A BAD TIME TO HAVE A "PACIFIST LEAD OUR COUNTRY

Not only the impending threat of Iran's gaining nuclear weapons capability in the next year, but the threat of North Korea attacking South Korea,hangs in the balance.

Afghanistan seems to be the "chosen one's" target for military action if at all, but one cannot ignore the possibility that the Koreans and the Iranians realize Obama's disdain for force of arms, and take advantage of his preference to talk to our enemies, to advance their military ambitions.
What will Obama do if Communist China threatens to launch nuclear weapons against Taiwan if it does not swear allegiance to the Chinese? Or if the Koreans are not just bluffing, and do advance south of the demilitarised zone while launching ICBMs on Seoul?

And it not entirely impossible that Putin will invade the Ukraine with his tanks and ground forces as he did recently, into The oil-rich region of Georgia, and earlier into Chechnya, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,that forms a southwestern corridor of Russian territory. Will Obama give aid to the Ukrainians as Bush did for Georgia?

WE are replacing a "hawk" with a "dove", and apparently the Media and a little more than 50% of Americans are ecstatic about the CHANGE!
But will a "peacenik" Commander in Chief be able to talk those who await the "talker" with baited breath, be able to negotiate the peace we have had here at home, even while we waged a war in Iraq? Or will the despots take advantage of the advance warnings that Obama is anti-war and begin there quest for power over the geography they covet?

This story out of Great Britain, illustrates the potential for a hot spot flaming up again after over fifty years of Cease Fire!


The Guardian,UK. Is reporting "that North Korea today, threatened to "shatter" the conservative South Korean government in Seoul, as reports emerged that Pyongyang claims to have weaponised enough plutonium stocks to produce four or five nuclear bombs.

Relations across the heavily fortified border have turned frosty since South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, came to office last year promising to get tough on his communist neighbour after a decade of attempts by liberal governments to engage with Pyongyang. In December, North Korea closed border crossings and accused Seoul of plotting to assassinate the North's leader, Kim Jong-il.

But today's rare statement from the Korean People's Army – read on television by a uniformed officer – is likely to further raise tensions on the divided peninsula.

"Now that traitor Lee Myung-bak and his group opted for confrontation, denying national reconciliation and cooperation, backed by foreign forces, our revolutionary armed forces are compelled to take an all-out confrontational posture to shatter them," the statement said.

"Strong military measures will follow from our revolutionary armed forces," the spokesman added, warning of a clash along a disputed maritime border. Disagreements over the boundary triggered naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2000.

The statement came as an American scholar said North Korean officials had told him Pyongyang has weaponised 30.8 kg (68lb) of plutonium, enough for four or five bombs.

Selig Harrison, a North Korean expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said the North Koreans had told him the weapons cannot be inspected.

The officials were vague about what weaponisation meant, but it appeared most likely the plutonium would be fitted in missile warheads, Harrison said."

Is now the time when our resolve to defend all freedom loving Countries from aggression to be tested? And will we fail to respond?

HAS "pc" TAKEN OVER THE ARMY WAR COLLEGE CURICULUM?

If a report in the American Thinker blog is accurate it appears that even the prestigious Army War College for officers has modified their training and education to eliminate the dissuasion of Muslim extremism.

For over one hundred years the Army War College has been educating officers to be leaders in the finest Army in the world. The AWC Mission statement and vision state this: "USAWC prepares selected military, civilian, and international leaders for the responsibilities of strategic leadership In a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational environment.

*Educates current and future leaders on the development and employment of landpower.
*Supports the operational and institutional force
*Conducts research, and publishes to influence thought on national security and military strategy
*Supports the Army’s strategic communication efforts

The U.S. Army War College VISION statement includes these words:
*The Army War College strives to be the most prestigious institution for the education of strategic leaders and the intellectual leader of strategic landpower employment and development in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational environment.Source The Us Army War College Home Page

If they really believe what they say and print about their vision and mission. They are doing themselves and future leaders of the Army forces who will put their lives in their hands, a dis-service by ignoring the threat that the Islamic threat poses to us as a nation.Particularly those who enter "harms way" to wage combat against them, as they will certainly have to do in the future. Islam is a religion that does not accept other religions as equals as do Americans Christians and Jews. But is dedicated to conversion of the whole world populace into the "nirvana" of Islam, an they are not going away!

"Two recent blog posts by Washington Post military correspondent Tom Ricks related to policies and publications by the U.S. Army War College give evidence to this strategic collapse in the War on Terror.

