President Obama is weakening America's defenses

Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine. This page is a byproduct of another nearby page about President Obama's Intentions for America.  It is sad to see someone in the White House who has such obvious contempt for American traditions, and especially for free-market capitalism and individual liberty. On this page: Obama is weakening America's defenses Obama is weakening our allies' defenses Obama is weakening America's defenses Air Force move cripples emergency response.  As Hurricane Ike neared the Texas coast in 2008, hundreds of hospital patients and nursing home residents were in harm's way, facing a difficult escape from the storm's path.  That's when the C-130s of the 136th Airlift Wing, based in Fort Worth, Texas, went into action.  That year, for the first time in U.S. history, C-130s were used to help move patients to safety ahead of a storm's arrival.  In all, between Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, also in 2008, 800 people were airlifted to safety.  The same planes were among the first to arrive following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, bringing much-needed supplies and National Guard troops to areas devastated by the storm.  If a plan being put in place by the U.S. Air Force is allowed to go into effect, that sort of mutual assistance among our Gulf Coast states could be a thing of the past. Missile Mania.  Senior State Dept missile defense envoy declines to explain Obama's 'flexibility' promise to Moscow. Why is Obama considering degrading our military dogs' training?.  When a dog and handler receive advanced training in Yuma and then lead a patrol in Afghanistan where they find one hidden booby trap, it can easily save five or ten combatants from injury or death on any given day.  Not only have the dogs learned to smell the bomb component chemicals, but they can actually hear the unique low sound the wind makes as it blows over a nearly invisible nylon fishing line or thin metal one, both of which are used as booby-trap tripwires.  And dogs trained to track have caught insurgents, a valuable source of intelligence, without firefights. Bolton: Obama's foreign policy is 'confused, incoherent and incompetent'.  [Scroll down]  Well, I think Romney is in the long stream of Republican presidents and candidates who believe in the doctrine of peace through strength, that a strong America is less likely to face challenges and difficulties than a weak America.  Obama has a very different view.  He's obviously comfortable with American decline.  He doesn't see international problems and threats as being nearly as serious as they are in the terrorism area, the proliferation area and others.  And he's presiding over a hollowing out of the American military, which I think will have significant down sides for us in the years to come. An SOS for the Coast Guard.  The Coast Guard needs to call more attention to its undersized fleet, according to Congressional Research Service expert Ron O'Rourke. [...] The sea service's own "high latitude study" concluded that, to accomplish all its polar missions, the Coast Guard requires three heavy-duty and three medium icebreakers.  Currently, the service sails one medium icebreaker and is keeping two heavy-duty icebreakers afloat (though neither is operational). [...] One can look to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, to witness the effect this depleted force is having.  The U.S. has had to rely on Russian icebreakers to make way for U.S. supplies to the station. Obama Suckering America into Loving Russia.  Lies have consequences.  And the lies told by the Obama administration about Russia for the past four years, lies which can be characterized only as Goebbels-like propaganda, have had devastating consequences indeed. Air Force tells pilots to slow down to save fuel.  The Air Force has ordered its pilots to fly higher and slower in an effort to slash fuel use while still performing the same missions.  The rise in oil prices has added $1 billion to the cost of fueling the Air Force fleet in 2012, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy Kevin Geiss said last month. Obama guts Defense R&D while pumping money into civilian labs. The One Thing He Wants to Cut.  Domestic agencies such as the departments of Health and Human Services and Energy would receive a larger share of research and development funding than the Department of Defense under President Obama's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.  The military would receive just under $70 billion for its research activities, down from $75 billion in 2010 and less than half of the $141 billion Obama has budgeted for R&D across all government agencies. 'Doomsday Clock' of Defense budget cuts nears zero hour.  If the hatchet strikes indiscriminately, and at a time that does not regard Defense budget planning, [Defense Secretary Leon] Panetta said the immediate result would be employee furloughs and contract and procurement curtailment; and the end of the decade would see the smallest U.S. Air Force in history in terms of personnel, smallest ground force since 1940, and smallest number of Navy ships since 1915. One way to weaken the military is to discourage good people from enlisting. Military votes don't count.  Election after election, certain state and local election officials fail to meet the deadline for sending absentee ballots.  The outcome is often the same — thousands of ballots are received too close to the election to be returned or, if they are returned, the ballots arrive after the deadline to be counted.  In either case, the military voter is disenfranchised. Being 'Army strong' gets weak backing with Obama's strategy.  The Army is coming out of a decade of war beat up and strapped for cash.  The force that arguably did most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and suffered the most casualties, now finds itself in a new conflict.  It has begun a round of soul-searching and bureaucratic battles to determine its place in the Obama administration's new military strategy, which celebrates the global striking power of air and sea forces and downplays the chance of another major land war. Obama's Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament.  Perhaps you do not know that President Obama has asked the Pentagon to develop plans to reduce America's nuclear arsenal by up to 80 percent.  That would ultimately leave America with just about 300 nuclear weapons, down from a high of over 31,000 at the height of the Cold War. What Happened to Preserve, Protect, and Defend?  Obama has done what no guardian of America would do:  systematically tear down the most vital of America's defenses, all while America's enemies wait with bated breath for the nation that owes trillions in debt to be left standing defenseless.  What happens when America lays down its arms?  It seems Obama would like to find out. Obama campaign's big blunder.  The Obama campaign accidentally handed its opponents a huge present, if they have the wit and the guts to use it.  The portion of the public that is paying attention is justifiably alarmed at Obama's overheard promise to Putin have "flexibility" on missile defense after the election. Obama Groveling Before Russians Fulfills 2008 Promise.  The president insists he wasn't trying to "hide the ball" until after the election, but the man who as candidate pledged to "end misguided defense policies" such as missile defense is fulfilling that campaign promise. Biden downplays Russian threat: 'This is not 1956'.  On Sunday's "Face the Nation" on CBS, Vice President Joe Biden took on the chief critic of President Barack Obama's open-microphone moment last week, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.  Biden said Romney's criticism of Obama's flexibility falls on deaf ears because the president was just stating the obvious. 'Bam and the bear.  We can only imagine what's up next, once Obama doesn't have to worry about getting elected ever again.  Russia, after all, runs a kind of Monroe Doctrine on steroids in Eastern Europe — which the Bear considers its den. Biden defends Яussia from Romney's attacks.  ABC News caught the president in what appears to be a promise to sell out the American people.  On Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Mitt Romney responded to the president's pledge to the Яussians. The Flexible Flip-Flopper.  President Obama's hot mic moment defined his trip to South Korea and may very well define his reelection bid.  The reason his uncensored remark resonates is that it supports a pre-existing narrative that President Obama's promises are not to be trusted. Rubio: Obama's open mic gaffe prompted timing of Romney endorsement.  Mitt Romney can thank President Obama's "flexibility" for Marco Rubio's endorsement.  In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, Sen. Rubio revealed that President Obama's recent "open mic" gaffe with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sparked his endorsement of Mitt Romney for president Wednesday night [3/28/2012].  "It's been weighing on my mind all week," he said. Obama plans double cross on missile defense.  There is so much constant, loud clatter in politics that often it is difficult to separate that which is important and revealing from that which is just noise.  But President Obama said something important and revealing on Monday [3/26/2012] in South Korea.  The White House tried to laugh off his comments at first and then to explain them away.  But the implications are too serious for political spin. Obama Trades His Oath for Russian Campaign Contribution.  A U.S. president has just told the leaders of an unfriendly nation that he wants to make concessions to them on matters of national defense, but that he cannot do so until after he has freed himself from having to answer to the American people.  In other words, he has explicitly made himself a servant, not of U.S. national interests, but of Russian national interests.  He is assuring the Russians that he intends to satisfy their wishes, as soon as American public opinion ceases to be an obstacle.  This, I suggest, is the kind of government secrecy that ought to cause alarm. Obama's Gaffe Hints at Hidden Agenda in Second Term.  What's really damaging here is the implication that Obama has a hidden second-term agenda. Obama's 'flexibility' to lie after election.  Turns out he's not Kenyan after all.  He's KGB.  All this time, people were worried that President Obama was born in Africa and that his radical agenda had been crafted by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Saul Alinsky on the streets of Chicago's South Side.  Now we know his real radical hidden agenda is in service of the Kremlin. The Editor says... I have to disagree with the first sentence:  The fact that Obama is a communist sympathizer doesn't prove that he doesn't have dual citizenship.  In fact, it makes suspicion of him even more plausible. Why Obama's open mic slip could seriously hurt his reelection hopes.  By telling Mr. Medvedev and his patron, the once-and-future Russian President Vladimir Putin, that he will have "flexibility" after the American election on Russian demands opposing a US missile defense for Europe, Mr. Obama is in effect saying he is ready to do something the Russians will like but that the American people won't.  Mr. Obama has shown Russian leaders, and now the entire world, weakness. Bolton: Obama's Open-Mic Comments to Medvedev a 'Fire Bell in the Night'.  As usual, an excellent and important perspective from Ambassador Bolton on Obama's open-mic debacle with Medvedev. Open-mic Obama.  Until this week, we thought our fearless leader, President Obama, was merely planning to trade away our missile-defense shield for marginal reductions in the Russian nuclear arsenal.  Then came the incident of the open microphone.  Into an open mic, a temerarious Obama promised the ersatz president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, that, after the November presidential elections, he would have more "flexibility" in dealing with that pesky missile shield that so offends the Russians and their clients.  Even Obama's allies seemed stunned that he would so recklessly let the cat out of the bag, and give credence to Republican warnings about a second Obama term in office. Obama's hot mike disaster.  Mitt Romney wasted no time in spotting and capitalizing on the mega-error by President Obama in telling the Russian president he'll have "more flexibility" after the election. ... Given his recent turn to the left both substantively and rhetorically, the "more flexibility" statement is going to be hard to live down. Hot mic: Obama begs Russians for 'space' on missile defense talks.  Unaware that a microphone was recording him, President Obama asked outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Monday for breathing room until after Mr. Obama's re-election campaign to negotiate on missile defense.  "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him to give me space," Mr. Obama told Mr. Medvedev at the end of their 90-minute meeting, apparently referring to incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin. President Obama Asks Medvedev for 'Space' on Missile Defense — 'After My Election I Have More Flexibility'.  At the tail end of his 90 minute meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev Monday [3/26/2012], President Obama said that he would have "more flexibility" to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense, but incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to give him "space."  The exchange was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room for remarks by the two leaders. Will Voters Give Obama The Flexibility To Surrender?  The president tells his Russian counterpart to give him space until November when, if re-elected, he'll be able to give away missile defense and the rest of the store without political consequences. Turner to Obama: What Flexibility?  A senior House Republican on Monday accused President Obama of going back on promises he would not weaken U.S. missile defenses through negotiations with Russia after the president was overheard promising more concessions after his reelection. RNC responds to Obama's hot-mic comments.  The RNC blasted President Obama for remarks he made to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Seoul that were overheard by reporters in a new ad released Monday [3/26/2012].  "What else is on Obama's agenda after the election that he isn't telling you?" the ad asks. Obama defends hot-mic missile gaffe.  President Barack Obama is defending his hot-mic promise of post-election "flexibility" with Russia's leaders as just another version of his public statements, and is blaming the media for slowing down a deal with Russia. All the Pravda.  For a man so in love with the technology of image, the camera, the microphone and the teleprompter, the leader of the increasingly less free world has a natural tendency to put a little too much faith in it.  This is the second time that an open microphone has let Obama down, the first time it recorded him stabbing an ally in the back, the second time it recorded him stabbing a few dozen more in the back. Krauthammer: Obama Admitted To Medvedev That Second Term Will Be Hard Left.  'This is my last election.'  That's his way of saying with a nod and a wink, 'Look, you guys have a free hand because you run a dictatorship, your elections are rigged.  Well, ours aren't rigged, but once I get passed my last election, I'm unleashed.  I can do anything I want. Spins and needles for Barack Obama.  Spinning is a deceiver's art, the craft of persuading suckers they didn't really hear what they just heard.  It's what modern politics is all about.  President Obama has put his best spinners to work to "clarify" what he meant with his remarks in confidence to the Russians that once past November he'll have the "flexibility" to alter the American missile-defense system in a way that will please Moscow. Barack Obama's grovelling before the Russians is an embarrassment.  Ronald Reagan, together with Margaret Thatcher, stood up to Moscow, and brought the Soviet Empire to its knees.  In contrast, Barack Obama has gone on his knees to grovel before the Russians. What Will Obama Give Russia If He's Re-elected?  President Barack Obama would like to do some things for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President-elect Vladimir Putin that he does not want American voters to know about before they decide whether to re-elect him in November.  That was the intended-to-be-secret message Obama gave Medvedev in South Korea on Monday [3/26/2012]. Issa: 'He's Going to Sell Out Our National Defense After the Election'.  House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that "the American people should be very afraid" after hearing President Barack Obama's accidentally recorded remarks to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday that after the election he would have more "flexibility" in dealing with the Russians.  "I judge that in fact he's going to sell out our national defense after the election," said Issa. Disarming America: Obama Betrays Reagan's Dream.  The president's shredding of the Constitution began at the Preamble's provision for the common defense.  He gave away our missile defense to appease Moscow and betray our allies. A curious experiment in gun control.  Nothing but a direct order from the White House could have persuaded Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus, the senior Marine in Afghanistan, to disarm his men on the battlefield, even for an audience with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The episode revealed much about our administration, none of it good. Dishonorably Disarmed: Marines Insulted by Sec. Panetta.  Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was to address a mixed U.S.-Afghan audience at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan only weeks after six American solders were killed by Afghan soldiers, and days after an American soldier allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians.  