Biden's Disingenuity on Iraq: "Great Accomplishment"?

Vice President Joe Biden told CNN's Larry King on Wednesday night (Feb 10, 2010) that the Iraq pullout could be one of the "great achievements" of the Obama administration.

What? Let me quote it exactly and see if it comes out any different:

"I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving towards a representative government. I spent -- I've been there seventeen times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences."

Both then-Senator Obama and then-Senator Biden were in strong and vocal opposition to the "surge" that President Bush put into effect in the summer of 2007. Nearly all experts agree that the surge was instrumental in convincing sectarian leaders like Al-Sadr to turn away from violence and return to the political process.

"I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there..." -- Senator Obama, (MSNBC)


"...I don't know any expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to privately that believes that it's going to make a substantial difference to the situation on the ground..." -- Senator Obama, Jan 14, 2007 (FOXNews)


"... this is a cylcle of self-sustaining sectarian violence that 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, 100,000 Americans will not be able to solve."
"What is the President and my friend from Arizona and others insisting on? What can never be. A central government that is a democracy that is going to be fair to the rest of it's citizens. It is not possible. Mark my words. -- Sen. Joe Biden, March 2007 (CSPAN)


Joe... you're words are marked. And you were wrong.

I remind the reader that the August 2010 deadline to begin the pullout was actually defined in the summer of 2008, several months prior to the U.S. Presidential election and six month's prior to President Obama being sworn in. I further remind the reader, that according to the timeline currently being implemented, all U.S. troops are scheduled to depart Iraq by the end of the summer in 2011. All that planning, and that timeline (which to this day I think that timelines based on anything other than the success or failure of the campaign is a horrid idea) were all determined during President Bush's administration.

I consider it to be absolutely brazen and without character to now have the Vice President of the United States tell a national TV audience via Larry King Live that the legacy of a stable government in Iraq and the return of troops from that theater is one of the "Obama Administration's Greatest Achievements". For crying out loud, can't the current Administration give even a moment of thankful praise to the previous administration for having the guts to finish the mess they had created?

John Murtha (D) 1932-2010

John Murtha, the Democrat Representative from Pennsylvania, passed away today (Jan 8 2010) at the age of 77 from complications arising from a gall-bladder surgery.

He was a Marine officer who served in the Vietnam War. As a Democratic representative he often steered funds not only to his home state and home town. He was an advocate for a strong national defense. This often brought him into conflict with his own party, which at times during the Bush administration tried to stop all military spending in an effort to shut down the Iraq war.

He gained notoriety for vehemently opposing the war in Iraq. Considering his strong pro-military position, this caught many in the political establishment by surprise.

He also gained a reputation for having never met a Congressional budget earmark that he didn't like and was under Congressional Ethics Committee investigation at the time of his death for certain earmarks he'd won for Pennsylvania firms.

Murtha's 2008 political opponent, William Russell, made this statement today: "Regardless of your political position, you always knew Jack had an immense love and loyalty to his family and the residents of the 12th Congressional District,'' Mr. Russell said."

Candian Troops Show Their Heart To Belgian Boy

The Story: "A lone young Belgian boy is waiting to salute the Canadian troops passing
by who had been attending a memorial service."

This does not indicate where this little scene occurred. "Eyes right!" is a command normally reserved to troops that are engaging in a "Pass in Review", and is issued just prior to troops coming on line with the reviewing stand where the dignitaries or military superiors usually are.

Clearly, the little lad's military uniform and very proper military bearing impressed the fellow commanding the contingent (The quality of the video makes it hard for me to determine if it's an officer or an NCO. My guess would be that he is an NCO.)

May there forever be a Canada!

GPS About to Fail? Too Valuable to Yahoo and Google?

According to Bobbie Johnson, Dateline San Francisco May 19, 2009, on the Guardian website, there is a danger that the current global positioning system or GPS infrastructure may start to break down as soon as next year. This could result in system blackouts or even worse, incorrect navigational data.

The system is administered by the U.S. Air Force. Apparently, there have been some major problems in getting replacement satellites in orbit and the USAF is now running nearly 3 years behind schedule.

This is happening at a time when GPS-enabled smartphones and other gadgets that use GPS are more available than ever before.

Tom Coates, the head of Yahoo's Fire Eagle system – which lets users share their location data from their mobile – said he was sceptical that US officials would let the system fall into total disrepair because it was important to so many people and companies.

Well, if the system is so darned important to so many companies and people, why don't they put their darned money where the mouth is and help FUND the system?

Politicians are More Concerned with Job Stability than Principles

In a story by Larry Margasak published on May 12th concerning Democratic participation in the CIA interrogation memo investigation. In this story it was documented that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will be chairing Wednesday's hearing. It was further clarified that Sen. Sheldon, with Sen. Feinstein (D-Ca) offered legislation banning so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques".

Apparently, Sen. Whitehouse said that "he never protested to the Bush Administration because 'it never crossed my mind that it would make the least bit of difference'".

So it makes a difference now? In hindsight? When the damage has already been done? Or is it because these techniques had the tolerance, if not enthusiastic support, of important Democrats who were more concerned about appearing to be soft on terrorists instead of being truly concerned about the harshness of enhanced interrogations. Maybe like Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) who at that time was a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee. She was briefed on these techniques in 2002. What did she think these briefings were for?