Two weeks ago, Ricks reported on a new publication by Army War College research professor Sherifa Zuhur on Hamas and Israel that informs readers that Hamas has been misunderstood due to the misreporting by “Israeli and Western sources that villainize the group.” Zuhur concludes that Hamas isn’t so bad after all, so we all just need to get along and embrace the terrorist group through negotiations — a view apparently endorsed by the Army War College when it published her defense of Hamas.

A second post last week, “Fiasco at the Army War College: The Sequel,” records an exchange between Ricks and defense expert and author Mark Perry. Assessing the academic state of affairs at the War College, Perry informed Ricks:


It’s worse than you think. They have curtailed the curriculum so that their students are not exposed to radical Islam. Akin to denying students access to Marx during the Cold War."

If Israel is the object of destruction by Muslims; if Hindus, "Westerners," Jews and Christians are separated from Muslims and then slaughtered to joyous shouts of " (our) god is great!" in Mumbai can the US really be safe if we don't understand the enemy because apologists (at best) suppress the information? Be afraid, be very afraid.

As the Office of the President Elect Barack Obama (D) and Secretary of State designate Senator Hillary R. Clinton (D) have noted, we are part of the world and all the "smart" diplomacy they advocate won't ensure our safety from those who believe their god is so great he (and it is definitely a he) commands death to the non believers and a glorious martyrs' heaven to the believers.

Apparently the power of Muslim organizations has become so influential that even flag ranked officers are not exempt from political correct policing, as this story illustrates.

"Joint Chiefs of Staff analyst Stephen Coughlin, who published his finding in his master’s thesis at the National Defense Intelligence University, “To Our Great Detriment”: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad. In his thesis, Coughlin examines texts from multiple schools of Islamic jurisprudence to evaluate the respective traditions on jihad and their contemporary use by Islamic terrorists, concluding that failing to investigate these sources has left our military “disarmed in the war of ideas.”

Coughlin’s thesis had barely seen the light of day before he was sacked from his position with the Joint Chiefs, having running afoul of another Pentagon official, Hesham Islam, a top-ranked Muslim advisor to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who took issue with Coughlin’s academic analysis.
When will Americans wake up and realize that the basics of Islamic Muslim may be peace, but the intent is to convert or kill all other religions and athiests. If you doubt me, just check the history of Muslims since the 600's, and read the Koran.
It is a world wide movement that does not care how long it takes to obtain their "religious" conversion, and putting discussion out of bounds is done at our peril!

VETTING APPEARS TO BE UNIMPORTANT TO OBAMA TEAM

First it was Gov. Richardson that Obama had picked for his cabinet, as Commerce Secretary, that declined the offer because of a Federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.
Today the news is finally covering a block buster item about Obama's selection for Treasury Secretary. Yahoo News is reporting that the Obama transition committee reported the following facts to Senate members on December 5, 2008. Now a month later the main ,aka lame Stream Media, is finally reporting the following.

"The disclosure Tuesday, that his (Obama) choice for Treasury Secretary, New York Federal Reserve chief Timothy Geithner, failed to pay $34,000 in taxes and employed a housekeeper without proper immigration papers was another jarring distraction just days before Obama's inauguration — and raises fresh questions about his team's judgment, vetting procedures and political sensitivities."

Then there was the issue of the replacement by Mr. Burris for the vacant Senate seat of Obama. President-elect Obama and Senate Democrats were outmaneuvered by disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris, the man he chose to fill Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Obama at first endorsed the hard line taken by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Senate Democrats that they never would accept an appointment from Blagojevich. But Burris, a black politician who had an unblemished reputation, made a goodwill overture to Senate Democrats. Illinois constitutional law seemed to be on his side. Both Reid and Obama reversed course and signaled to Senate leaders that they should seat Burris. Some Black leaders claimed Senator Reids objections were racially based.

It appears to me that the usual vetting process for presidential appointments is either ignored or done sloppily by the Obama transition team, and as Truman once said: the "buck stops" at Obama's feet!

After all, in 2001, Linda Chavez's nomination as Labor Secretary went down in flames over matters relating to an illegal immigrant whom Chavez had sheltered in her home a decade earlier. Also, in 1993, Zoe Baird withdrew as Bill Clinton's nominee for Attorney General over the employment of illegal-immigrant domestic help and her failure to pay the related employment taxes on a timely basis.