That circumstance alone would ensure a tense atmosphere, but the decision to disarm the 200 Marines who planned to hear the secretary should set off further alarm bells. Worse Than a Powder Keg.  Our troops have been the target of serial sneak attacks by the Afghans with whom they are forced to "partner."  Nevertheless, our Marines were ordered to disarm before being admitted into the presence of Obama's defense secretary, Leon Panetta.  Yes, you read that correctly:  Our Marines were stripped of their arms.  Panetta was at Camp Leatherneck on a "surprise" visit, hoping to calm the disastrous situation in the combat theater.  Turns out not to have been much of a surprise:  One of our Afghan "partners" — a contract interpreter hired to help our armed forces in deadly Helmand province — seamlessly converted to Islamist suicide assassin. McCain sees another Solyndra in Navy biofuels spending.  The Navy's push to develop biofuels to run its fleet of planes and warships could devolve into a "Solyndra situation" for the Pentagon, a top Republican senator said today [3/15/2012].  During Tuesday's [3/13/2012] hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ranking member John McCain (R-Ariz.) compared the now-bankrupt solar energy company, into which the White House sank $535 million in loan guarantees, to Navy-led efforts in alternative energy. Obama's Missile Defense Madness.  Back during the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama suggested he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without any preconditions in order to achieve an improvement in relations between the two countries.  For this he was widely criticized, and he dropped the idea.  To date, he hasn't really come up with anything concrete as a replacement. Obama's Alarming View on Who Wills the US Military.  Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told a Senate committee on Wednesday that the US would "seek permission" from international organizations before committing the military to war.  He also made it clear that the Obama administration does not feel it necessary to "inform" Congress or get their authorization for military action. This, in my opinion, would be an act of treason: Obama To Give Missile Secrets To Russia With Love?  A deputy defense secretary tells Congress that the administration is indeed considering giving Moscow sensitive Aegis ballistic missile defense data.  We've gone from "trust but verify" to "appease and surrender." Obama directive waters down military custody for terror detainees.  President Obama nullified major provisions of the 2012 Defense Authorization law on Tuesday that would have mandated military custody for terrorist suspects.  In a directive issued Tuesday evening [2/28/2012], Obama cited national security interests as he gave federal law enforcement power over the military to investigate and prosecute terrorism cases. Tricare Fury.  The WFB's recent report on an Obama administration proposal to slash health care benefits for active duty and retired military has sparked a fierce reaction against the White House from friends of the American military.  The American Action Network, meanwhile, has started a Facebook petition to tell "the president that our men and women in uniform should come before his union cronies." Tar and Feathers for Ray Mabus.  Navy Secretary Mabus, like Obama, believes that our armed services are political tools, playthings to be splashed about like toys in a toddler's bathtub. ... Under Mabus and Obama, our Navy has shrunk to World War I levels, women are serving on submarines and we are spending untold millions or billions on "greening" the navy.  The Marine Corps is about to be cut massively and the navy's shipbuilding program is being delayed, resulting in a force that may be over-stressed or even incapable of doing its job in the next crisis. This budget guts defense.  Tuesday's Associated Press report that President Obama is considering large cuts in our strategic arsenal is just the latest of this week's grim news about the president's national-defense plans.  On nukes, the administration is apparently pondering reductions of up to 80 percent of deployed warheads — a breathtaking slash to our nuclear-deterrence posture.  This comes on top of troubling plans outlined in the president's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. Obama plans to reduce our nuclear weapons to virtually nothing.  [Scroll down]  Today [2/15/2012], it was announced that Obama plans to reduce our nuclear weapons to virtually nothing (an 80% reduction) and less than either China or Russia possesses.  The dictator-in-chief is bent upon making the USA a target for both nukes and takeover by hostile forces as soon as possible.  Our own corrupt Congress and US military leaders are currently silent — with only crickets being heard in the distance.  In this, silence = concurrence. We Dare Call It Treason.  Close on the heels of threatening to eviscerate America's defense budget and cripple our ability to defend ourselves on more than one front, Barrack Hussein Obama-Soetoro is now pushing for cutting our nuclear weapons force by up to 80 percent, to a level less than that of his idols, the Communist Chinese.  We have come to expect the leftist Democrat Party to want defense cuts, but the proposals being thrust upon us by the squatter in the White House will leave us wide open to devastating attack from nearly every quarter. Obama Budget to Spend 1.5 Times as Much on Health Care as on Defense.  President Obama's 2013 budget will spend 1.5 times as much money on health care as on Defense, including the cost of the continuing war in Afghanistan in 2013.  According to the budget proposal, Obama will spend a combined $941 billion on federal health care spending, including Medicare, Medicaid, and funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers ObamaCare programs as well as the National Institutes of Health. Obama Wants to Cut U.S. Nukes by 80 Percent.  Weeks ago, President Obama gutted our ground forces in favor of entitlement programs.  Now, his administration plans to cut the U.S. nuke arsenal by 80 percent.  It is clear President Obama is more than happy to weaken America as a military force in the world. Nuking our Nukes.  President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to consider cutting U.S. strategic nuclear forces to as low as 300 deployed warheads — below the number believed to be in China's arsenal and far fewer than current Russian strategic warhead stocks.  Pentagon and military planners were asked to develop three force levels for the U.S. arsenal of deployed strategic nuclear warheads:  a force of 1,100 to 1,000 warheads; a second scenario of between 700 and 800 warheads; and the lowest level of between 300 and 400 warheads. Obama Administration Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament Disaster.  The only country that can be disarmed by President Obama is ours.  Period.  So why would any President/Commander-in-Chief do this? ... It's like he's trying to earn that [2009 Nobel Prize] award that was already given. Replacement of war-worn equipment cut in budget.  The Pentagon is not just cutting manpower to reach deficit-reduction targets:  Its 2013 budget, released Monday, shows the military will spend less to replace old weapons after two grueling wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gutting America's military is no way to keep the peace.  Nobody disputes that the Pentagon could do a better job of spending the billions of dollars needed to keep America free at home and prepared for the unexpected from abroad.  The Defense Department, after all, is a government bureaucracy, and bureaucracies can always be made more efficient.  But a dangerous movement is gathering pace in Congress, on college campuses, and across the mainstream media to reduce the U.S. military to levels not seen since the early Clinton years. New Pentagon plan would cut ground forces by 100,000.  Defense Secretary Leon Panetta unveiled a plan Thursday [1/26/2012] that would cut nearly a half-trillion dollars from the defense budget over the next decade by retiring older planes and ships, delaying some projects and shrinking U.S. ground forces by about 100,000.  The plan would reduce the size of the Army by 80,000 soldiers by 2017, bringing the force size to a level slightly larger than it was on 9/11. Welcome Back, Carter!  Budget cuts threaten to hollow out the military. Obama's Strategy for Disaster.  Yesterday [1/26/2012] the Obama administration revealed how it plans to reorient our military in order to pay for the half a trillion dollars it wants in defense cuts over the next decade.  Under the guise of creating a "leaner, meaner" and more mobile force, President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta will actually leave us with an Army, Navy, and Air Force that can be everywhere but fight nowhere; that's able to act quickly but not decisively, and with few resources to deal with the unexpected — which tends to be the norm in strategic affairs — or project real power where it counts. With a Leaner Military, a Long List of Potential Threats.  Following his long-awaited announcement detailing a proposal for massive defense spending cuts and an overall reduction in military personnel, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed his list of the risks and the most pressing threats to America's security.  "This is going to be tough," Panetta told reporters Thursday [1/26/2012]. New space-arms control initiative draws concern.  John R. Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador who held Ms. Tauscher's post during the George W. Bush administration, said the initiative is symptomatic of the Obama administration's ideological commitment to arms talks.  "This is mindless," Mr. Bolton said in an email.  "The last thing the United States needs is a space code of conduct.  The ideology of arms control has already failed in the Russian 'reset' policy, and it is sure to fail here as well." Americans, Lend Me Your Eyes.  [Scroll down]  Obama announced last week drastic shrinking of U.S. armed forces, including retreat from Europe.  Fiscal reality cannot be ignored, and the detailed plan deserves scrutiny by Congress and informed citizenry.  One key assumption of the plan is alarming:  it will leave the U.S. unable to fight two major conflicts at the same time.  Think of what this says to current or potential adversaries -- e.g., Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, al-Qaeda. Obama Scissorhands.  There are two ways to react to President Obama's latest round of defense spending cuts.  One is emotional but somewhat justified.  The second is to analyze of Obama's plans critically to reveal a transformation of our military that is as dangerous as Obama's transformation of our economy. Editor's note: All the articles below speak for themselves.  Barack H. Obama (a/k/a Barry Soetoro) is systematically dismantling and weakening the Department of Defense.  What I find most puzzling is the silence of the news media and the inaction of the Congress in response to Mr. Obama's revelation of military secrets to the Russian government, including the exact number of warheads in our nuclear arsenal. [1] [2] [3]  That, in my opinion, is an act of treason. Obama To Betray Missile Defense Secrets To Moscow.  Betraying our secrets is easy for a president who betrayed allies Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Moscow.  Poland was to host ground-based interceptors such as those we've deployed in California and Alaska, with missile-tracking radar deployed in the Czech Republic.  Obama pulled the plug when Moscow objected. The Top 5 Reasons Obama Must Be Removed as Commander-in-Chief.  [#5] Hollowing Out Our Military:  This week we learn that Obama is slashing the defense budget, planning to lay off 14% off our troops, reduce our nuclear arsenal, shelve key weapon systems and explicitly cripple our ability to wage ground wars.  What hath Saul Alinsky wrought!  Already, Obama has strait-jacketed the military in political correctness, forbidding discussion of the nature of radical Islam and sanitizing the jihad-crazed murder of 13 soldiers at Fort Hood into "workplace violence."  But that was not enough for our Commander-in-Chief. Obamalateral Disarmament Dooms Arsenal Of Democracy.  Portrayed as just a shuffling of priorities, the president's defense cuts reduce our two-war strategy to maybe one war and cross your fingers.  Champagne corks are popping from Beijing to Tehran. Obama's Indefensible Cuts.  In outlining his new defense strategy yesterday [1/5/2012], President Obama became the first commander-in-chief to speak from the Pentagon's pressroom.  Unfortunately, he used the occasion to introduce nearly $500 billion in cuts that are likely to weaken the national security of the United States. The Price of Obama's Peace Dividend Is an Increased Risk of War.  The perception and appearance of overwhelming strength will make the actual need for that same overwhelming strength unnecessary.  The appearance of weakness, on the other hand, is as much an invitation to aggression as pasting a "kick me" sign to your own back.  Obama should realize this more than just about any other politician that has ever lived. Obama Proposes Crippling Cuts To U.S. Military.  How can we propose massive cuts in the number of uniformed military when we are paying for NPR?  How can he cut the Marine Corps by 10% when he won't cut the Department of Energy or the Department of Education?  Answer:  This is Obama's strategy for the world, rooted in a deep, profound suspicion of American exceptionalism and American military power. Obama's Motto:  President Obama is calling for dramatic defense cuts that could threaten our national survival while obstructing structural reforms to our entitlement programs that are essential for our national financial survival.  It just doesn't get much worse than this. Don't gut our defense budget.  Supporters of the cuts claim we spend too much on defense, but our defense spending is actually quite low.  Today, we spend 3.9% of our Gross Domestic Product on defense.  In the 1960s, we spent 9.5% of our GDP to secure the nation.  As recently as the 1980s, 6.2% of the country's economic output was spent on defense. Air Force Will Lose Hundreds of Planes in New Pentagon Plan.  The Air Force is preparing to trim hundreds of aircraft from its aging fleet in order to meet an Obama administration austerity order.  The move will strike many Air Force supporters as ironic.  Because just as the fleet is set to shrink, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is getting ready to argue, at least implicitly, that the country needs it more than ever. Five ways Obama weakened America in 2011.  [Scroll down]  With more than $1 trillion in defense cuts looming over the next decade, Mr. Obama is hollowing out the military like we haven't seen since Jimmy Carter was in the White House.  Already the Navy's 284 ships are the least in service since before World War I.  Meanwhile, the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps are shrinking by tens of thousands — meaning more numerous and longer deployments overseas.  Major weapons systems are facing delay or elimination, which will hurt our industrial base. It's a little late to ask this question: Are Our Nuclear Secrets Safe In Obama's Hands?  The administration is considering reviving a '90s-era nuclear scientist exchange program with China.  Does no one in the White House remember how much damage the previous arrangement caused? Gutting Defense Results In Cutting Jobs.  The head of the House Armed Services Committee says already enacted and looming defense cuts could cost the economy a million and a half jobs.  It could cost the nation much more than that. Last F-22 Raptor Rolls Off Assembly Line.  The final F-22 Raptor fighter jet rolled off the assembly line during a ceremony at the Lockheed Martin aircraft plant at Dobbins Air Reserve Base.  The U.S. military is turning to the less costly F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to complement its operational fleet of 187 Raptors, amid concerns in Washington that the $153 million F-22 is too costly and too high-tech for its own good. Jet Fuel-Gate Is Obama's New Solyndra.  SolyndraGate was no isolated case of corrupt government misspending.  The U.S. Navy was just forced to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels from an Obama-connected firm at an outrageous $16 per gallon. Crony capitalism sinks the Navy.  Move over Solyndra.  You are not the only politically connected alternative-energy company to slop at the public trough thanks to the election of Barack Obama as president.  Over at Hot Air, J.E. Dyer reported that the Navy is forced to pay $16 a gallon for buckets of biofuel from a company named Solazyme — So Lazy Me — I kid you not. The Volt Administration.  The headline reads like a piece from the Onion:  "U.S. Navy Paying $15/Gallon for Green Fuel." ... "We are doing this for one simple reason," explained Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, "It makes us better war fighters.  Our use of fossil fuels is a very real threat to our national security and to the U.S. Navy's ability to protect America and project power overseas."  Really?  As long as a fuel makes the ships, planes and submarines go, how does using pricey biofuel mixtures improve the war fighting capacity of the Navy? Navy blue goes green.  Even as the scientific validation of global-warming theory crumbles, adherents in Washington have dragooned the U.S. military into leading the charge toward renewable energy.  The Navy made headlines last week with the revelation that it has been ordered to purchase 450,000 gallons of biofuel to power its jet fighters.  Conventional jet fuel costs about $4 a gallon, but the biofuel made from fermented algae will set back the service about $16 a gallon. Navy Biofuel Deal is 'Cost Prohibitive,' 'Another Solyndra,' Critics Say.  The Obama administration's deal to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel for Navy jets comes at a cost of up to nine times higher than regular fuel, a spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, coming at a time when the U.S. military is already facing deep budget cuts. Obama's war on decency.  