The Roman slaves were property. There was no other way to address the injustice but to turn to the sword.
There is virtually no historical record of what is now being used as counterinsurgency techniques being successfully used in quelling an uprising. An uprising is likely to continue until the perceived need or injustice is addressed or sufficient pain is applied to the rebels, pain that makes them stop fighting. The foolishness of some of this over-hyped counterinsurgency bit in its use against modern jihadism, is simple when we hold it to the light: If insurgencies arise from perceived injustice amongst the people, any Western society will simply provide for the people’s need. Most uprisings of the past occurred in totalitarian or monarchal regimes in which all men were not created equal. However, the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the one that boils beneath the surface in Pakistan, is driven by religious zealotry. There is no perceived injustice per se, except that, in the eyes of the Muslim extremist, the world should live according to the Will of Allah, and that Will is interpreted by al Qaeda and its ilk. Even in Palestine, the perceived injustice of Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and the settlements of the West Bank are much easier to rectify than the desires of al Qaeda and the Taliban.
So, the modern jihadist requires something that Western culture cannot provide: That the whole world capitulate to Sharia.
The Taliban is now emboldened by the US’s defensive stance. Instead of ruthlessly hunting the Taliban, the US’s forces are walking through city streets shaking hands with people who care little. They know they don’t want the Taliban to show up and force their sons to fight for the insurgents. Shaking the people’s hands changes nothing. They do not have the ability to fight against the Taliban. Leaving the Taliban intact will not change the problem. It places us in a purely defensive stance hoping that farmers will like us more than the extremists. The Taliban is free to move from one area of Afghanistan to the other until it finds a place where there are no US troops–and there are plenty of those places. Modern counterinsurgency estimates would call for approximately 500,000 troops. Who are we kidding here?
The only answer, since we have decided that Afghanistan is so crucial (why is a country that isn’t really a country so important? Why more so than Somalia, which is teaming with militant Islamists?), and that we must be rid of the Taliban, the only answer we have is to hunt them and kill them, never let them gain their balance. Instead, they’re taking full scale military action against our outposts and even Pakistan’s Army Headquarters. We’re losing precious time. Pakistan’s government is far more pro-American than its general populace is. 300,000 uneducated and roiling people. They stand ripe for the extremists’ picking.
Pakistan is planning its third large offensive into the Taliban’s mountain strongholds along the Pakistan/Afghan border. The two previous attacks were repulsed by the rebels. If America is to end this war, we must attack the Taliban. Counterinsurgency plays into the enemies hands by making it easier for him to live and making the war last longer. Not to mention the fact that only an ascetic warrior like McChrystal could think he could make it work with so few men.
In the Third Servile War, Spartacus: forced into southern Italy by Crassus’ legions. Pompey’s army, ordered by the Senate to move south and assist Crassus, marched inexorably down the Italian boot. Seeing that his men were to be crushed between two juggernauts, Spartacus swung his formations around for a last gasp attack on Crassus. But there would be only the freedom of death for Spartacus. The vice closed and 100,000 slaves, slaughtered.
President Obama should give General McChrystal his 40,000 and tell him to destroy the enemy. Like Crassus and Pompey, the US and Pakistan should drive to the enemies’ heart, compacting and destroying him. Yes, we will take casualties, but failing to go for broke risks bleeding us dry of will, money and blood–and we could see Pakistan lose its very existence.
And the fight must be powerful and fast, before the media can yet again rush in to rescue the militant extremists.
Obama will ensure he’s a one termer if he grants McChrystal’s request.
There isn’t much good news for the new president these days. But he could easily make things better for himself. According to a new report, General Stanley McChrystal will request more US troops be sent to Afghanistan. He’s admitted that the current “strategy” isn’t working. Should Obama grant McChrystal’s request and send more Soldiers, it seems plain that this war’s ghost will last at least until the end of his current term, and that will not bode well for another election to office. All the other issues piled on top of this certainly don’t help.
Obama could continue the current ground war for six months, order a deescalation of troops and declare boldly that the US will pursue and kill any Taliban members or members of any other extremist groups should they threaten America. We need not stick around to change Afghanistan. I won’t say it can’t be changed, but I will say it’s not worth the price.
Obama though has already chosen the typical Democrat sideshow when it comes to dealing with extremists: Blame the CIA then start tearing it apart. Carter did it (read Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars), Clinton “gutted” the agency in the words of Tom Clancy and here we go again. The witch hunt will drive talented people from the CIA to places where hey can make more money (the average CIA operative makes about $35,000 a year) and are not in danger of being killed or sent to federal prison for pouring water on mass murderers or keeping them awake for too long.
If I were briefing President Obama on Afghanistan
If I were able to brief the President on the current situation in Afghanistan, I would say this: Leave now. Maintain a small force of Special Operations men and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Predators etc) at Bagram Airbase. From there, potential terror training camps can be dealt with swiftly.
We no longer need a large force in Afghanistan, a country with no hope for achieving 20th century competence.
We won. We did what we needed to do, thus achieving strategic victory. Now our troops only present living targets. Al-Qaeda is an ever elongating shadow, badly defeated even as the media told us we were losing.
Let’s leave Afghanistan, whose dark age mindset and advancement cannot possibly be rectified in our lifetime.
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