Stand Up America US

It’s time to adapt our security strategy to leverage America’s conventional strengths

BY BERNARD I. FINEL

Armed Forces Journal

The U.S. military is a dominant fighting force, capable of rapid global power projection and able to defeat state adversaries quickly and at relatively low cost in American lives and treasure. Unfortunately, American leaders are increasingly trying to transform this force into one optimized for counterinsurgency missions and long-term military occupations. A fundamental problem with the adoption of population-centric counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine as an organizing principle for American military operations is that it systematically fails to take advantage of the real strengths of the U.S. military.

It is true that not all political goals are achievable through the use of conventional military capabilities. However, “victory” in war is not dichotomous, and the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan — often seen as proving the necessity for COIN-capable forces as well as a commitment to nation-building — demonstrate in reality that the vast majority of goals can be accomplished through quick, decisive military operations. Not all political goals are achievable this way, but most are and those that cannot be achieved through conventional operations likely cannot be achieved by the application of even the most sophisticated counterinsurgency doctrine either.

As a consequence, I believe the U.S. should adopt a national military strategy that heavily leverages the core capability to break states and target and destroy fixed assets, iteratively if necessary. Such a strategy — which might loosely be termed “repetitive raiding” — could defeat and disrupt most potential threats the U.S. faces. While America’s adversaries may prefer to engage the U.S. using asymmetric strategies, there is no reason that the U.S. should agree to fight on these terms.

This essay argues the U.S. can largely defeat threats using conventional capabilities, and that what encourages a desire to engage in long-drawn-out asymmetric conflicts is not the elimination of threats, but rather the unattainable goal of trying to prevent threats from emerging in the future.

To demonstrate these points, I will first consider the nature of U.S. military power. Then I will identify the key war aims for the U.S. in Iraq, graph out when the aims were achieved, and show that the marginal expenditure of lives and resources to achieve maximalist goals is disproportionately large. I will further argue that the U.S. could have mitigated the negative consequences of potential developments in Iraq much more cheaply by embracing a willingness to reintervene rather than engaging in a drawn-out occupation. Finally, I will argue that in Afghanistan the Obama administration is likely to similarly pay too much to achieve at best marginal improvements in the current situation. In short, because of the nature of American power, the vast majority of the benefits from conflict come early and relatively cheaply, whereas the pursuit of additional benefits is increasingly costly and subject to diminishing returns.
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By Kerry Patton

“Our jeep was banked with flowers, the gift of the people of the little town’s enroute to Paris, and we had a small store of tomatoes and apples and bottles of wine that had been tossed to us as we slowly made our way through the crowds that tore down the barricades that lay in our path. As we came to halt in the square before Notre Dame, a boy in the truck ahead of us looked up at the spines and said, wonderingly, ‘and one month ago I was in Bensonhurst.’” (World War II Photographer Robert Capa)

This quote, from the famous World War II photographer Robert Capa, describes the mental state of the French after U.S. forces liberated the country from German control. The French were elated due to the American military’s heroic actions to free the French society. The French were so ecstatic, the people were willing to take up arms and form a resistance even more powerful than that which was already formed. They bonded in masses in an attempt to continue support for the rest of the free world ensuring the Nazi ideology would be defeated.

Today, one must ask, where is that support amongst those whom the United States has liberated through the current War on Terrorism? Where are the Afghans supporting the U.S. coalition after we liberated them from Taliban control? Where are the Iraqis after we liberated them from the Saddam Dictatorship? One should ponder not just where are these persons assisting us abroad in their homeland but also where are they in the United States?

Truth be told, very few persons exist today. We have witnessed continuous support for Islamic extremism and little support for the U.S. and Western allies free democratic ideologies. The reason we see such counter action in comparison to that witnessed during World War II is because the Islamic ideology simply does not allow support for us so called infidels.