On Dec. 1, the story broke that Bethesda-based Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where wounded veterans convalesce, apparently had banned visitors from bringing in Bibles or other religious items. ... The policy was rescinded, but that it was imposed at all is a reminder of the culture President Obama has fostered in the armed forces and executive agencies, where extreme environmentalism, moral relativism and sexual immorality have replaced traditional American values.  We shouldn't really be surprised when a bureaucrat tries to bar Bibles in a U.S. military stateside hospital while other bureaucrats make sure terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, get copies of the Koran. Has Obama Set the Stage for Pearl Harbor All Over Again?  High unemployment and a weak defense attract aggressors:  Germany and Japan in the 1930s.  Iran and North Korea today.  And maybe Russia.  The more decrepit our defense, the more aggressive the tyrants will be. Pentagon defends sodomy rule change.  Conservative groups are upset over a proposed change in the defense bill that would eliminate Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Defense bill repeals military law on sodomy.  Recently passed Senate legislation would make sodomy and sex with animals legal under military law, ending long-standing prohibitions and triggering cries of perversion from conservative groups. Update: Defense Bill Will Not Include Provision Legalizing Sodomy, Bestiality in Military.  Despite a plea from the Obama administration that the military ban on sodomy and bestiality be repealed, a House-Senate conference committee has restored the ban to the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act.  The sodomy-bestiality ban would have been repealed by the version of the bill that had been approved by the Senate. PETA Rebukes White House.  President Obama's special envoy to the United Nations Climate Change conference said that a Green Climate Fund, reportedly funded in part through a financial currency tax that would hit Americans hardest, is "rapidly" approaching.  "We are in the international context going to be, hopefully, and I believe that this will be the case, rapidly setting up the Green Fund," Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change, told reporters at the UN conference.  "We will also be working hard to ramp up the funding that is supposed to reach a 100 billion dollars a year by 2020." Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military.  The Senate on Thursday evening [12/1/2011] voted 93-7 to approve a defense authorization bill that includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, it also repeals the military ban on sex with animals — or bestiality. Military advocates decry 'illegal' early terminations of 157 Air Force majors.  The Chapman University of Military Law and its associated AMVETS Legal Clinic are blowing the whistle on what they say is an injustice set to be perpetrated on 157 Air Force majors on the last day of November.  "The Obama administration has ordered massive reductions in forces, resulting in many officers who are near retirement being involuntarily separated without retirement or medical benefits," explained institute director Maj. Kyndra Rotunda. 157 Air Force Majors terminated without retirement benefits.  One of the best ways to destroy American military capabilities would be to convince career military personnel — both officers and enlisted — that their commitment to service will not be rewarded with the retirement benefits they have earned by their faithful obedience to orders, no matter the personal cost or risks they endure.  The Obama administration seems to be ready to destroy the belief that service will be rewarded as faithfully as duty was performed, one step at a time. Krauthammer: Obama gave up 'governance,' now running 'an Occupy Wall Street campaign'.  Almost immediately after the congressional deficit reduction super committee called it quits on trying to reach a deal on federal budget cuts, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged Congress to stop the automatic across-the-board cuts, warning they would "tear a seam in the nation's defense."  That's a near-complete contradiction to what his boss, President Barack Obama, said following the news.  Obama promised to veto any efforts by Congress to stop the cuts. Defenseless: America in the Twenty First Century.  Under the guise of addressing the debt crisis, President Obama is leaving America exposed to multi-pronged attack by myriad hostile powers.  Necessities like national defense are being sacrificed on the altar of handouts to constituents.  Arguably secondary entitlement programs have supplanted the primary necessity of a strong national defense capable of deterring aggression.  To state the obvious, the vital security needs of the nation can not be replaced with a one-time shot of welfare utopia.  What nation or civilization has ever survived that has turned inward, gratifying pleasure and consumption over the preservation of outer-defenses?  Rome serves as only one pertinent example among many.  Leaving America defenseless is indefensible. Border Patrol agents pulled off-task.  An immigration enforcement advocacy organization is outraged over the Department of Homeland Security's latest directive the group says appears to be nothing more than an effort to aid illegal immigration.  The Associated Press reported recently the DHS issued a directive to U.S. Border Patrol field offices around the country, instructing officers to halt routine checks at transportation hubs that are not "intelligence-driven." U.S. relaxes Canadian border checks.  The U.S. Border Patrol has quietly stopped its controversial practice of routinely searching buses, trains and airports for illegal immigrants at transportation hubs along the northern border and in the nation's interior, preventing agents from using what had long been an effective tool for tracking down people here illegally, it has been revealed. Where Are the Grownups?  U.S. forces are engaged in Libya, Somalia and Yemen.  And Afghanistan and — for the moment — Iraq.  If we are to take on every murderous militia in Africa, we'll need a lot more troops than we're going to have after Obama's cuts to defense spending.  Those cuts are about to be increased massively by the "super committee" created by the August budget ceiling deal.  The "super committee" will deadlock because the Democrats are insisting that Republicans agree to massive tax hikes before they even discuss spending cuts.  And when the deadlock happens, it will be up to some grownups among congressional Republicans to prevent destruction of our military if they can.  They probably can't because they agreed to the trigger mechanism already, and Obama is standing by to veto any restoration of essential military and intelligence spending. Cut the red wire first! Last B53 nuclear bomb to be dismantled today.  The nearly 50-year history of the country's single most powerful nuclear weapon is coming to an end.  Workers at the nation's only nuclear weapon assembly and disassembly facility will spend less than an hour today doing the final work to dismantle the last B53 — the United States' most destructive weapon — which weighs about 10,000 pounds and is roughly the size of a minivan. Disarming America's Military.  [Scroll down]  The report contemplated cuts that would "eliminate 60 ships, two carrier battle groups, and over 200,000 troops through 2021.  The Army would lose ground combat vehicles.  The Navy would suffer cuts in ship building and replacements for older ships.  The Air Force would likely lose the next generation bombers and aerial refueling tanker aircraft.  The Marine Corps would lose personnel carriers and indefinitely postpone replacements for new amphibious assault vehicles and ships. Report: Budget cuts would hollow military.  A new congressional report spells out in detail how the military would become "hollow" if Congress' super committee fails to agree on deficit reductions and $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts kick in.  The Army and Marine Corps would lose 200,000 troops, bringing active strength "well below" pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels, and the armed forces would not be able to carry out its essential mission, says a 14-page analysis by the Republican majority staff of the Housed Armed Services Committee. Armed Services chairman: Obama is anti-military.  "It is my suspicion that the White House and congressional Democrats" designed the supercommittee process "for one purpose:  to force Republicans to choose between raising taxes or gutting defense," said California Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, the House Armed Services Committee chairman.  Mr. McKeon also lashed out at the administration's defense and security policies that he asserted are based on a negative view of U.S. power in the world. US: military chaplains may perform same-sex unions.  The Pentagon has decided that military chaplains may perform same-sex unions, whether on or off a military installation. Would Obama Retaliate against a Nuclear Attack?  What if a Muslim country, such as Iran, launched a nuclear attack against us, or if agents aligned with Pakistan using dirty bombs were to attack America?  Would Barack Hussein Obama retaliate with nuclear force, as has been our stated policy since the 1950s?  Would he even unleash a barrage of non-nuclear shock and awe that would level those countries so that they'd be incapable of striking a second time? White House Dangerously Fickle About State Secrets.  Unfortunately, the exposure of operational details in the bin Laden raid was only the latest example of the administration casting our security to the wind.  Obama, within his first hundred days in office, publicized secret memos on our interrogation techniques such as the approach used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to interrogate terrorists such as 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  Those memos revealed the steps we use to extract information to prevent terrorist attacks. Blue Angels to fly on biofuels.  When the six F/A-18 Hornets in the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team thrill the crowds at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo in Maryland this weekend, they'll be soaring on biofuel.  Each of the six Hornets will be powered by a 50/50-blend of jet fuel and camelina-based biofuel, according to a Navy press release. Obama the biofool.  Leftists see the military more as a playground for kooky ideas than as the primary responsibility of the federal government.  Consider the scheme President Obama announced Tuesday that will have the armed forces devote a great deal of time, money and energy to switch to so-called advanced biofuels.  Underneath the trendy "green" label, however, is a classic example of pork-barrel politics. Don't Hollow Out the Military.  Under President Obama, the Defense Department's budget has already been reduced by some $430 billion.  Now, thanks to this "compromise," the security portfolios will be reduced by a further $350 billion in the first round of cuts.  Then, in the fine print of the debt-ceiling deal, a twelve-member bicameral "super committee" will recommend a second round of cuts... The Danger of a Weak American President.  As president, he is commander-in-chief of the American military, America's head of state and the Leader of the Free World.  The world, however, now sees that America's president is weak.  He does not command the Congress or the confidence of the American people.  He refused to pull the trigger on Moammar Gaddafi, matching his actions to his words.  With seventeen months to go in his term, the president presently appears unlikely to win reelection — or his party to retain control of one House of Congress.  This is dangerous.  In this wicked world, it is important that the American president be feared.  This one is not. Obama's Intent to Gut the Military.  President Obama continues to push the notion that he wants a "balanced approach" to budget cuts, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the only spending cuts he is willing to contemplate are cuts in defense spending. Military leaders know Obama's decision is a disaster.  Under our Constitution, military leaders have no choice but to endorse the president's decision after giving him their best advice.  They could resign, of course, but to have the entire senior military leadership resign over a president's decision contrary to their advice would be a disaster, and not least for the troops on the ground. The president may be sabotaging his own Afghanistan strategy.  President Obama failed to offer a convincing military or strategic rationale for the troop withdrawals from Afghanistan that he announced Wednesday night.  In several ways, they are at odds with the strategy adopted by NATO, which aims to turn over the war to the Afghan army by the end of 2014. Is Obama Stacking The West Point Board With Activists?  President Obama on Tuesday [7/5/2011] appointed an openly gay former Army officer to the U.S. Military Academy's Board of Visitors.  Former Capt. Brenda S. "Sue" Fulton, a founding board member of OutServe, an association of actively serving gay military personnel, is also co-founder and executive director of Knights Out, an organization of gay West Point graduates.  She graduated in 1980 with the first West Point class to include women. A Clueless, Callous Commander-in-Chief.  Obama's bumbling, bungled delivery at Fort Drum yesterday represents far more than mere confusion; it clearly demonstrates a lack of care, an inattention to detail in matters very important to his audience, an insensitivity to the families of dead warriors, a dismissive disrespect of SSGT Giunta, and a casual slap in the face to the entire United States military. The Plot to Destroy the US Military.  In two generations we have gone from General Patton telling his troops to grease their tanks with the enemy's guts to an extensive purge of Navy command officers over a series of raunchy video skits.  Slowly but surely we are turning the greatest armed forces into the world, into the most politically correct disarmed forces the world has ever seen. The Obama 4 year plan to re-make America.  [Scroll down]  President Obama continues to posture himself against the informed judgment of seasoned military personnel on the ground.  He gratuitously procrastinates when called upon to provide the reinforcements needed to bring a resolution to the two major conflicts we are presently engaged in; and his progressive impulses compel him to view the military culture as one that should epitomize the cardinal liberal virtues of "diversity" and "tolerance". Affirmative action is coming to the Pentagon. Report says too many whites, men leading military.  The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday [3/7/2011]. Mindless Push for 'Diversity' in the Military Won't Win Wars.  There are too many white men in the U.S. military.  So says a report released this week by the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC), commissioned by Congress to examine ways to "increase diversity" in the military.  The MLDC report finds that 77% of active-duty senior officers are white, 8% black, 5% Hispanic, and 16% women (of unspecified race).  What's the answer to this "problem"?  Is the MLDC recommending that white males stop volunteering for military service?  Do they want to start "selecting" who among them volunteers for service? US spy spending revealed for first time, tops $80 billion.  The United States spent $80 billion on spy activities in 2010, the first time the government has officially announced the total tab for intelligence spending.  The amount included $53.1 billion on non-military intelligence programs, a 6 percent boost from the previous year, according to a statement released Thursday [10/28/2010] by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. US agrees to announce missile launches.  The United States has agreed to notify other nations before it launches most ballistic missile tests or satellites, in a measure that builds on a landmark arms agreement with Russia and is meant to encourage Moscow to reciprocate. Loose lips sink ships. U.S. is expected to reveal size of nuclear stockpile.  The Obama administration is likely to reveal a closely guarded secret — the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile — during a critical meeting starting Monday [5/3/2010] at which Washington will try to strengthen the global treaty that curbs the spread of nuclear weapons, several officials said. Obama's nuclear spill.  The Obama administration has revealed — for the first time ever — the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal in detail.  This information was a closely guarded secret for more than 60 years.  By unloading such sensitive information, President Obama is responsible for deliberately exposing a chink in America's defensive armor. 5,113.  Five thousand, one hundred thirteen.  That's the number of nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal.  President Barack Obama has told the world. ... Why did Obama do that?  Why did he gratuitously divulge one of America's Top Secrets? Gitmo Detainees Serve Time By Playing Games.  President Obama has not fulfilled his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, but he has brought detainees Skype, Playstation 3 and "life skills" classes.  While the 181 detainees currently being held in the prison on Cuba wait to learn their fates after the administration fell through on its January 2010 deadline to move detainees out of the facility, 90 percent now live in a "communal" environment that includes Skype, the online video chat service, and access to a 17,000-book "library." Obama's psychosis.  The heart of the Obama doctrine is the illusion that there is no war on terror.  According to Mr. Obama and the liberal elite, Islamic fascism is a figment of George W. Bush's fevered imagination — a wild scheme concocted by militaristic neoconservatives to justify invading Iraq and imposing an American empire in the Middle East. ... In short, the president is conveying that America no longer views radical Islam as the enemy.  