In Mr.Geithner, we have a man who is nominated for the high position of Secretary of the Treasury. A position that includes the administration of the Internal Revenue Department. Collecting taxes!!!

But the delinquent-tax part of the new disclosure, in particular, is a huge liability for Geithner, given that as treasury secretary he would oversee the Internal Revenue Service.His duties as outlined in U.S Treasury Home Page include:
Managing Federal finances;
Collecting taxes, duties and monies paid to and due to the U.S. and paying all bills of the U.S.;
Currency and coinage;
Managing Government accounts and the public debt;
Supervising national banks and thrift institutions;
Advising on domestic and international financial, monetary, economic, trade and tax policy;
Enforcing Federal finance and tax laws;
Investigating and prosecuting tax evaders, counterfeiters, and forgers.Source: United States Department of Treasury Home Page

I question the leadership ability of a man who does not pay his taxes on time when it is obvious he makes enough money to pay them.
His excuse that he did not know that his domestic servant was illegal for the three months that he employed her, is plausible, but I believe Obama could and should find a man who pays his taxes on time to head the agency responsible for collecting them!

INDICATIONS THAT OBAMA PLANS TO COMPROMISE WITH OUR "ENEMIES"

In an interview between the German newspaper and Internet site provider, Der Spiegel, and former Clinton administration Ambassaddor to Israel, Mr. Martin Indyk. The question asked by Der Spiegel of Mr. Indyk was how he believed that the new Obama administration would resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr, Indyk said that President Clinton tried to use diplomacy, and President Bush tried to use force to get both sides to do things "our way".

His specific words were: "We Americans have this wonderful but frightening innocence, a belief that we have a mission to transform troubled parts of the world. Even more troubling is that we not only think it is our responsibility but that we can actually remake the Middle East in our own image as a peaceful, democratic place. It is that instinct which George W. Bush and Bill Clinton shared in the Middle East, even though they pursued the objective of transformation in two very different ways -- one by peace-making, one by war making. But they shared that basic naivety and they both failed. Now we have to be less naive and more humble. I am sure Obama has understood that".

My problem with this statement is that if Indyk is correct about Obama, it appears that our foreign policy will be one of concessions(aka, giving in to demands) rather than dealing from a position of strength AS THE PREMIER MILITARY POWER IN THE WORLD. IT SOUNDS LIKE WE ARE IN FOR A REDUCTION OF OUR MILITARY POWER, and a massive increase in our diplomacy. In steps Hillary Clinton!

This will play right into the hands of Communist China and latent-Communist Russia! Two Countries that President Reagan correctly identified as the "forces of evil and our enemies!

If Obama plans to cosy up to the Chinese, how will our attitude of an independent Taiwan be affected? How will we cope with the expansion of Iranian and Islamic terrorist nuclear threats, if we abandon the idea of building anti-missile launchers in Poland, to accommodate Russian objections to the construction?

There are many other questions that relate to National defense and our economy that could be affected if Obama is too accommodating to any conflict that comes our way, instead of standing fast and defending our position as a World power the envy of the rest of nations and the UN.

Will Obama and his administration be more interested in becoming a member of the World Community than to protect the sovereignty of the United States. Is Mr. Indyk indicating that Obama will try to make the USA a new member of the European Union?

IS THE RUSSIAN GAS PIPELINE FUNCTIONING AS THE NEW BERLIN WALL?

The Russian state controlled natural gas monopoly Gazprom, cut off gas to Europe for six days during one of the coldest winters Europeans have experienced for generations. Then they opened up the pipeline for six hours after repeated pleas from diplomats representing the EU.

However, after four hours the Russians shut off the pipeline. The reasons to why they stopped the flow of gas, was that it was the fault of the Ukraine that had failed to open their export pipelines. Russian president went so far as to claim that America was responsible for the Ukraine actions, but the president of the Ukraine,Viktor Yushekenko, accused Russia of using the gas dispute to wrest control of Ukraine 23,000 mile gas pipeline.

The fact that Russia shipped the gas not through the normally used pipeline, but shipped it through a technically arduous rout that would have requires the Ukraine to cut off gas to their domestic customers before it could deliver gas to the Balkans,

Russia supplies about one-quarter of the EU's natural gas, 80 percent of it shipped through Ukraine's vast pipeline network. Amid a pricing dispute with Ukraine, Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe on Jan. 7 just as the continent was gripped by freezing temperatures.