Capa once stated, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” Unfortunately, our own political leadership fails to see the picture. They are not close enough in understanding the Islamic ideology we attempt to defeat. They have been harbored in their cushy D.C. offices blind to those whom continuously resist our actions. Their blindness has hindered not only operations abroad but also National Security within our own borders.

Recently, we have witnessed an attack on one of our own military bases which left thirteen dead. We have witnessed an attempt to poison soldiers posted in Ft. Jackson. These are only two incidents recently mentioned out of many. What should spark the reader’s attention is that both of these plotted attacks stemmed from Islamists. They were not only Islamists; they were also uniformed members of our own Armed Forces.

For many of us, a picture has been clearly presented. Unfortunately, our own leaders fail to see the same picture. Are our politicians close enough to observe the picture, as Capa would ask? The answer is no.

Until our leaders step outside their protected boxes, they will never be close enough. They will continue to rant about actions they plan on taking to secure the nation but those actions are only smoke screens. Some of those smoke screens mentioned are health care, bailouts, job creation, etc.

Mr. President, those of us who are legitimate taxpaying citizens don’t care about your health care, jobs, or bailout agendas. We will take care of that on our own because we are capitalists. We care about the physical security of our communities and our men and women serving this nation abroad. It is time to see the picture clearly and allow any and all means to win this war without the beurocratic political nonsense you continue to present. We are in a war; it’s about time we act like the United States that once fought tirelessly to defeat our enemies foreign and domestic.

Kerry Patton served in the U.S. Defense and Justice departments, and as a contractor within the Homeland Security and State departments. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, focusing on intelligence and interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. His upcoming book, “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies,” is due out in June 2010. Currently, Mr. Patton teaches for Henley Putnam University.

By Bishop R. Taylor

Think it is some conspiracy theory? Think again! The Club of Rome!

Club of Rome

These creeps have been around about 100yrs or so. The United Nations is nothing more then a power center of the richest men in the world seeking to control everyone!

Many of them are extremist loons from the left and right! We must never give up! The club of rome is nothing but a group of satanists scumbags that deserve death! The eco thing is a pretext for taking over. See the so called elite have so much cash that they are afraid that you and me will use up all of the earths resources and that their money will mean nothing.

So since most people do not have that kind of money they consider us worthless. How dare those useless eaters use our resources? This is the kind of dangerous mentality we are dealing with!

The United Nations is a catalyst for a take over by these type of evil men. In America we have all sorts of people that have bit on this green religion. They are following their own death! The people like Maurice Strong and the club of rome would throw people in gas chambers.

Mass graves are already being bought up to put you in! Think it sounds crazy think again!

See you and me are not dealing with honest and respectable people. We are now dealing with sinister and crooked loons from religions of Babylon that have been murdering and raping and killing for thousands of years. First it starts with the fake global warming and leads to awareness campaign of propaganda. Then they convince the world of the lies and ban carbon make gas cost too much for you and I to purchase. You electric bill must sky rocket because remember you are using their resources?

Then they send in International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives AKA I.C.L.E.I to infiltrate and promise your local government monies to sign a contract. Then they call it smart growth or sustainable development. Then they can enforce draconian eco laws and take your property.

Remember the mindset? It is you useless eaters are using up our natural resources. This is what we must keep in mind. Also most of them hate Christians because many years ago it was Christians that threatened the pagans and many pagans were killed as a result. Most of them follow some old Babylonian religion. They will never admit the religion is the driving force behind the green movement.

It is true after I spent months researching this stuff. You can find all of it yourself and see that it is not a conspiracy theory it is a conspiracy that is happening now! We as Americans must wake up more of the masses and stop them any way possible!

Check the N.G.Os of all of the Congressmen and Senators at the federal, state and local levels!

N.G.O is Non government organizations and check if they accept monies from the U.N or Club of Rome.

I found it very easy to identify the N.G.O contributors. Follow the money! If it comes from offshore then you can bet that it is crooked. Politicians are crooked and this is not something hidden and we all should be aware of it! They lie to get elected take bribes from lobbyists each and everyday!