Mr. Obama desperately wants everyone to get along.  The Islamists, however, don't. Obama the appeaser.  Iran is on the march.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again defied the West — and President Obama — in his quest to acquire nuclear weapons.  The Persian fascist strongman is now months away from arming his Shi'ite revolutionary regime with the means to destroy Israel and blackmail the West. White House official calls terrorist group "a very interesting organization".  The downward spiral toward coffee and pastries between the White House and one of the world's bloodiest, most-notorious terrorist organizations continues.  And based on a Tuesday [5/18/2010] report in Reuters, this spiral may be tightening into an irrecoverable flat spin. Gates To Navy:  Anchors Away.  Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done:  sink the U.S. Navy.  We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says.  Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Security Policy by Bumper Sticker.  Liberal approaches to foreign policy continue to rely more on wishful thinking than on realism or maturity.  But even in the context of liberalism, President Obama's recent policy declarations on the matter of nuclear weapons are juvenile and disturbing.  Speaking in Prague, the president declared, "I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."  Has the president really thought this through? Obama Appeases U.S. Muslims.  The New York Times reported Monday [4/19/2010], with no hint that it understood the implications of what it was reporting, that Barack Obama is reaching out to Hamas-linked groups in the United States, while hamstringing our response to the terror threat by making obfuscation of the ideology of jihad terrorists official U.S. policy. America's Nuclear Surrender.  The administration proudly reveals a state secret to our enemies before a U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation.  It wants to lead by example on disarmament, but Iran and North Korea aren't following.  Not since the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that sought to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy has there been such a stunning display of dangerous naivete. To this president, there's no such thing as an Islamic extremist. Obama's jihad on 'jihad'.  President Obama's latest strategic innovation in the war on terrorism is to ignore jihad and maybe it will go away.  The Obama administration is removing terms such as "jihad" and "Islamic extremism" from the U.S. National Security Strategy in an attempt to convince Muslim countries that America doesn't view them solely through the lens of counterterrorism.  It's reasonable to look beyond terrorism in developing relationships with Islamic states. ... But the National Security Strategy is not some kind of outreach initiative, it is the framing document for America's global safety. Also posted under Uncle Sam is afraid to say what he means. What the Euphemisms Tell Us.  In the latest installment of politically correct, not to say Orwellian, language emanating from the Obama administration, the term "rogue states" has been sidelined in favor of "outliers."  The switch was unveiled as part of the just released Nuclear Posture Review. States like North Korea and Iran, labeled "rogue" by the Bush administration, will no longer labor under that punitive adjective. Nuclear posturing, Obama-style.  Nuclear doctrine consists of thinking the unthinkable.  It involves making threats and promising retaliation that is cruel and destructive beyond imagining.  But it has its purpose:  to prevent war in the first place. Obama Stands with Muslims as He Promised.  Though the president is taking great public pains to appear tough on terror and the real terrorists — as opposed to the imaginary ones (i.e., conservatives and Tea Partiers) — Barack Obama has actually gone to great lengths to make sure others like Shahzad remain utterly undisturbed.  Others who at this very minute remain undetected among us, ready to strike on orders from radicalized Imams or terror-army chiefs, walk among us, now knowing that they have a true friend and protector in the White House.  Barack Obama has successfully purged from the national discourse on terrorism — excuse me, "man-made disasters" — any mention of the religion/political ideology which is the undeniable common denominator. Responding to question, Cantor says 'no one thinks' Obama is a domestic 'enemy'.  A person from the audience asked [House Minority Whip Eric] Cantor, "In light of what Obama has done to leave us vulnerable, to cut defense spending to make us vulnerable to our outside enemies, to slight our allies ... what would he have to do differently to be defined as a domestic enemy?"  After pausing for several moments to let the crowd's laughter and head nodding dissipate, Cantor was received with low-level boos when he responded, "No one thinks that the president is a domestic enemy," Cantor said. The Beginning of USA Disarmament.  What our Founders warned against has now come to pass — in the form of a clear and present danger.  The Obama announced, today, that he had made a deal with Russia to reduce the USA's nuclear arsenal by 30%.  Russia is supposed to reduce its arsenal, also, but we suspect that will not occur. An 'Inept' President's 'Left-Wing Dream'.  President Obama's revamping of American nuclear policy is the mark of an "inept" leader intent on living a "left-wing dream," says Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, in an interview with National Review Online.  "A nuclear-free world has been a 60-year dream of the Left, just like socialized health-care.  This new policy, like Obama's government-run health program, is a big step in that direction." Obama's national security giveaway.  Details are scarce on the new START Treaty to be signed in Moscow on April 8th, but if I read accounts correctly, President Obama has given a major American strength by limiting American delivery systems, not just warheads. Obama Walks The Atomic Plank.  President Obama jam-packed early April with events that overhaul America's nuclear weapons policies which shout naivety and weakness.  Last year, Obama laid out his vision for a nuclear-weapons-free world before a cheering crowd in Prague, the Czech Republic. The World Is About To Get a Whole Lot More Dangerous.  For more than 60 years, the United States has been the pre-eminent nuclear power in the world, and the world has been safer as a result. ... Now, President Barack Obama is determined to abandon six decades of proven nuclear deterrent policy in favor of a fantasy that he can rid the world of these dangerous weapons by tying America's hands behind our backs. No finish in sight for 'virtual' border fence.  A multibillion-dollar "virtual fence" along the southwestern border promised for completion in 2009 to protect the U.S. from terrorists, violent drug smugglers and a flood of illegal immigrants is a long way from becoming a reality, with government officials unable to say when, how or whether it will ever be completed. Obama's Revisionist History of Terrorism:  Since taking office, Obama's key objective on terrorism has been to transform the public perception of it from an international military conflict, to a limited domestic criminal problem. Renaming terrorism to the bureaucratically euphonious term, "Man Caused Disasters" was straight out of the first rule in the textbook of organizational coverups, to phrase your sentences so that the identity of the perpetrators of the crisis remain as vague as possible. Islamic Terrorism on the Rise Since Obama Became President.  Islamic terrorism is on the rise both domestically and internationally since Obama became President in 2009, according to a count of high-profile, terrorism incidents in 2009, both in the US and abroad.  The number of Islamic terrorism incidents worldwide since Obama took office in 2009, including both domestic and international acts of terrorism, is on pace to surpass more than 1000 for all of 2009, according to a report by the American Security Project which is a bipartisan, Washington-based group. Detroit bomber 'singing like a canary' before arrest.  President Barack Obama is under fire over claims that the Christmas Day underwear bomber was "singing like a canary" until he was treated as an ordinary criminal and advised of his right to silence. Making the Taliban-Al Qaida counterstrategy easy.  It's not fear of 30,000 more American combat boots on the ground that will make the enemy literally head for the hills.  It's the President's advertisement that he hopes to withdraw most American forces by July of 2011. Obama and Plummeting Military Morale.  In an act of deep interpersonal significance, as Claudia Rosett observes, the president has not bothered to visit Afghanistan to bolster morale.  Yet to buck up his foreign policy credentials, Obama managed to make a campaign stop there while running for president.  Once elected, he found time to extend a friendly hand to Muslims in Cairo, lobby for Chicago's Olympics bid, vacation in Martha's Vineyard, and have a "date night" in New York City with his wife.  Soon he'll be off to Oslo to accept a Nobel Peace Prize, which he has done nothing yet to deserve in Afghanistan, at home, or elsewhere in the world. Obama Outlaws Legal Interrogation Methods, With An Out.  President Obama signed a few 'National Security' Executive Orders around noon today [1/22/2009], apparently designed to increase the rights of illegal combatants — terrorists — that are trying to kill as many of us as possible.  They were all remarkable, but perhaps the most troubling is the order on interrogation techniques for detainees in the War on Terror. Repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell Would Be a Disaster.  It's been one week since Barack Obama was sworn in as commander-in-chief and the new president has not hesitated to push his agenda — the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.  Although "the primary purpose of the armed forces is to prepare for and to prevail in combat should the need arise", forcing the military to legitimize same-sex relationships will be a Trojan Horse for imposing gay marriage nationwide and all in the name of "change." Obama Cannot Fulfill Vow to Put Homosexuals in Military Unless Congress Changes the Law.  Although President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to open the U.S. armed forces to homosexuals, he cannot fulfill this promise unless Congress passes new legislation repealing the existing statute that expressly prohibits homosexuals from serving in the military.  Legislation to do this will be proposed in the current Congress by Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.). Senate Armed Service Chairman Says He Supports Repealing Law that Bans Homosexuals.  The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee told CNSNews.com Friday [1/30/2009] that he supports overturning the law that prohibits homosexuals from serving in the military.  Speaking at a news briefing Friday, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said that he has always supported overturning a law that says homosexuality is incompatible with military service. The False Hopes of Gay America.  Barack Obama's team just announced, unequivocally, that he will repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the policy enacted by Bill Clinton to allow (and in fact force) gays in the military to hide their sexuality.  This is good news for much of the gay community, which seems to believe whole-heartedly that it has a new best friend in Barack Obama. Obama Promises to Keep Working Until 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Signed Into Law.  Celebrating LGBT pride month at the White House this evening, President Obama declared that the nation has never been closer to ending the "discriminatory policy" of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and promised to keep working until the bill is signed into law. Obama's Moralizing Tone May Not Wear Well.  Two days into his presidency, Barack Obama delivered on his most celebrated and ardently pledged campaign promise — the imposition of stringent limitations on the ways in which U.S. agents can question terror suspects, an executive order mandating the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and the freezing of all detainee prosecutions.  That last request brought an eloquent reply from Col. James Pohl, Guantanamo's chief military judge, who promptly said no.  He declared the directive to freeze all trials "not reasonable" — a description that could as well apply to the whole of the administration's program for our moral cleansing and reformation in intelligence gathering. Obama's Outreach To Muslims Won't Achieve Goal.  The decision by President Obama to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and open a dialogue with the Muslim world is unlikely to achieve its principal objective, which is to undermine the appeal of al-Qaida.  The reason for this is that attacks like Sept. 11, 2001, spring from deep spiritual causes and are not the result of American political behavior.  In his interview with the Arabic television station, al Arabiya, Obama missed the moral dimension of the struggle with terrorism completely. The End of the Beginning of the War on Terror.  The War on Terror did not start on 9/11.  We can argue semantics, but until the ongoing struggle against extremists materially changes we will continue to use the aforementioned name.  And with a new administration, al-Qaeda does not seem to sit idle while President Obama instills new initiatives to combat them.  The second in command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, continues to mock and belittle the United States in front of his supporters.  It is safe to conclude that al-Qaeda will not give the new president a honeymoon and will continue to find ways of attacking us. President needs reality check on defense.  National calamity.  That's where the United States might be headed if several published reports are true that President Barack Obama has demanded that the Pentagon trim its budget request by an astonishing 10 percent.  The U.S. Armed Forces are already stretched too thin, and proportional military spending has steadily declined for two solid decades after the brief spike under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Elections Have Consequences.  In the middle of not one but two shooting wars, President Obama has signaled that he intends to slow defense spending.  The anti-military chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, gleefully announced that he intends to strip funds for weapon systems from the budget.  Likely consequence:  The armed services will be unable either properly to "reset" the equipment and capabilities that have been used so intensively over the last seven years or be prepared for the next conflict.  History teaches such a posture invites foreign aggression and costs far more than is saved through short-term and shortsighted cuts. Obama's outrageous oversight:  President Obama clearly didn't do his homework before ordering the suspension of military tribunals to try terrorist suspects.  We have learned that even his own legal counsel admitted that Mr. Obama erred in discussing details about terrorism with families of victims last week, and that the administration was ignorant of a key point that terrorists exploit to their advantage.  In his rush to fulfill a campaign promise to his more fervid anti-war supporters, the president's legal oversights risk the disclosure of some highly classified information to terrorists. Just Because.  The AP reports that Eric Holder was impressed with Guantánamo Bay.  "Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the Guantanamo detention center is a well-run, professional facility that will be difficult to close-but he's still going to do it."  Well, naturally.  The Obama administration is only interested in keeping poorly run enterprises going. Congress Should Cut Military Spending, Says Democrat Barney Frank.  Congress should cut U.S. military spending by $160 billion, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, proposed at a press conference Tuesday. Bolton criticizes 'radical' Obama as 'bad news' for U.S..  It was evident from the first few minutes of John R. Bolton's speech to a conservative summit in the District on Thursday that, as harshly as he criticized former President George W. Bush, that was nothing compared with how he will treat President Obama. ... "It's clear that our national security is at risk in this administration," Mr. Bolton said. Do You Feel Safer Now?  Now that we have Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, do you feel safer?  I don't.  Aunt Janet could not manage to say words like "terrorism" or "9/11" in her recent testimony before a congressional committee. ... Democrats and, in particular, those of an extreme Leftist point of view are always ready to embrace our enemies and blame America for any attacks or other threats they pose. Betraying Our Friends.  Appeasing Russia to "solve" Iran's nuclear ambitions is not the only disconcerting feature of President Obama's approach to the world.  Vital friends and allies are getting America's cold shoulder. Beating Swords Into Bargaining Chips.  A Russian-built reactor undergoes operational tests in Iran.  Tehran orbits a satellite with an ICBM.  Are we about to trade away proven missile defense for unproven and unreliable Russian diplomacy? The Administration Kowtows.  Over the last three weeks, the Obama administration has sent three clear signals to the Chinese leadership.  First came the news that Chas Freeman would chair the National Intelligence Council. ... It's not hard to predict what line the intelligence community will take on China's military buildup (or another Tiananmen) under Freeman's leadership.  The Chinese will score their number two victory with Gary Locke, former governor of Washington, becoming our new commerce secretary. Is Obama Failing the Foreign Affairs Test?  "Can't we all get along... let's try to work it out."  That was Rodney King's plaintive plea in May 1992 after his highly controversial confrontation with the Los Angeles Police Department led to arson and anarchy.  