The gas cutoff has affected more than 15 countries, with Bosnia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia among the worst hit. Sales of electric heaters have soared and thousands of businesses in eastern Europe have been forced to cut production or even shut down. Millions of people have been affected by the heating crisis or involuntary layoffs. Sounds to me like the effect that the Berlin Wall had on people East of the Wall, and had it not been for the USA airlift many Germans would have staved to death.

EU officials say the crisis should encourage a search for independent energy sources and supply routes, such as the U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline via Turkey that would carry Caspian energy to Europe and circumvent Russia. It sounds like the approach that the USA needs to reduce our dependence on OPEC! Windmills that freeze during severe cold weather and solar power during winter is a poor substitute!

Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office said the dispute will push the EU toward finally "creating a European gas market" that would reduce Russia's clout as an energy supplier. The EU will also have to reconsider the options of nuclear and coal-fired plants.

Russia stopped gas supplies to Ukraine itself on Jan. 1, and Russia said it still will not send natural gas to Ukraine for domestic consumption until the deadlock is resolved over what Ukraine should pay for Russian gas in 2009 and what Russia should pay for using Ukraine's pipelines.

Ukraine last year paid $179.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas and Yushchenko said Tuesday that Ukraine will pay no more than $210 in 2009. Russia wants Ukraine to pay market price for gas, about the $450 that European customers pay.

Source: Vladimir Isachenkov @ Yahoo News

24 A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THIS CONSERVATIVE

THE FIRST TWO HOUR EPISODE OF THE NEW 24 INDICATES TO THIS BLOGGER THAT THE WRITERS AND PRODUCERS OF 24 HAVE DECIDED TO KNUCKLE UNDER TO THE LEFT.
The series that was created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran conclude two years ago, after six years of portraying a "super hero" who was a patriot that believed that to protect Americans from the threat of terrorists, nothing was bared in his arsenal. Each year Jack Bauer was portrayed fighting terrorists who had no regard for the Geneva Convention or our Constitution.
He was portrayed as the only one "CTU"(counter terrorism unit) could stop such disasters as suitcase nuclear bombs detonated in American cities, release of deadly virus' in a suspenseful real-time narrative, each episode typically followed not only Bauer and CTU, but a group in the U.S. government, the terrorists or conspirators behind the day's events, and one or more civilian families.

The main character was portrayed as a patriot who would do any thing to protect Our President and the People without remorse or regret.

But as the sixth year closed the "super hero" was portrayed as re-assessing his role in the fight versus the costs to himself, his family and friends, many whom had been killed.

Beginning 2001, when even the Leftists in the USA had to acknowledge the threat that Muslim terrorists presented. The attack on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in D.C. on September 11,2001, proved that to even the sceptics. All Americans knew that there was a group, whose location was unknown at the time, that wanted to destroy our way of life.

As the Patriot Act was passed, the actions of the Covert operations of the character played by Kiefer Sutherland became undesirable by the Left in the Media. Writers like The New York Magazines Emily Nuussbaum, began a verbal and written attack on the show 24, and covert operations in general, that were alleged to be taking place in locations like Guantanamo and CIA prisons around the world.
Nussbaum even called Bauer the "cockroach" that could survive nuclear attack!
Forgetting, conveniently, that to be considered a soldier at war the Geneva Convention specifies that the person must be wearing a military uniform, and that our Constitution was written for American citizens,the media began a propaganda campaign against not only the Bush administration, but any movie or TV show that portrayed what use to be a no holds barred fight against terrorism.

Well, it appears the Left has found a willing accomplice in the producers and writers of 24. The two hour segment last night was filled with recriminations about criminal acts committed by Bauer. It even had a brief segment that portrayed the U.S. Senate holding a hearing to determine if an indictment of Bauer was appropriate for "war crimes"!

The show also introduced a Liberal female Senator as President elect who was elected to "CHANGE" the way things were done. And if the theme and dialogue did not upset Conservatives enough. The introduction of Janeane Garofalo as one of the supporting cast of FBI agents, Janis Gold, is an indication to me, that the LEFT has taken over the show. Ms. Garofalo, a cynical leftist actress and wannabe comedian, is noted for her activist role in protesting the liberation of Iraq,and in September of 2008 she said on HBO's Real Time "that it would be a good thing if all Republicans were jailed"!
As early as 2003, when asked by Mike Barnacle, "who did she think was a worst threat to world peace, Saddam or Bush?" She answered that" they both are very threatening to World Peace, and to deny that is incredibly naive"!