Why not simply admit that in the frenzy and hysteria of the post September 2001 era that our government, in it's zeal to protect it's citizens and it's interests overseas, both Republicans AND Democrats permitted actions that previously would not have been considered acceptable. But for the Democrats to claim that they were completely unaware with what was going on is disingenuous and purposefully deceptive.

I would like to remind all who read this that "torture" in the United States of America is a very different thing, with very different consequences, than in much of the rest of the world. We use sleep deprivation, humiliation and water-boarding techniques which, while very unpleasant and hard to endure do not permanently injure or kill the person being interrogated. Compare that against the common use in much of the world to techniques which include fire, branding, electricity, the use of knives, pliers or other tools to injure and maim people believed to hold critical information.

Right-wing Radical Threat Assessment

The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) released a 9-page assessment yesterday that included disgruntled former military personnel as a potential for "homegrown terrorism" (ala Timothy McVeigh), especially in light of the sweeping changes in American society and politics and the ascension of a non-white to the Presidency of the United States.

I will not deny that like any other human institution there are people who currently where the military uniform that are capable of performing unspeakable acts of violence against the very people they were sworn to protect. People like Timothy McVeigh, or Lee Harvey Oswald. But the overwhelmingly vast majority of service personnel are people who see the United States as it currently exists as something worth preserving, worth dying for. Without any facts to back me up (because I really have NOT done the research) I would still opine that the very nature of the kind of person that would perform military service makes them far less likely, even with the very specialised training that some of them receive, to perpetrate an act of violence against their own people. The very thought of somebody who is willing to put themselves between their nation and war's desolation then returning home to do damage to the very thing that they risked all for seems pretty far-fetched to me.

As an illustration, look at the video evidence of the confrontation at the Berkely USMC Officer Selection Station between radical leftist organizations like Code Pink and pro-American civilians and military personnel. The leftists were far more likely to be provocative and use abusive language to express their opinions. Also, the acts of vandalism that took place during the pro-USMC rally at Berkely city hall were all by persons that were there to oppose the rally.

Based on this very small, but typical incident, I would assess that while the special training received by certain segments of the military give them a capability to perform domestic violence, I would also include in that assessment that those same individuals are, by their very nature, less likely to do so.

While I am NOT a fan of Dr. Michael Savage or his talk show, he got it right when he said that the DHS is basically saying that they are concerned about people who are concerned about "illegal immigration, the increasing power of the Federal government, gun grabs, abortion and the loss of U.S. national sovereignty. In other words, anyone who is worried about our borders, language or culture is now on 'Big Sis' ' watch-list."

However, I would definitely agree that if the current administration continues to move the nation left towards socialism or smiley-face facism that then the current administration would have a just concern of how the large conservative population (roughly 50% of us) will react. Which simply means that the current administration would do well to not take us very far down that path.

Stolen Cessna Invades US, is Allowed to Land and Pilot Escapes.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/06/stolen.plane/index.html

At the time that I write this blog entry, this story is only a couple of hours old. A stolen Cessna 172, flying from Candian airspace is allowed to enter U.S. airspace. The flight is tracked by NORAD and is also escorted by fighter jets of the United States Air Force.

Here's the part that blows my mind. After flying in U.S. airspace for several hours, the pilot fails to acknowledge any radio transmissions from NORAD or the escorting fighters. While the pilot behaved in a manner that indicates that he was aware that the escorting fighters were present, he failed to acknowledge any of the visual signals or cues from the escorts. Finally, with experts estimating that he only had another 30 minutes of fuel left, he landed his aircraft in Southern Missouri near the town of Ellsinore.

We are being told that this individual is a naturalized Candian citizen and that he is an "unhappy individual". Nonetheless, even though he landed the aircraft safely near Highway 60 and has escaped on foot, his identity is being withheld.

Why is his identity being withheld? In my opinion, this person poses a significant threat to U.S. national security. I believe this because my government has not given me enough information to believe otherwise. While there is no question that this person, if he shows up in Ellsinore, will stick out like a sore thumb ("You ain't from around here, aintcha?") the fact is that depending on what his "mission" may be, he may have enough provisions on him to survive for a week or more. Long enough to either potentially evade capture and if possible, link up with others in this country that are sympathetic to him.

In my opinion, this aircraft should have been forced down. I realize that I do not have all of the facts in this case, but I know this: That the U.S. should adopt an iron-clad policy that any aircraft entering U.S. airspace without authorization that fails to obey the instructions of escorting U.S. Air Force aircraft will be shot down. We do not need any more buildings destroyed by foreign invaders flying stolen airplanes, be they 110 story towers of steel and glass, or alocal city hall, grocery store or school building.

We are Pushing the Russians too Hard

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_re_eu/eu_eu_russia_missiles

France's President Nikolas Sarkozy, who is a very pro-Western, pro-America ally, has made it very clear that he questions strongly the actual effectiveness that the proposed U.S. missile defense installations that are being installed in Czechoslovakia and Poland.

He said "Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward,"

In my opinion: If the Europeans do not feel that this system is going to make Europe safer, then what the heck are we installing the things for?

I'm going to go with the French on this one. Let's stop antagonizing the Russians right on their front door and scrap this system.