Now, seventeen years later, the Obama administration has apparently made "just get along" their response to every national security test.  So far, it has been the wrong answer. Obama and Pentagon at Odds Over Nuclear Arsenal.  President Obama's pledge to reduce nukes is greatly at odds with a new report from the Department of Defense regarding America's nuclear weapons arsenal. Enforcement Pays.  With the widespread murderous violence between warring Mexican drug cartels spilling over the U.S. border and the continuing threat from radical Islamic terrorists domestic and foreign, the government has to spend its law enforcement dollars where they can do the most good.  Yet Democratic leaders in Congress and the Obama administration appear ready to scale back one of the most successful and cost-effective immigration law enforcement programs ever launched. Obama secretly ends program that let pilots carry guns.  After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program.  No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.  Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology. Obama Blasted for Diverting Money From Armed Pilots Program.  A Second Amendment group is blasting the Obama administration for quietly seeking to end the program that allows pilots — after special training — to carry guns in the cockpit.  The move will make air travel more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, something that should outrage travelers, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said. Squaring Off With Obama:  I seem to recall Obama's partisans insisting that he would personally make the United States popular the world over.  Well, so far, he has certainly reached out to Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, and I suppose if he actually closes Gitmo, Islamics will dance in the street of Tehran just before dropping the bomb on Israel. Rookie Mistake.  Last month, as part of his plans to "push the reset button" on U.S.-Russian relations, the new president sent a secret letter to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.  The missive reportedly contained a simple offer:  America would move to scrap Bush administration-era plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe in return for the Kremlin's help in dealing with Iran's persistent nuclear ambitions.  Russia's response was rapid — and far from enthusiastic. Obama's Plan to End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.  Whether President Barack Obama's plan to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow homosexuals to serve openly in the armed forces is a good idea, two Air Force leaders declined to say anything more than they will follow the law, when asked by CNSNews.com on Tuesday [3/17/2009]. Liberals want more defense spending left behind.  President Obama is facing mounting pressure from his party's left flank to cut defense spending so more money can be spent on social programs. ... The push from liberals comes at a time when Obama has pledged to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, and China and India have begun to emerge as major military and economic powers.  Embracing the idea while the country is still engaged in conflicts overseas would reaffirm the notion to those on the right and in the center that Obama is a classic liberal. U.S. Defenseless Secretary.  What are the signals our enemies around the world are getting from the Obama administration?  Appearing on Fox News, Defense Secretary Robert Gates in effect shrugged when asked about the possibility of having to shoot down a North Korean missile.  "I think if we had an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii, that looked like it was headed for Hawaii or something like that, we might consider it," he said, "but I don't think we have any plans to do anything like that at this point."  "Might"?  Hawaiians can't feel as safe as they did before hearing that blase attitude. Clinton offers olive branch to Taliban.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday [3/31/2009] at a U.N. conference on Afghanistan that Taliban members in Afghanistan who abandoned extremism must be granted an "honorable form of reconciliation." ... Clinton's comments echo those of U.S. President Barack Obama who said this month that he was open to the idea of reaching out to moderate elements of the Taliban. Obama's Weakness Endangers Us All.  North Korea has taken two American journalists prisoner and charged them with committing "hostile acts" against the regime.  Countries like North Korea, which are the pinnacle of tyranny in the modern world, commit atrocities all the time.  What they don't do is challenge America directly — unless they perceive weakness. A Kinder, Gentler War on Terror?  The move to create designations for our enemies and their inhumane actions that are less precise, and considerably more innocuous in their connotations than their antecedents is no accident, and goes far beyond simply wanting to demonstrate "change" from the policies of George W. Bush.  As someone once remarked, words have meaning, and names have power.  While deliberately and tirelessly stoking fear about the economy to both justify and obfuscate the gargantuan expansion of government and attendant explosion of national debt contained in their first budget, Team Obama seeks to draw attention away from the threat posed to the country by ruthless enemies of our way of life, and in fact all external threats to our national security. Obama yields to 'collective action'.  President Obama proclaimed Thursday that the era of the United States attempting to dominate world affairs is over, saying he is committed to "collective action" by the 20 biggest economies to end the worst financial crisis in 80 years.  Giving substance to his rhetoric, the president signed on to a radical revamping of the world's major financial institutions that surrenders the traditional right of the United States and Europe to lead them. Obama calls for reduction in nuclear weapons.  President Obama urged nations Sunday to get rid of nuclear weapons, saying that the U.S. is committed to reducing nuclear stocks within the next four years. Obama's nuclear-free world.  President Obama scored wild applause at the Strasbourg town meeting last week when he declared his intention to "seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."  The idea is not new. ... The United States and Russia have radically reduced their nuclear arsenals, from a peak of more than 70,000 warheads during the Cold War to 3,900 today.  However, this drawdown was not accomplished through formal arms control; it was the natural consequence of reduced tensions after the collapse of communism. Bam Blinks.  North Korea's much-anticipated long-range missile launch on Sunday [4/5/2009] was a technical dud:  The satellite it was trying to put into orbit apparently landed in the Pacific Ocean.  But the nuclear upstarts learned something important about President Obama, so they're probably pleased.  Speaking in Prague just hours after the launch, Obama responded to the provocation by pledging to negotiate reductions in America's nuclear stockpile. A World Without Nukes — Just Like 1939.  In Prague on Sunday [4/5/2009], President Obama committed his administration to putting us on a "trajectory" toward "a world without nuclear weapons."  Of course, we had a world without nuclear weapons not so long ago — say, in 1939.  The war that began in that nuclear-free world led to a crash project to develop nuclear weapons. Obama's Unmacho Diplomacy.  If George W. Bush was a cowboy, Obama is a group hug.  He says we should show leadership by listening.  That we should work in partnership with others.  That we should show humility.  This is, of course, pure porn for women.  But unfortunately, women don't rule the world.  Men still do.  And we have to worry whether Obama will be viewed as weak and the U.S., therefore, vulnerable. Naif-in-Chief.  As far as nuclear weapons are concerned, the president of the United States wants America to disarm:  "Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament."  It is hard to imagine a more destructive goal.  A nuclear disarmed America would lead to massive and widespread killing, more genocide, and very possibly the nuclear holocaust worldwide nuclear disarmament is meant to prevent.  There is nothing moral, let alone realistic, about this goal. Shooting Down Missile Defense.  Overlooked in the defense budget cuts is the decimation of missile defense systems.  As North Korea tested an ICBM, our defense secretary was scrapping a system that could have destroyed it with a single shot. America:  caught between Barack and a hard place.  Obama's seeming lack of understanding about world realities is putting America at great risk.  Since the president has all but promised to de-claw the American military, how reluctant will Iran now be in pursuing its hegemony over the Middle East, when it was already fairly pugnacious while George Bush was still in the White House? Axing the Air Force:  Production of the F-22 has been terminated.  It is a fighter jet that would give us complete domination of the skies. ... Production of the C-17 has also been terminated.  Production of the Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter has also been terminated.  Production of the Multiple Kill Vehicle has also been terminated.  F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s will all leave the Force with no replacements.  The budget of the Missile Defense Agency has been reduced by $1.4 billion. Naïvité Invites Aggression.  In response to North Korea's rocket launch, President Barack Obama has committed the U.S. to reducing our supply of nuclear weapons, urged the passage of a ban on nuclear weapons testing, and through Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, proposed scaling back our missile-defense program.  In short, Mr. Obama apparently believes that the chief lesson to be learned from Pyongyang's missile launch is the need for more arms-control initiatives.  As a means of reducing the dangers of nuclear proliferation and nuclear war, this makes no sense. Obama and Gates Gut the Military.  On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a significant reordering of U.S. defense programs.  His recommendations should not go unchallenged. ... The termination of the F-22 Raptor program at just 187 aircraft inevitably wil call U.S. air supremacy — the salient feature, since World War II, of the American way of war — into question.  The need for these sophisticated, stealthy, radar-evading planes is already apparent. America The Patsy?.  Russia tells the U.S. not to worry about a nuclear Iran and not to punish nuclear North Korea.  Fidel Castro wants to help the president, Russia's "new comrade."  Are we being set up? 1,000+ Retired Officers Change Debate on Gays in the Military.  Despite mixed signals from the Obama administration, a distinguished group of retired leaders called Flag & General Officers for the Military has taken a stand in support of the 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible to serve openly in the military. Obama's unreal agenda:  When it comes to security policy, it seems everyone wants to be a "realist" these days.  If that term has any meaning, though, President Obama's nuclear weapons and missile defense policies certainly would not qualify.  To the contrary, these examples of what some call "progressive realism" constitute a near-parody of the ideologically driven disarmament agenda of the radical left.  If the implications were not so serious, the discrepancy between Mr. Obama's plans and real-world conditions would be hilarious. Obama Sacrifices American Sovereignty.  President Barack Obama recently rolled out a curious foreign policy.  This policy leaves American troops carrying all the risks in overseas combat, while lowering our defenses at the same time dangerous regimes are developing their means of mass destruction.  It also subjects American companies to foreign control, as European leaders speak about a new, secular global order no longer led by the United States.  President Obama is sacrificing our sovereignty and safety in an increasingly perilous world. A trip down Jimmy Carter's memory lane.  Would it have been better for the destructive deity unleashed at Los Alamos 64 years ago never to have been brought to life?  Maybe, but since it was inevitable that it would be, it was better for Roosevelt's scientists to have conjured it up than Hitler's — and better for them to have done so four years earlier than Stalin's.  With Obama as president, it would likely have been the other way around.  Los Alamos would have been shut down, and the first mushroom cloud would have risen over some German test site in the Baltic sea.  The genie is out of the bottle; good luck to anyone trying to stuff it back. O's Foreign Follies.  The world has rabies and our swooning media deliver headlines about the new Obama family dog.  Yeah, the puppy's cute.  But must journalists be lapdogs?  The week kicked off with gushing media declarations that President Obama had "passed his first test" in a foreign "crisis."  Three pirates held an American hostage far too long.  It was an embarrassment, not a crisis.  Our president was reluctant to authorize deadly force. ... Then, on Wednesday [4/15/2009], Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced her solution to piracy:  Send your tax dollars to Somalia in foreign aid.  That's rewarding criminality.  It's tribute money.  We're not asking for trouble.  We're on our knees begging for it. Inexcusable Lapse.  Imagine a president of the United States, within his first hundred days, revealing secrets that help terrorists kill.  The secret memos on enhanced interrogation, now made public, do exactly that. Consequences Of An "American Idol" Presidency.  The Obama Administration, in its current governing and diplomatic mode, is reverting to a mentality that is even more myopic and dangerously shortsighted than that of the Clinton years.  Obama's sycophancy towards European leftists and Middle Eastern Muslims during his recent trip abroad cannot be construed as anything else. ... But to the practitioners of a religion that only understands strength and force, this manner of pandering only represents weakness.  As such it is essentially entreating the world for a repeat of the attacks on America. America the Apologetic.  When you braid Obama's apology tour with what some of us believe to be his weak early stands on a series of other matters, the message Obama is sending is a potentially dangerous one:  we are willing to absorb, but not to respond to, blows directed against us.  And that, in turn, can set up a serious confrontation down the road. Passive Opaqueness.  The president went to Langely for some damage repair today, telling the CIA employees he knows "the last few days have been difficult."  Here is a tip: when a speaker uses the passive voice he is hiding something.  If the president had been more candid, he would have said "I made your jobs more difficult in the last few days." Peace Through Weakness.  It really does sound fantastic and silly that anyone could really believe that the United States has brought terrorist wrath upon itself by doing anything other than, perhaps, nobly allying with Israel.  It's even more ludicrous to entertain seriously the notion that if we'd just start being nicer, we could improve our international image and make ourselves safer, especially when you consider that being nicer entails lowering our guard and playing into the enemy's hands on a number of fronts.  But this is precisely the kind of silliness that is driving Obama's foreign policy. It's like making Jane Fonda senior adviser on Vietnam. A disaster for Defense.  President Obama is surrendering national security with a radical appointment at the Defense Department.  Rosa Brooks, this month made adviser to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy, will be in a position to do significant damage to U.S. security.  This position is unknown to most outside the Beltway but is at the critical locus of defense policymaking. Soros Invades Pentagon.  Democratic Party financier George Soros, who puts much of the blame for Islamic terrorists on America and former president George W. Bush, can celebrate his first foothold inside the Pentagon.  It is in the person of Rosa Brooks, far-left former Los Angeles Times columnist.  She was once counsel to billionaire Soros' Open Societies Institute, whose funding arm bankrolls a number of hard-left pressure groups, such as MoveOn.org. Obama and the CIA:  While he is willing to release classified documents about interrogation techniques, Mr. Obama refuses to release documents that more fully discuss their results.  All of this might appease the President's MoveOn.org base, but he can't expect to satisfy them without also weakening American intelligence capabilities. Los Angeles or Waterboarding?  My guess is that President Obama realizes it was a big mistake for his administration to release four memos written by Bush administration lawyers sanctioning enhanced interrogation techniques.  Already, rage on the left has prompted Obama to go squishy on his once-insistent opposition to prosecuting any Bush administration officials.  Now he says he might let his attorney general prosecute Bush lawyers.  That would be criminalizing the politics of 2002. Between Barack and a Hard Place.  Mr. Obama's release of top-secret Bush administration documents on interrogation techniques — and his botched determination on whether to hold show trials for those who authorized such efforts to prevent further terror attacks — shocked allied intelligence services.  His performance at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad brought accolades from the mainstream media, but it disheartened those in Cuban, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Bolivian prisons who have committed no crimes except to speak out against their governments. Obama's peace tour has left US a more dangerous place.  