That is why it has been easy for the club of rome and the rich men to gain control. On our local level we can fight! We attend the stupid and useless sustainable development meetings and expose them for what they are complete and utter nonsense!

Explain that the city will not get a rail and it is not legal to pay nor accept funds from a foreign entity under our constitution and that by doing so you are a traitor!

Write your congressmen send his or her responses out to thousands by email and social sites like Facebook and others! Hold them accountable! Make them uphold the oath of office ans support and protect the constitution from all enemies! Spread this around! Give it to others and let them know and NEVER BACK DOWN! If they want war then do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes!

VIVA LIBERTY!

I would like to finish this analysis of the Club of Rome (CoR) by listing some prominent members of the CoR and its two sub-groups, the Clubs of Budapest and Madrid.

Personally it isn’t what the CoR is that I find so astonishing; it is WHO the CoR is! This isn’t some quirky little group of green activists or obscure politicians. They are the most senior officials in the United Nations, current and ex-world leaders, and the founders of some of the most influential environmental organisations. When you read their reports in the context of who they are – it gives an entirely new, and frightening, context to their extreme claims.

Some current members of the Club of Rome or its two siblings:

Al Gore – former VP of the USA, leading climate change campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Academy Award winner, Emmy winner. Gore lead the US delegations to the Rio Earth Summit and Kyoto Climate Change conference. He chaired a meeting of the full Club of Rome held in Washington DC in 1997.

Javier Solana – Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, High Representative for EU Foreign Policy.

Maurice Strong – former Head of the UN Environment Programme, Chief Policy Advisor to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the Rio Earth Summit, co-author (with Gorbachev) of the Earth Charter, co-author of the Kyoto Protocol, founder of the Earth Council, devout Baha’i.

Mikhail Gorbachev – CoR executive member, former President of the Soviet Union, founder of Green Cross International and the Gorbachev Foundation, Nobel Peace Prize winner, co-founder (with Hidalgo) of the Club of Madrid, co-author (with Strong) of the Earth Charter.

Diego Hidalgo – CoR executive member, co-founder (with Gorbachev) of the Club of Madrid, founder and President of the European Council on Foreign Relations in association with George Soros.

Ervin Laszlo – founding member of the CoR, founder and President of the Club of Budapest, founder and Chairman of the World Wisdom Council.

Anne Ehrlich – Population Biologist. Married to Paul Ehrlich with whom she has authored many books on human overpopulation. Also a former director of Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club, and a member of the UN’s Global Roll of Honor.

Hassan bin Talal – President of the CoR, President of the Arab Thought Forum, founder of the World Future Council, recently named as the United Nations ‘Champion of the Earth’.

Sir Crispin Tickell – former British Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the Security Council, Chairman of the ‘Gaia Society’, Chairman of the Board of the Climate Institute, leading British climate change campaigner.

Kofi Annan – former Secretary General of the United Nations. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Javier Perez de Cuellar – former Secretary General of the United Nations.

Gro Harlem Bruntland – United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change, former President of Norway

Robert Muller – former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, founder and Chancellor of the UN University of Peace.

The Dalai Lama – The ‘Spiritual Leader’ of Tibet. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Father Berry Thomas – Catholic Priest who is one of the leading proponents of deep ecology, ecospirituality and global consciousness.

David Rockefeller – CoR executive member, former Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, executive member of the World Economic Forum, donated land on which the United Nations stands.

Stephen Schneider – Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change. Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of man-made global warming and a lead author of many IPCC reports.

Bill Clinton – former President of the United States, founder of the Clinton Global Iniative.

Jimmy Carter – former President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Bill Gates – founder of Microsoft, philanthropist

Garret Hardin – Professor of Human Ecology. Originator of the ‘Global Commons’ concept. Has authored many controversial papers on human overpopulation and eugenics.

