Obama visits returning war dead at Dover AFB

In today’s New York Times there is an article concerning the President visiting the returning war dead at Dover AFB.  Thank you Mr. President, I appreciate your leadership.  Just one mild suggestion however from a fellow Democrat and one who voted for you.  It is about saluting. Civilians do not do it. Ever.

It is not appropriate for civilians to use a military salute.  Please place your hand over your heart in these situations, that is the proper response from the President.  The last thing we need in this country is more and continual perpetuation of the "militarization" of American politics and the American civilian chain of command.  It is not appropriate in our civilian led government to "militarize" our civic duties.

We want civilians in charge at all times in this Republic.  I appreciate your attempt at respect but you are the President, and not a general.  Please act like the civilian in charge at all times.  That is what we want from this Republic’s commander in chief of the armed forces, a civilian.  Thank you sir.

In other news from the Times today we find an article here concerning American military aid to Pakistani forces presently battling the Taliban.

Here is an article concerning corruption in Iraq and how it will affect American relations with that government and within the Middle East in general.  Here is a quote from the article:

“These car bombs didn’t come from the sky!” said Judge Abdul Sattar al-Beiriqdar, spokesman for the Higher Judicial Council. “They must have been driven in streets until they reached their target. If there were no corruption, the attackers wouldn’t risk passing through these checkpoints.”

But the corruption runs much deeper, endangering the fragile sense of security in Iraq as America draws down its forces, with security services that seem aimed as much at enriching themselves as protecting average Iraqis, according to dozens of interviews with police officers and officials as well as the report by the Interior Ministry.

“Corruption is a phenomenon that forms a real threat to the structure of the state,” Jawad Bolani, the interior minister, said in a recent interview. His ministry is Iraq’s second largest, employing one of every four Iraqis working in the public sector, which accounts for a vast majority of the jobs in Iraq."

Here is an article on the constitutional problems of allowing police agencies in our country to have the tremendously dangerous and sweeping investigative powers that they now have under the Patriot Act.  American police agencies on all levels of government now have police powers that literally compare to that of Gestappo in Nazi Germany.  This is becoming a real constitutional crisis and a danger to our freedoms as Americans.

This is a quote from a prominent Arab American on the problem with the FBI in the Muslim American community.

"Farhana Khera, president of Muslim Advocates, said the F.B.I. was harassing Muslim-Americans by singling them out for scrutiny. Her group was among those that sued the bureau to release the manual.

“We have seen even in recent months the revelation of the F.B.I. going into mosques — not where they have a specific reason to believe there is criminal activity, but as ‘agent provocateurs’ who are trying to incite young individuals to join a purported terror plot,” Ms. Khera said. “We think the F.B.I. should be focused on following actual leads rather than putting entire communities under the microscope.”

Now here is a very interesting article with direct links to veterans with brain injuries due to service connected disabilities recieved in Service.  We are not alone in being neglected by those who are responsible for our medical care after injury.  The National Football League is neglecting its former players with brain injuries.  The league is not taking care of its old and injured players.  Here is the story, I am sure you can relate to it.

In testimony before the House the commissioner was evasive when questioned.  Imagine that!  Where have seen that before?  Here is a quote from that article.  It will sound very familiar.

“The N.F.L. sort of has this blanket denial or minimizing of the fact that there may be this link,” Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, said to Mr. Goodell during the daylong hearing. “And it sort of reminds me of the tobacco companies pre-’90s when they kept saying, ‘Oh, there’s no link between smoking and damage to your health.’ ”

When pressed, Mr. Goodell would not say whether he thought there was a link between football and cognitive decline among N.F.L. players. He did say, “I can think of no issue to which I’ve devoted more time and attention than the health and well-being of our players, and particularly retired players.”

“We are changing the culture of our game for the better,” he later added."

Now it is not only old disabled veterans that we throw to the wayside, it is old and disabled football players.  Well, you know what?  This is only to get worse until we realize in this country that we are a national community and we start acting like it.

Here is an article on the deadly attacks on Pakistanis that Secretary of State Clinton’s visit to Pakistan set off.  Here is a quote from the article:

"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan punctuated Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s arrival here with deadly attacks on Wednesday, underscoring their ability to cause chaos even in the face of offensives on both sides of the border.

In Pakistan, a devastating car bomb tore through a congested market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing as many as 101 people, many of them women and children. Pakistani authorities said the attack was the country’s most serious in two years, and the deadliest ever in Peshawar, which has become a front line for Taliban efforts to destabilize the government through violence."

Notice how western media keeps referring to the attackers in all cases as militants or terrorists or Taliban or Al Qaeda.  They keep giving them names that do not reflect who they really are. We are missing the point completely when we do not name them correctly. 

These are ultra conservative, super orthodox Wahabist inspired fundamentalist Muslims in all cases.  These are the Muslim version of Cromwell’s Roundheads.  These are anarchists with just a touch of "G*d" in their psyche to give them legitimacy in their own minds. 

These people want Islam to be spread by the sword.  The ultimate goal for subjegation is the West but they are starting their bloody crusade Westward with their own secular governments.  We had better pay attention here and start using precise words for the enemies of civilization and they are not "militants" or "terrorists". 

These killers pray five times a day.  They are fastidious in all of their religious observances.  They stone adulterers to death.  They execute prostitutes with beheadings.  They are the People of G*d in their own minds.  We need to start calling a spade a spade here and stop hiding behind foggy terms like militant or terrorist.

These are ultra conservative religionists who have perverted Islam for their own sick blood lust and they are looking Westward.  We need to clearly understand who we are up against here. 

These are religious fanatics who would not know a Prohet of G*d if they tripped over him.  They have deluded themselves into thinking they are religious and G*dly and they have perverted one of the world’s great religions to evil ends.  They are truly evil and they are incapable of seeing that. 

They have perverted the letter of the law within the Koran and have chosen a lifestyle enshrining strict religious observance to the "nth" degree over the true and peaceful Spirit of G*d. They are children of Evil.

One in four people on this planet is now a Muslim.  If these anarchists with a veneer of religion gain any more of a foothold in the Islamic world then they have already, the entire planet could be plunged into world war.  It is time for us to come up with a new plan to stop them.  Bullets won’t hold them back.

We need to do all that we can to bring Islam back to the Muslims.  They have lost it.  That much is now obvious. 

We need to think about this and come up with a plan and then execute it and we need to do it quickly.  Bullets and bombs can not kill an idea motivating religionists who are deluded with a twisted idea of spirituality.  These people are on a crusade to "cleanse" Islam first and then cleanse the West. We must not delude ourselves as to what is happening here.

In this article, the Russian field marshall in charge of Soviet forces in Afghanistan had a meeting with the Soviet Politburo on November 13, 1986.  He had to explain what was happening to the Soviet forces in Afghanistan to his civilian bosses.  Russian and American scholars have just found the transcripts.  They are chilling and could very well be reflective of an American general speaking to Congress on any day in the present time. The problem is essentially the same story we are seeing played out now.

In this article, we see that in Iraq, virtually every political party has its own army.  Great.  Just what we need.

Finally in the section entitled On This Day we read the following: "On Oct. 29, 1929, stock prices collapsed on the New York Stock Exchange amid panic selling. Thousands of investors were wiped out. "

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Remember, get informed and stay informed.  An informed veteran is a comfort to his friends and a danger to his adversaries.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)