There is a certain type of political career that has auto-destruction built into its DNA ... To this category belongs Barack Obama. ... There was, however, one area where most commentators believed Obama would tread warily: it seemed implausible that he would play politics with America's national security within his first 100 days in office. 100 Days of the New Security Strategy.  In a speech previewing the impending release of next year's defense budget, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced deep cuts in procurement programs.  In addition, the Administration is phasing-out supplemental spending, shifting the costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into the "core" Pentagon budget.  That will leave even less money for buying new equipment.  Gates justified the decision as eliminating "Cold War" weapons systems, including the F-22 stealth fighter aircraft and next-generation Navy destroyer.  All the programs named by Gates came into development after the fall of the Soviet Union and were justified and funded by a succession of both Democratic and Republican Congresses and Presidents. Release of secret papers by Obama is a mistake.  Those who claim that harsh interrogation tactics are a break with American traditions, as President Obama has done, are offering up a childish mirage.  In the wars America won — in less than four years — our intelligence agencies did what was necessary.  By contrast, Obama and radical allies on his left spent last week tantalizing our terrorist enemies and the public with the release of classified interrogation documents and holding out the possibility of show trials of Bush administration officials. A New Defense Posture:  Bend Over Backward.  We have already turned loose dozens of captured terrorists who have resumed their terrorism.  Why?  Because they have been given "rights" that exist neither in our laws nor under international law. ... There was a time when people who violated the rules of war were not entitled to turn around and claim the protection of those rules.  German soldiers who put on U.S. military uniforms, in order to infiltrate American lines during the Battle of the Bulge, were simply lined up against a wall and shot. Obama's defense cuts will hurt naval readiness.  A straightforward comparison [to President Bush's defense budget] reveals that Obama is proposing $30 billion in defense cuts during a time of war.  Through time, Obama appears to be orchestrating an eventual return to the days of Bill Clinton's "hollowed out" military, when defense spending in the post-Cold War era declined from nearly 5 percent to 3 percent of GDP.  For now, the immediate effects of the cuts are still very serious. Department of Insecurity.  Give Janet Napolitano her due.  The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has taken to heart Barack Obama's campaign pledges of "change" and "hope."  Unfortunately, the changes she has effected seem generally to be to dismantle sensible Bush-era internal security policies and practices, replacing them with politically correct nostrums and generally inadequate programs.  The cumulative effect of such change can only be to give hope to our terrorist foes. Nobody wants a terrorist for a neighbor.  President Barack Obama made a serious mistake when he decided to close the U.S. prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without first figuring out where to put the 240 detainees held there.  Most of these people are hard-core jihadists whose main goal in life is to kill Americans.  Obama can call it an "overseas contingency operation," but for the Gitmo detainees it is a declared war against us and terrorism is their weapon of choice. Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security.  Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano is determined to beef up security along the rough and tumble Canadian border.  That's right, Canada. ... The nation's top security official is saying that plowing tax dollars into more security along the Canadian border has nothing to do with current or imminent or potential threats to the American homeland, but to fairness.  Fairness out of concern for feelings. Obama in no hurry to end 'don't ask, don't tell'.  President Obama's campaign vow to end the ban on gays in the military — and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that forces thousands of military personnel to stay in the closet — appears to be driven now by a strategy of "don't rush." Obama, Hubris and Cheney.  I'm nothing more than a beat-up old lawyer, but I've had some fancy security clearances in my day.  And even I know that if I tell someone why something is secret I reveal too much.  And our dear President wants to share responsibility for the decisions of what is classified and what isn't with Congress and the courts.  Can it get any worse?  Yes, it can. Obama dangerously wrong about how we handle terrorists.  I listened today to the "anointed one" pontificating about how we have been seriously wrong in the way we have allegedly been treating suspected terrorists.  As usual, Obama's clever speech writers, along with the man's admitted ability to deliver a stirring oration, have seemingly convinced his poorly informed, and/or mentally challenged, followers that the way we handled terrorists during the last Bush administration was both legally and morally reprehensible:  a situation the enlightened messiah will rectify, while dangerously degrading our nation's security, which he is sworn to protect and preserve. Obama and Pelosi's Dangerously Short Detention Spans.  The casual manner in which Barack Obama flip flops on national security matters should have Americans calling for his impeachment for treason on the grounds of providing aid and comfort to our enemies.  Under pressure from the ACLU, Obama authorized the release of classified memos detailing enhanced interrogation techniques used against high-value detainees, giving them a nice addition to their play book and rendering these methods useless. The Axis of Evil Tortures Obama.  President Obama responded with robust words:  "North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community." ... What did Obama's words lead to?  The Security Council issued a non-binding statement of condemnation. Total Tolerance.  There is nothing new in a president calling for "a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons," as Obama did in Cairo.  Ronald Reagan expressed such hopes.  But isn't contending that "no single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons" the opposite of zero nuclear tolerance?  How is it a step toward a nuclear-free world when we announce that the West should stop practicing what might be called "nuclear discrimination?"  Tehran will interpret Obama's words as carte blanche to pursue its goal of building a nuclear weapons arsenal. The Watergate of Waterboarding.  Obama has released the so-called "torture memos" — including legal opinions of the Justice Department which advised that under the law as it was written in 2002, waterboarding was legal.  Because they are now public, his decision to release has damaged our national security by hobbling the ability of interrogators to get valuable information from prisoners.  The release gave terrorists an enormous advantage because they now know what our interrogators can and cannot do. White House F-22 cuts mean hollow Air Force.  When it comes to air superiority, America may be stuck on the tarmac.  In April, the Pentagon decided to cap the number of F-22 Raptors, the world's most advanced fighter plane, to 187.  Yesterday [6/24/2009], the White House indicated it would veto the National Defense Authorization bill if it contains money for the planes. If you bypass the Senate, it's not a treaty. Obama WH: we don't need no stinking Senate!  Whoa... isn't this the president who gave George W. Bush SUCH a hard time about Presidential Signing Statements, before he fell in love with them?  Now, suddenly, it's — hey, I'm Barack Obama, and I won; I don't have to follow the constitution!  I don't even need that Senate! Obama Has Gotten It Wrong for Twenty-Five Years.  Those who suspect the president is engaged in a bit of dangerous self-delusion and denial about certain unpleasant realities regarding the threats from rogue states won't be heartened to read that his current non-proliferation fetish stems, at least according to the New York Times, from his college infatuation with the nuclear freeze movement. Barack Obama holds a fire sale of America's nuclear defences in Moscow.  No apologies for posting consecutively on Barack Obama:  the Looney Tunes President's sell-out of US and Western interests is proceeding at such a speed that it is difficult to keep pace.  Well said, Nile Gardiner, for asking if Barack Obama is the most naïve president in American history.  The answer is undoubtedly yes — unless he has a secret agenda to cut America down to size. Victory Is So Yesterday.  There is a reason that the word victory conjures up in Barack Obama's mind the 64-year-old image of Hirohito and MacArthur:  he has never acknowledged the much more recent American victory in Iraq.  If he had not politicized and downplayed the U.S. accomplishments there, he would have a sterling example of an American triumph in asymmetric conditions.  Instead, he inspires the headline (seen by friends and enemies alike) "Obama:  'Victory' Not Necessarily Goal in Afghanistan."  Isn't that grand? F-22 — An Essential National Security Asset.  As history proves, the only thing more costly than a first-rate Air Force is a second-rate Air Force. The Case for Reviving F-22 Fighter.  As Congress begins to take up the Obama administration's defense budget, one item not even under discussion needs to be considered.  Events of the past 18 months have made clear that it's time to rethink the fate of the F-22 Raptor.  The presumptions that led the Senate to cancel funding for this fighter have been turned upside down, as new threats have emerged and old ones have become clearer. Obama Finally Finds Something We Can't Afford:  Military Superiority.  Imagine a fighter jet that would give the United States complete air superiority in any conflict.  An aircraft that's faster, has longer range, and is more fuel-efficient at high speeds than any aircraft ever built.  A plane virtually invisible to radar and deadly accurate, almost guaranteeing that any selected target would be destroyed.  An aircraft so advanced that the armed forces of every country on earth are scared to death of it and know that they would be defenseless against it for years to come.  We have that plane.  It's called the F-22 Raptor, and our President and Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama, hates it. Obama victory:  Senate votes to kill additional F-22 funding.  The Senate voted Tuesday to strip $1.75 billion in increased spending for the F-22 jet fighter from the defense authorization bill after a protracted fight between the Obama administration, top Pentagon officials and a bipartisan group of lawmakers on one side and a faction of military leaders and members of Congress whose districts benefit from the aircraft's construction on the other. Shooting Down The Raptor.  The TARP bailout may hit $24 trillion, but the Senate says the F-22 is too expensive to build and maintain.  So why are the Japanese so desperate to buy this "unnecessary" Cold War weapon? Is Obama Pressing the 'Reset Button' on Defense?  Despite all his initial talk of bipartisanship and putting aside the stale arguments of the past, President Obama is revealing himself with each passing day to be a traditional, doctrinaire liberal.  And although it has received little coverage, Obama's liberal instincts are influencing the direction of America's defense posture. U.S. no longer at war with 'terrorism'.  It's official.  The United States is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism."  Neither is it fighting "jihadists" nor locked in a "global war."  President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official on Thursday [8/6/2009] declared as unacceptable the terms crafted by the George W. Bush administration. Obama replaces 'global war on terror' in strategy shift: aide.  President Barack Obama is replacing the "global war on terror" with a new US strategy more narrowly focused on Al-Qaeda and relying more on a broader effort to engage the Muslim world, a top aide said Thursday [8/6/2009]. White House:  'War on terrorism' is over.  It's official.  The U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism."  Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war."  President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday [8/6/2009]at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. Call it what you will, America's struggle against terrorism must continue.  Whether you call it the "war on terror" or something like the "campaign to stop really evil things by really evil people," the only thing we care about is that America and New York do not suffer a replay of 9/11.  As described by his top counterterrorism adviser in a major address delivered Thursday [8/6/2009], President Obama thinks the U.S. will be safer if we rid our vocabularies of Bush administration terms like "global war" and "jihadists," while focusing on building opportunities for 14-year-old Afghan goat herders. Panetta Revealed.  [Scroll down]  It should also go without saying that [Leon] Panetta's lack of experience in the intelligence sector was deeply worrisome.  The sad irony is that the Obama administration needs strong intelligence agencies.  Obama has cut defense spending and generally seems wary of the armed services.  This leaves a wide gap, so to speak, for heavy reliance on wide-reaching, covert intelligence agencies.  Obama's ill-chosen reliance on Leon Panetta speaks volumes about the slipshod way in which vital national-security issues are handled in this administration. Will the Pentagon Fight Global Warming?  President Obama's proposed budget aims to cut $11.5 billion from defense, including $1.62 billion from missile defense spending.  To translate esoteric dollar figures into something a bit more concrete, the Democrats' defense plans would cut the number of ground-based midcourse defense interceptors from 44 to 30, at precisely the time that North Korea is ramping up its missile program.  Obama is also trying to shut down the production line that builds the F-22 aircraft responsible for our aerial advantage over Russian and Chinese fighters.  And Obama has told the Pentagon to come up with an additional $60 billion in cuts next year, without regard to the threats America faces. Morale at CIA Plummets as Panetta Makes a Bad Situation Worse.  The inexperienced CIA director is indeed the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time. King on Holder:  'You wonder which side they're on'.  A "furious" Rep. Peter King, the hawkish, maverick Long Island Republican, blasted a "disgraceful" Eric Holder for opening an investigation of CIA interrogators and chided his own party for what he described as a weak response to the move in an interview just now with POLITICO.  "... It's disgraceful.  You wonder which side they're on," he said of the attorney general's move, which he described as a "declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense." Obama's War on our Spies.  The Democrats' war on our intelligence agencies has now become a two-front war with the Obama administration attacking where Congressional Democrats couldn't.  Attorney General Eric Holder has announced he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA interrogators who used tough interrogation techniques to see which of them will be prosecuted.  Holder has drawn a line in the sand. What the President's Attack on the CIA Really Means.  By authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether a full criminal investigation of CIA employees and contractors is warranted for the manner in which they interrogated captured terrorists, the President has thrown his power and support behind those far-left ideologues — in Congress and elsewhere — who believe that the CIA is a bigger threat to our country than al Qaeda. The Justice Department's War On Heroes.  Appointing a prosecutor to harass CIA interrogators exposes this administration's priorities:  The global war on terror takes a back seat to terrorizing some of America's most selfless warriors. (Not) providing for the national defense:  Our leaders are cutting back on defense, even in the midst of a war in Afghanistan and ongoing terrorist threats.  That's a mistake, because protecting our nation is one of the few jobs the Constitution specifically assigns to the federal government.  Yet defense spending is about the only thing on the cutting block. Holder's CIA move could imperil Obama agenda.  [Attorney General Eric] Holder on Monday [8/24/2009] asked Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham, who has been investigating the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes, to look into whether the agency's methods for questioning detainees were illegal.  Approved by Obama, the new scope of the investigation threatens to enflame still-raw tensions on both sides of a long-unresolved national security debate. The Buck Stops Short of the Vineyard.  Among the most despicable aspects of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the conduct of CIA operatives in applying enhanced interrogation techniques is the abject refusal of the president to take responsibility for the decision. The president can fire the attorney general.  Obama administration spokesmen are portraying the president as unable to overrule Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to have a special prosecutor determine whether to prosecute CIA interrogators who were cleared by Department of Justice career attorneys back in 2004.  "This was not something the White House allowed, this was something the AG decided," a White House spokesman said.  Utter nonsense.  The attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president... Who's Running the Show?  Is Eric Holder running the administration, or is the president disingenuous when he denies responsibility for reactivating the investigation of CIA detainee-interrogation cases? ... Either Obama is lying about his objectives at Justice or his attorney general is seriously off the reservation.  