Other current influential members:

(These can be found on the membership lists of the COR (here, here, and here), Club of Budapest, Club of Madrid and/or CoR National Association membership pages)

Ted Turner – media mogul, philanthropist, founder of CNN

George Soros – multibillionare, major donor to the UN

Tony Blair – former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Deepak Chopra – New Age Guru

Desmond Tutu – South African Bishop and activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Timothy Wirth – President of the United Nations Foundation

Henry Kissinger – former US Secretary of State

George Matthews – Chairman of the Gorbachev Foundation

Harlan Cleveland – former Assistant US Secretary of State and NATO Ambassador

Barbara Marx Hubbard – President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution

Betty Williams – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Marianne Williamson – New Age ‘Spiritual Activist’

Robert Thurman – assistant to the Dalai Lama

Jane Goodall – Primatologist and Evolutionary Biologist

Juan Carlos I – King of Spain

Prince Philippe of Belgium

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

Dona Sophia – Queen of Spain

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – current Prime Minister of Spain

Karan Singh – Former Prime Minister of India, Chairman of the Temple of Understanding

Daisaku Ikeda – founder of the Soka Gakkai cult

Martin Lees – CoR Secretary General, Rector of the UN University of Peace

Ernesto Zedillo – Director of The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

Frithjof Finkbeiner – Coordinator of the Global Marshall Plan

Franz Josef Radermacher – Founder of the Global Marshall Plan

Eduard Shevardnadze – former Soviet foreign minister and President of Georgia

Richard von Weizsacker – former President of Germany

Carl Bildt – former President of Sweden

Kim Campbell – former Prime Minister of Canada and Senior Fellow of the Gorbachev Foundation

Vincente Fox – former President of Mexico

Helmut Kohl – former Chancellor of Germany

Romano Prodi – former Prime Minister of Italy and President of the European Commission

Vaclav Havel – former President of the Czech Republic

Hans Kung – Founder of the Global Ethic Foundation

Ruud Lubbers – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Mary Robinson – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Jerome Binde – Director of Foresight, UNESCO

Koïchiro Matsuura – Current Director General of UNESCO

Federico Mayor – Former Director General of UNESCO

Tapio Kanninen – Director of Policy and Planning, United Nations

Konrad Osterwalder – Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

Peter Johnston – Director General of European Commission

Jacques Delors – Former President of the European Commission

Domingo Jimenez-Beltran – Executive Director of the European Environment Agency

Thomas Homer-Dixon – Director of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Toronto

Hazel Henderson – Futurist and ‘evoluntionary economist’

Emeka Anyaoku – former Commonwealth Secretary General, current President of the World Wildlife Fund

Wangari Maathai – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, founder of the Green Belt Movement

and many more….

By James Zumwalt

Experiencing frustration in his efforts to resolve myriad foreign policy issues, President Barack Obama blames some failures on President Bush. As to Obama’s failed policy to derail the Iranian express train seeking to load a nuclear arms cargo, he may want to consider blaming the 18th century philosopher Jacques Rousseau.

Rousseau believed in the innate goodness of man. Putting it in today’s parlance, Rousseau would undoubtedly consider this goodness part of the human genome. Obama’s approach to foreign policy, especially in dealing with those countries labeled by his predecessor as the “Axis of Evil,” suggests he embraces this theory.

Clearly, this has been his approach in dealing with the biggest threat to world stability today. Since taking office, Obama has sought to build a new relationship with Iran’s theocratic leadership to curb its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. To do so, he has apologized for America’s past wrongs, avoided criticizing Tehran when the will of the Iranian people was denied in a stolen presidential election and offered his hand in friendship, hoping to trigger the “goodness genome” he believes lies dormant within Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet, one year through a four-year term in office,

Obama has nothing to show for his efforts. He is no closer to resolving the nuclear standoff, while Iran is closer to making the issue moot.

In dealing with Iran, Obama makes a fatal assumption-i.e., Ahmadinejad possesses a goodness genome. While Rousseau and Obama ideally, and naively, see the world populated by men with good intentions, reality-and history-tell us otherwise. Just as two of the 20th century’s most brutal leaders were wrongly perceived to possess such goodness, it is incredulous that today reasonable men could make a similar perception about a 21st century leader who has done everything possible to dispel any notion of goodness by his words and deeds.

Idealists once perceived Josef Stalin and Adolph Hitler to possess the genome. The perception led to both receiving nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. But history revealed these leaders’ character to possess DNA closer to Attila the Hun than to Rousseau’s goodness genome. Before their terror reigns ended, tens of millions of innocent lives were lost.

It is worrisome Obama has yet to understand Ahmadinejad not only lacks the genome but possesses the combined evil traits of both 20th-century tyrants.

Stalin’s terror reign was primarily directed against his own people-initiating purges that ultimately claimed twenty million lives. Meanwhile, Hitler’s reign primarily focused on non-Germans, claiming 6 million Jewish lives in the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad has incorporated aspects of both into his own terror campaign. Domestically, he targets his own people, robbing them of individual rights, including that to life.

Externally, he targets the non-Muslim world, seeking either to destroy or enslave it under Islamic rule-a feat to be accomplished with the actual or threatened use of nuclear weapons-fearing not the consequences of U.S. nuclear retaliation. In fact, this religious fanatic would welcome retaliation as a vehicle by which he could gain entry to a rewarding afterlife and the expeditious return to Earth of the 12th Imam, whom, he believes, will then subject the world to Islamic rule.

As one whose family was either victimized or witnessed firsthand Stalin’s and Hitler’s brutality, the author is sensitive to brutal leaders running amok, unencumbered by a goodness genome. These family member experiences presage what is happening in Iran.

In 1941, a maternal great-great uncle, Alexis Ninaud, 61, having lived decades in the Russian Far East (RFE), was arrested and interrogated by KGB authorities. Almost 70 years later, his fate was revealed during a visit made by family members to the RFE where they gained access to old KGB records. Alexis had been caught up in a purge.

Stalin’s wrath made it clear guilt was not a mandate for conviction-finding the right pre-ordained number of “spies” to be executed was. Although the KGB file lacked supporting evidence, Alexis was “found” to be a spy-and executed. Included in his file was a “mug shot,” revealing a man who seemingly knew his fate was sealed. His case was closed with the signature of a KGB officer whose own fate turned on finding a sufficient number of spies.

In 1945, a paternal grandfather-a U.S. Army medical doctor-was among the first U.S. forces to reach the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Horrified by the presence of so many dead and dying, his attention immediately turned to saving what frail survivors he could. Among them was an extremely emaciated 6-year-old Jewish boy. For five days, the boy would make his way to pick up food rations before returning to a bunk in the camp that had been home for most his life.

On the sixth day, he failed to show up, prompting a search. His lifeless body was found in his bunk-underneath which was a box containing most the food rations given to him by his liberators. Having learned to horde food his entire life—not knowing what tomorrow would bring-the boy proved unable to break the cycle, choosing to save rather than consume the nourishment upon which his survival depended. General Eisenhower ordered these atrocious camp conditions be documented “because somewhere down the road of history some fool will get up and say that this never happened.”

It is against the backdrop of the brutal acts of these two 20th-century madmen that those of a 21st-century fanatic must be measured.

The purges to which Stalin subjected his people are now visited upon the Iranian people by Ahmadinejad to “find” spies to support his allegations that post-presidential election domestic opposition stems from foreign influence. Additionally, with Ahmadinejad’s continuous claims the Holocaust never occurred, we see Eisenhower’s “fool” has arrived. A religious zealot blind to the cause of violence he has wrought at home as well as to the brutal acts wrought by past dictators, Ahmadinejad is incapable of comprehending the death and devastation to be wrought from using the nuclear weapons he seeks to develop.