At the next prime-time press conference, someone might ask Obama who is running the show. What's that?  Obama might be lying? Chilling the CIA.  Almost eight years ago, jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.  Americans, in their rage and grief, demanded to know who had attacked them.  And they expected their government to do everything in its power to prevent another attack, which everyone thought was imminent.  In the months after Sept. 11, 2001, American interrogators had an urgent mission:  Extract information from terrorism suspects about future attacks as quickly and effectively as possible. Eric Holder's Hidden Agenda:  Hue and cry followed Holder's decision this week to have a prosecutor investigate CIA interrogators and contractors.  The probe is a nakedly political, banana republic-style criminalizing of policy differences and political rivalry. ... But the question remains, Why is Holder (or, rather, why are Holder and the White House) instigating this controversy?  I believe the explanation lies in the Obama administration's fondness for transnationalism, a doctrine of post-sovereign globalism in which America is seen as owing its principal allegiance to the international legal order rather than to our own Constitution and national interests. The Get-Cheney Squad.  "Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."  George Orwell's truth comes to mind as one reads that Eric Holder has named a special prosecutor to go after the "rough men" who, to keep us sleeping peacefully at night, went too far in frightening Khalid Sheik Muhammad, the engineer of the September massacres.  Yet, it seems now indisputable that those CIA interrogators, with their rough methods, got vital intelligence that saved American lives, as Dick Cheney has consistently contended. Yet Another Foreign-Policy Fumble.  The Obama administration is getting ready to throw the proposed Eastern European-based US missile-defense system under the bus.  The move is a sop to the Russians (and to lefties here at home) — but will render us increasingly vulnerable to the growing Iranian nuclear/missile threat. Labor Day, Obama and Bush.  Skimming through the text of President Obama's Labor Day speech yesterday in Cincinnatti, a few days before the anniversary of 9/11 and with the president facing a decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan, I was struck by Obama's failure to mention the war, or our servicemen and women. ... Obama barely mentions the war, or the troops fighting it, at all these days. How Obama Cronyism Threatens Rail Security.  [Scroll down]  Biden, in turn, is tight with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the powerful union that represents the Amtrak Police Department.  According to OSSSO sources, the APD brass have been aggrieved over the non-unionized counterterrorism unit's existence from its inception.  A West Coast OSSSO team member told me that union leaders blocked police credentialing efforts by his office for more than a year.  An East Coast OSSSO team member told me that the FOP recently filed a grievance against one of its counterterrorism officers for assisting a train conductor who asked for help in ejecting a ticketless passenger. Obama Frees Prisoner He Thinks Is a Terrorist.  People are again talking about fighting terrorism in the wake of Scotland freeing a man who murdered 180 Americans on Pam Am 103 over Lockerbie and Eric Holder's criminal investigation of the CIA.  In the midst of that discussion, Barack Obama has let a terrorist detainee go free.  Mohammed Jawad was released from Gitmo when a federal judge granted his habeas petition.  President Obama could have appealed this ruling, but instead caved in, returning this terrorist to Afghanistan on August 24. Once?!  I found this bit of last night's [9/27/2009] 60 Minutes profile of Gen. McChrystal to be — how do you say? — unbelievable:     "Q: How often do you talk to the president?     McChrystal: I've talked to the president once since I've been here, on a [video teleconference]." A Clear and Present Danger.  Obama made his point clear in his speech to the General Assembly on September 24, saying, "I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."  He added that America has already begun its own nuclear disarmament ... In other words, on a global platform, with the whole world watching, Obama focuses not on the threat to world peace from the rogue powers Iran and North Korea acquiring nuclear weapons, but on the nuclear disarmament of America and its allies! Losing Faith in the Commander in Chief.  The latest Fox News/Opinion Dymanic poll is chock-full of bad news for the president.  But on foreign policy, the results are nothing short of stunning.  On who they trust more to decide the next steps in Afghanistan.  66 percent say military commanders, while only 20 percent say the president.  Even Democrats have more faith in the military commanders (by a 45 to 37 percent margin). White House declares war on this honest hero.  Another day, another double standard from the Obama White House.  This one involves the nasty effort to discredit and muzzle Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose sin was to present his commander in chief with an inconvenient answer about Afghanistan. Philip Larkin has a Lesson for Barack Obama.  Here's the $12 trillion President fretting — that is, pretending to fret — over $40 or $50 billion.  That's school lunch money for the Democrats.  Of course, the issue isn't money.  It's morality.  That's to say, it's about what really matters to Obama.  He's willing to demand $800 billion now, today, to shore up his support among the auto unions and other Democratic interest groups.  But the war of terror?  He can't even bring himself to pronounce the phrase. The Mother of All Expiration Dates.  Evidently the Taliban is no longer a direct threat to us. Holder's Witch Hunt.  Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to prosecute CIA personnel is an outrageous act of political theater that has the potential to significantly damage our nation's long-term intelligence gathering capabilities. Why Obama Is Wrong on Missile Defense.  President Obama's recent decision to "overhaul" the Bush-era missile-defense shield for Europe was the most significant, but hardly the only, indication that the Obama national-security vision is skeptical of, and very likely actually hostile to, missile defense altogether. Obama Is Average.  [Scroll down]  Look at Obama's speech at the UN General Assembly:  "No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation."  Take the first half of that sentence:  No nation can dominate another.  There is no eight year old who would say that — it's so absurd.  And the second half?  That is adolescent utopianism.  Obama talks in platitudes, but offers a vision to the world of America diminished or constrained, and willing to share leadership in a way that no other presidency and no other great power would. Armed Pilots and Dead Terrorists.  The FFDO (Federal Flight Deck Officer) program was implemented by the Bush Administration working with law enforcement, airline management and pilot unions.  Pilots with guns were a way to augment the Federal Air Marshall Service which was already in place and quickly expanded.  Recent rumors indicate that the Obama administration will attempt to de-fund the FFDO program.  I think it would be a huge loss to security and a big mistake. Obama's Man-Caused Disaster Chickens Come Home to Roost.  President Obama's new Homeland Security doctrine has taken our country from being the world's strongest and most intimidating superpower to a weak and vulnerable nation being singled out by every terrorist organization in the world.  And make no mistake:  Whether homegrown or international, these terrorists want America destroyed at any cost.  The Obama administration's Homeland Security doctrine has become no more than a politically correct welcome mat for every Muslim jihadist on the planet. The Religious War Our Secular President Ignores.  Since September 11, 2001, the United States has been in a war it did not start against Islamic extremists bent on using terrorism to destroy us and our way life.  To these extremists, this war is an expression of Jihad and is therefore a religious cause for which they are happy to die.  Yet for our secular President, it's just an "overseas contingency operation," disconnected from the religion-based motivations of the terrorists. O's China kowtow.  If you were troubled by President Obama's "Wow Bow" in Japan, you won't be any happier with the "kowtow" during his just-concluded trip to the People's Republic of China.  In the latest chapter of Team Obama's at-best-mediocre, teetering-on-the-disastrous foreign policy, the president and a slew of Cabinet secretaries roared into Asia like lions, promising a new era in US diplomacy in the region. President Superbower — "Speak Loudly, Carry a Small Twig".  My radio pal Hugh Hewitt said to me on the air the other day that Barack Obama "doesn't know how to be president".  It was a low but effective crack and I didn't pay it much heed.  But, after musing on it over the last week or so, it seems to me frighteningly literally true. Talked Into A Trap.  President Obama's "direct diplomacy with Iran without preconditions" has, not surprisingly, led us down a blind alley.  Now China and Russia are about to mug us with Turkey's phony uranium deal. Corporal Klinger and the Barney Frank Brigade.  The MASH television spectacle of Corporal Klinger wearing women's dresses to get out of the military may now give way to the Pentagon actually permitting transgendered male soldiers to openly wear women's military uniforms.  This is what repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," could mean. Obama's Arizona Stance Borders Treason.  Without a hint of hesitation after Arizona passed their new immigration law, President Obama immediately condemned our 48th State by calling Arizona's new immigration law misdirected, troubling, and potentially discriminatory. ... So the question that remains is; by standing idly by while all this is taking place, is President Obama, in essence, encouraging harm against the very country that he swore an oath to protect? Obama's Pro-Terror Policies and Arizona.  In case after case, we can see the Obama administration's pro-terror policies here and abroad — from forcing U.S. soldiers to mirandize known enemy combatants on foreign fields of battle — to their insistence upon national tolerance for a so-called "religion of peace," and their ongoing redefining of "terrorist" to include only American citizens who still believe in their Constitution.  But their most deadly pro-terror policy is their assault on U.S. Immigration Laws and the people and states who want them enforced immediately. What Diplomacy?  Saturday, President Obama announced to West Point cadets that the U.S. military role was set to be diminished and "diplomacy and cooperation" would take its place instead.  Then on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration's new National Security Strategy would emphasize diplomacy over military action again, with the latter to be used only in concert with U.S. allies and organizations. Saving Soldiers from Gay Death.  There is a simple reason why the gay rights lobby is trying to rush through repeal of the Pentagon's homosexual exclusion policy.  They know that a comprehensive review of a proposed change would disclose the substantial evidence that admission of open and active homosexuals would put our troops in further danger through exposure to tainted blood. In fact, evidence to this effect is already in the hands of top military commanders and Pentagon officers. Five House Republicans Vote to Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.  This vote was not about gays openly serving in our military.  It never has been.  The radical gay lobby seeks to force the military to allow their fellow travelers to serve openly as a means to achieve other elements of their radical agenda in the civilian world.  Repeal of this policy causes myriad problems in fundamental areas such as housing, shower, personal hygiene and bathroom space (men, women, gay men, gay women — or should we no longer have gender identification on bathrooms and living quarters). Obama:  June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.  As he did last year, Obama today [5/28/2010] declared June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."  But this year the announcement comes as Congress began moving to repeal the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy used by the US military when dealing LGBT service members. Homosexuality would decrease armed services' effectiveness.  The Obama administration's move to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the U.S. military — along with the House's confirming vote and the Senate's pending one scheduled for this week — has completely ignored the known health and medical implications of homosexuality.  Medical readiness — the overall health of the military — is so fundamentally important to military effectiveness that each branch of the military has well-established standards of medical fitness.  Numerous common medical and behavioral conditions exclude individuals from serving in the military.  Even a history of medical or behavioral conditions is enough to exclude someone from service.  Why?  Simply stated, the risks to the individual and to the health of the entire force are too large and unacceptable. The President's Memorial Daze.  Our commander in chief was to miss the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to go on vacation.  Other presidents have missed it, but never at wartime. President Obama will skip Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery.  President Obama is skipping the traditional Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery, a move that has dismayed some veterans — and comes at a sensitive moment in the administration's relationship with the military. Obama's National Security Doctrine:  Naive — Frighteningly So.  The administration releases a document that misidentifies threats and tells our enemies we intend to be weak. This Is the Way Sovereignty Ends.  The indomitable Sarah Carter (winner of the 2006 Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration) reports on plans for a satellite Mexican consular office on Catalina Island to issue ID cards to illegal aliens.  This kind of thing has been going on for some time now, but this part got my attention:  ["] Officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said their agency was asked by Mexican officials not to enforce U.S. immigration laws on the island while the cards were being issued.["] Nuking Our Defense:  America Exposed.  Barack Obama is poised to be the first president to leave America at the mercy of its enemies.  President Obama's recent decision to begin announcing once-secret U.S. missile tests and satellite launches is just the first of many subversive acts carried out by the Obama administration against America's defense.  Obama also chose to unilaterally end a crucial strategic practice called "calculated ambiguity" by publicizing the exact number of warheads in America's arsenal. The 'wikileaker' and the White House.  Yesterday brought the welcome news that a 22-year-old soldier had been busted for passing classified gun-camera tapes and documents to Wikileaks.  If proven guilty, Spc. Bradley Manning needs to do serious prison time.  But that's where the good news ends. ... Our government still isn't serious about plugging classified leaks in wartime. Obama's Post-American World.  A nuclear-ready Iran is preparing for world war.  Here, there, everywhere.  And we have ... impotent Obama.  When the U.N. elected the oppressive Islamic regime of Iran to its Commission on Women's Rights, the U.S. did nothing and said nothing — and our silence was affirmation.  Ignoring Iran's legal mistreatment of women and terrible human rights record is now concurrent with U.S. policy?  This is no accident.  Last year, Obama had the U.S. co-sponsor with Egypt a U.N. resolution calling upon member states to criminalize "incitement to religious hatred," which is UN-speak for restricting free speech about Islamic terrorism.  So the U.S. went on record favoring measures that would violate the 1st Amendment. Panel commissioned by Barney Frank recommends nearly $1T in defense cuts.  A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon's budget during the next 10 years. ... Measures presented by the task force include making significant reductions to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which has strong support from Defense Secretary Robert Gates; delaying the procurement of a new midair refueling tanker the Air Force has identified as one of its top acquisition priorities; and reducing the Navy's fleet to 230 ships instead of the 313 eyed by the service. The 'Bring Back the Draft' Act.  As early as this week, the United States Senate may turn to the annual legislation known as "The National Defense Authorization Act" (NDAA) that is supposed to provide the Pentagon what it needs to defend our nation.  Unfortunately, thanks to an amendment added in the Senate Armed Services Committee that would impose the radical homosexual agenda on the U.S. military, a more appropriate title for this bill would be "The Bring Back the Draft Act." Fantasy As Strategy.  As required by law, President Barack Obama released his National Security Strategy (NSS) late last month.  Regrettably, the document doesn't address the nation's security challenges particularly well and doesn't offer much of a strategy.  Instead, it glosses over some of the most serious threats, fails to present a real roadmap for navigating the world's many danger zones, and offers diplomatic bromides and observations of the obvious. Why Is the State Department Covering for a Known Terror Group?.  Are U.S. security agencies hampered by President Obama's mission to reach out to Muslims?  Criticizing Israel for stopping a Gaza-bound flotilla sponsored by the IHH and the Turkish government is easy.  