A 1930s radio program made popular the exploits of a crime-fighting vigilante known as “The Shadow.” Each program ended with the foreboding observation, “Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men. The Shadow knows!”—followed by an ominous laugh. Ahmadinejad knows the evil lurking within his heart. He knows too the leader of the Western world remains blind to it as Obama holds out hope for a non-existent goodness genome.

If one listens closely, one can hear Ahmadinejad’s ominous laugh in the background.

By James Hood

Also posted at The Gold Coast Chronicle

The Value of Money

Like many politicians, President Obama has no concept of the value of money. No, wait, make that other people’s money.

Case in point:

The President’s decision to allocate $200 million for a trial of the worst Islamic militant jihadist malefactor in recent history, in support of his Attorney General’s decision to try the bastard, who as already famously confessed, in the front yard of his crime of killing 3,000 innocent civilians.

Two. Hundred. Million. Dollars. And that sum is only for this year….exactly how long is this trial expected to last?

When Holder made his announcement to move the trial to NYC, he boldly asserted that there was more than enough evidence to assure conviction and a death sentence, so nobody need worry. Well. I worry that the AG’s stupid remarks opened Pandora’s Box for the prosecution. I think any two-bit defense lawyer could spring his client in the face of the country’s top lawyer prejudging the outcome of a trial that has yet to be held. But let’s just go through the motions anyway and spend a year ,or two, or three granting our country’s most malevolent and fiendish enemy a grandstand show trial for which, despite Holder’s assertion to the contrary, there is no guaranteed outcome. This toad could walk. I believe that even I could mount a credible defense on his behalf.

The Value of Money, Part Two

Hearkening to the public hue and outcry for spending cuts, President Obama recently announced that he has come up with $20 billion in budget cuts for the next year. Twenty Billion! Seems like a tidy sum until you compare it to the just released $3.8 trillion spending plan that will take the National Deficit to a record high.

Three-Point-Eight-Trillion.

That’s a three, an eight, and a string of zeros that runs off the page. $20 billion is less than one half of one percent of the federal budget. That is like saying I am going to cut my annual spending by not buying any more popcorn.

And there is that spending freeze, heralded by the President…that only starts NEXT year, after his current year’s budget has taken the national debt to new, and unprecedented (one of his favorite words) heights.

The Democrat mantra, as voiced earlier today by the House Majority Whip that we simply cannot SAVE our way out of recession, we must SPEND our way out of recession. Fine. Whose money will they spend? There must be some magical, mystical, ATM machine in Washington that generates money at the push of a button. Oh, yes…that would be the Treasury…they can print money like crazy. Which is a good thing, since our borrowing power is diminishing by leaps and bounds. But then there is that bad thing: Inflation…I’m referencing both money and egos. Ah, but yes, there is yet another limitless source of money: Taxes.

The term “taxes” needs clarification.

The President boasted last week at his meeting with the Republicans that he had given a tax cut to 95% of all Americans. Anybody with an IQ higher than his shoe size knows that this is a crock. And when you add back all of the levies by other names such as “fees,” just about everybody in the country is seeing their taxes go up. But, says the Administration, only the very rich will be taxed. Well, I am not very rich; I am not rich at all, but my taxes are always going up. As will all who are reading this. Hide and watch!

Apologies

Methinks that another round of apologies may be in order for President Obama. He might consider making some abject apologies to China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Hugo Chavez for the United States making them look like pikers in the worldwide efforts to assist Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. As is our custom in the wake of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other calamities, the United States has once again flaunted its “exceptional-ism” by providing the lion’s share of relief to the stricken Haitians in every conceivable way: people, services, money, healthcare, food…you name it, once again, the USA is again number one.

Imagine the trauma and angst that other nations must feel at being upstaged once again by those nasty, bleeding heart, Americans leading the vanguard of relief. Perhaps Obama could persuade (he is really good at that) the United Nations to sanction the United States for overstepping their bounds in an effort to provide succor to a beleaguered country and it citizens.