But when terrorists affiliated with the IHH try to get into the United States, who will stop them if no one is looking at the organization to which they belong? How's That 'Reset' with Russia Going? Disastrously, of Course.  The results of Barack Obama's "reset" of U.S. relations with Russia are now in.  They are, like the rest of Obama's foreign policy record, disappointing.  Obama said that in exchange for a reset, Russia would support a new nuclear arms reduction treaty.  Russia did, but in name only: the actual reductions to U.S. and Russian missile stockpiles were marginal and insignificant. Missing Defense.  There seems to be only one thing White House arms negotiators want more than a reduction in U.S. nuclear weapons — a reduction in U.S. missile defenses to protect us from such weapons. Dropping The Shield.  The administration is ready to sign a treaty stripping us of our ability to defend ourselves against enemy nuclear missiles, including Iran's and North Korea's.  In space, no one can hear you surrender. (Even a Few) Words Matter.  Sometimes deterrence against aggression is lost with just a few unfortunate words or a relatively minor gesture.  Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a comprehensive address to the National Press Club in early 1950.  Either intentionally or by accident, he mentioned that South Korea was beyond the American defense perimeter.  Communist North Korea, and later China, agreed.  War broke out six months later. Norm Augustine's Subversive Agenda.  To commemorate the first anniversary of Barack Obama's Cairo speech, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, interviewed on al Jazeera TV, said that one of his foremost responsibilities was improving relations in the Muslim world by highlighting their contributions to math, science and engineering, thereby making them feel better.  Notwithstanding that Muslims abroad learned of this outreach before the Americans who will fund it did, while your first instinct may be to focus on the emotional aspects of using taxpayer-funded NASA to enhance public relations with Muslims, a sizable majority of whom hate us, we must look at the totality of what Barack Obama is doing to America's military and space programs and how those actions are intertwined, before the national security implications become apparent. More about the latest NASA scandal. Obama Plans to Cut Up to 40 Percent of Nukes.  A government document reveals that the Obama administration is planning to cut the U.S. nuclear stockpile by up to 40 percent by 2021. Unilateral Disarmament.  While Mr. Obama golfs his way through the Gulf Coast's oil-drenched environmental calamity, another crisis is looming across the Potomac.  America's military, in harm's way in a two-front war, is about to get staggered by a double whammy below the belt.  Unfortunately for those who wear our nation's uniform, the Commander in Chief and his cronies in Congress are throwing the punches. Ron Paul Helps Obama Slash National Defense.  In line with Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel's admonition that no crisis should go to waste, the Obama Administration is preparing to use the matter of massive debt and deficits to push for drastic cuts in our national U.S. military budget.  The proposed cuts, which total $960 billion, could leave the U.S. as a second-rate military power.  Playing a critical role in the effort is Rep. Ron Paul, who is generally considered by his followers to be an opponent of Obama's liberal agenda. How the Obama Administration is Drafting the Military into the Culture War.  President Obama intends to repeal the military's homosexual ban.  His Secretary of Defense launched a review of the policy and promised by the end of 2010 to deliver a report to Congress to inform their repeal consideration.  If that review is objective it will validate the law, but as with other political issues, the outcome may contradict the facts.  That is why proponents for preserving our military's effectiveness must insist the review is objective and Congress is properly informed on the issue.  Congress must exercise its constitutional duty to protect the military from the president's radical plan. Unkindest Cuts.  It was inevitable:  The $13 trillion debt this Congress and White House helped run up has imperiled defense spending in an age of continued terrorism. Guantánamo Prison Horrors.  [Scroll down]  Prisoners, as we all know from the thirteen gazillion MSM articles, also exist in the U.S. enclave of the Guantánamo province.  And as we learn from a Spanish reporter named Marc Bassets who recently visited the U.S base, many of these prisoners were horribly anguished of late.  (No reporters, by the way, dare venture anywhere near Castro's prisons.  Their employers' Havana press bureaus would be "seriously jeopardized" by such insolence.)  At any rate, the anguish among the prisoners on the U.S. side stemmed from their concerns about securing good front-row seats at the prison hall to watch the World Cup.  The prison's wide-screen TVs capture over twenty channels, including Al Jazeera, so some observers felt the anguish was a bit overblown. The President's False START.  Think Moscow will violate the New START arms limitation treaty?  A just-issued report says it never obeyed the first one.  The motto of the Obama administration is blindly trust, don't verify and unilaterally disarm. An Open Letter To President Obama.  In today's dangerous world, we need a president with experience, leadership and courage.  Unfortunately, you have shown us little of those traits. Violating His Oath of Office?  [Scroll down]  When the Iranian people rose up in protest against the stealing of a sham election by the country's fascist dictatorship, President Obama sagaciously withheld even rhetorical support, to curry favor with the ruling Islamic theocracy in the vain hope of a nuclear deal.  As the mullahs' Brown Shirt henchmen began murdering protesters in the streets, President Obama stood idly by, offering nothing of significance in their support.  Even Jimmy Carter supported human rights.  That is why President Obama's foreign policies are the worst, most unprincipled, most un-American in our nation's history. Administration halts prosecution of alleged USS Cole bomber.  The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing. Cole killer confusion.  Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is a man with blood on his hands.  A year before 9/11, the Saudi al Qaeda operative masterminded the bombing of the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors as the vessel refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden.  A Guantanamo tribunal was ready to arraign him last year, but since the Obama administration took office, it's been a case of trial and error.  No trial — plenty of error. Politicking Justice.  A decade after the USS Cole bombing, the Obama administration has halted prosecution of the al-Qaida operative believed to have planned the attack.  What an insult to the sailors who lost their lives. O's terror outrage.  Americans are learning there's one minority group President Obama is never afraid to offend:  families of victims of Islamist terror. ... Now, last Friday [8/27/2010], we learned that "no charges are either pending or contemplated" against one of the deadliest and most dangerous al Qaeda operatives, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, mastermind of the October 12, 2000, bombing of USS Cole that killed 17 sailors and officers and wounded dozens more. President Obama's Compulsive Appeasement Disorder.  Superpowers of yesteryear, going back to the Greeks and Romans, were feared for a reason — they leveled a city to make an example.  Today, by contrast, Uncle Sam relies on cajoling, bribery (think North Korea), entreating puny leaders of inchoate states (special envoys to the PLO's Mahmoud Abbas) and otherwise playing weak hands.  We have gone from resolve to U.N. resolution. The Pentagon's Budget Is Not Bloated.  With America facing a $1.4-trillion deficit, ideological opponents of a strong defense — liberals and libertarians alike — have called on the Congress to severely reduce the defense budget.  To try to justify their proposals, they make false claims about the defense budget, including its size and how it compares to the other items in the federal budget.  However, none of these claims stand up to scrutiny. Obama's Foreign Policy Flies in the Face of Reason.  A person does not need to be a military expert or have a Ph.D. in foreign affairs in order to understand the disastrous implications of Obama's foreign policy for America's national security.  And while it was certainly clear that Americans were not electing a neo-con as their Commander-in-Chief, I would venture a guess that those who voted for him believed that he would implement policy that would protect the country.  Or maybe not. Time to START Standing Up for America.  Among the dangers lurking in Congress's fall session and Lame Duck Session will be Obama's demand that the Senate rush to ratify the treaty called New START, which he signed with the Russians in Prague last April.  This treaty is not only a bad idea; it's downright dangerous to U.S. national security.  For the first time in the long record of U.S.-Russian treaties, New START links offensive and defensive weapons.  Obama's advocates of ratification say that doesn't matter because the link is only in the preamble and that doesn't bind us. The reluctant commander in chief.  What is most disturbing about the coverage of Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" is not the juicy bits of conflict and infighting; it is the fact that the White House seems pleased with the image of President Obama that emerges. ... What comes across is a president deeply skeptical about the Afghan war, suspicious of the advice of military leaders and obsessed with finding exits and setting withdrawal deadlines. FBI Escorts Known Hamas Operative Through Top-Secret National Counterterrorism Center.  A known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history — Kifah Mustapha — was recently escorted into the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center and other secure government facilities, including the FBI's training center at Quantico, during a six-week "Citizen's Academy" hosted by the FBI as part of its "outreach" to the Muslim Community. What's next at Gitmo, off-brand mints on the pillows?  You can stop asking why the terrorists hate us.  The Daily Mail reports: ["]Detainees' diets at Guantanamo Bay have been a controversial issue for some time and now the U.S. prison is said to be rationing ice cream.["] A Crossroads Election.  History tells us where giving government one arbitrary power after another leads.  It is like going into a Venus fly-trap, which is easy to enter and nearly impossible to get out of.  The headstrong, know-it-all willfulness of this administration, which threatens our freedom at home, also threatens our survival in the international jungle, because Obama seems determined to do nothing that will stop Iran from going nuclear. Barack's Brokeback barracks.  President Obama and his friends in the media want the public to think Americans serving in uniform are just fine and dandy with homosexual conduct in the military.  This view is being spread through a series of selective leaks from the Pentagon's Comprehensive Review Working Group, which is putting the finishing touches on a report regarding the future of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Will President Obama bring back the draft?  Barack Obama is opposed to the draft as a matter of principle, to be sure.  So are most politicians in both parties.  But the president's drive to repeal the ban on open homosexuality in the military could have this unintended consequence:  It could bring back the draft. The Emperor's Nuclear Clothes.  Respectable wise men, in and out of government, talk of the importance of arms control and a nuclear-free world, when the reality is that Iran, North Korea and other countries have made the acquisition of nuclear weapons their highest priority.  The government of Russia has committed itself to a military posture in which tactical nuclear weapons play a larger role in war fighting and war termination. President Obama is pushing for a monumental surrender to Russia.  The Obama administration has an impeccable track record of caving in to Russian demands, as part of its controversial "reset" policy.  Last year, it threw key US allies Poland and the Czech Republic under the bus, ditching plans for Third Site missile defences in deference to Russian opposition.  It is now planning another surrender to Moscow, by pressing for Senate ratification of the new START Treaty in the lame duck session of Congress. Cost Cutters Fix Sights on F-35 Fighter.  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is considering pulling back the Pentagon's commitment to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the costliest procurement project in the department's history, defense officials said.  At issue is how many of the supersonic, stealthy aircraft the U.S. is willing to buy, how much it will to pay for them and how long it will wait for them to enter service. The inevitability of the draft.  As the last nails are being hammered into the coffin of the lame duck 111th Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have voted in favor of repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. ... Nearly forty percent of the Marines in the official Department of Defense survey said that they may leave the service early if "don't ask, don't tell" is repealed.  Four out of ten!  That is a staggering number that could degrade one of the most lethal fighting forces in the world. Christian Rout in the Culture War.  A Democratic Congress, discharged by the voters on Nov. 2, has as one of its last official acts, imposed its San Francisco values on the armed forces of the United States.  "Don't ask, don't tell" is to be repealed.  Open homosexuals are to be welcomed with open arms in all branches of the armed services.  Let us hope this works out better for the Marine Corps than it did for the Catholic Church. Slow START.  In their frenzied attempt to push New START across the Senate finish line before Christmas, Democrats are relying on a strange mix of calm reassurances and ominous warnings.  To hear them tell it, the arms-control treaty would not in any way jeopardize U.S. missile-defense programs — but failing to approve it in 2010 would do major damage to bilateral relations with Moscow.  Moreover, Democrats argue, the urgency of inspecting Russian nuclear sites demands immediate ratification.  None of these claims is persuasive. In victory for Obama, Senate advances arms treaty.  In a crucial victory for President Obama's efforts to establish a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, the Senate on Tuesday voted 67-28 to end debate on the START treaty over a vocal but shrinking chorus of GOP objectors.  The treaty now advances toward almost certain Senate ratification Wednesday [12/22/2010], marking the third time in about a week that Obama won congressional support for a major agenda item in what many expected to be a fruitless lame-duck session for the Democrats. Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell — The Doctrine of Fools.  With eight GOP Senators joining the vote to repeal DADT, including much heralded Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts now gays can prance in array around the military just like they now do in the classrooms, the media and everywhere else they aspire to.  Is it a good day for America? The Art of War and DADT.  Hollywood is allowed to discriminate based on anything.  "Sorry, but you're too black."  "You're good, but you're too fat."  "I like you, but you aren't pretty enough."  Hollywood can pick whomever they want, for whatever reason and with no repercussions.  Discrimination for the sake of art.  But the military, the people who protect the nation, can't choose whom they want now that gays got their win with the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The Cost of DADT Repeal.  Fresh off their election defeat for foisting a health care bill they didn't read onto voters who didn't want it, congressional Democrats are pushing repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) on services that don't want it.  This is a shortsighted attempt by liberals to bolster their base by delivering on a campaign promise based on the self-interest of a few while disregarding its impact on the whole of the military. Downgrading Defense Capabilities.  Our foreign policy establishment believes that America's allotment of conventional weapons is useless.  The DOD's current leaders (Robert Gates, William Lynn, et al.) would love to significantly reduce our numbers in this respect, and they've already made extensive "progress."  The first President Bush cancelled over a hundred weapon programs and reduced many others, including the order for B-2 bombers. The Bum's Russia.  The U.S. may have ended Russia's superpower status, but in speeding through the New START treaty we are letting its gangster successors threaten our own superpower status. Obama Dims the Light on Missile Defense.  Obama, for the record, insists that missile defense has not been compromised, but the language of the treaty — combined with Obama's softness on the Russians, the Russians' toughness toward Obama, Obama's previous pro-Russia moves at the expense of Poles and Czechs, and Obama's traditionally tepid support of missile defense — is not reassuring.  I'm pessimistic, and I'm far from alone. Don't let O disarm our military.  Call it President Obama's "conditional-surrender Pentagon budget" — and bad news for the US economy.  The 2012 Defense budget that Secretary Robert Gates unveiled last week calls for cuts of more than $178 billion — more than a quarter of today's Pentagon spending.  Some $100 million [sic] in cuts are coming now, including $35 billion from the Navy alone, with the other $78 billion slated for the next five years. Why Did We Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell?  I don't have many Facebook friends but the ones I do have are professionals and just plain smart so I asked all of them a question that had been puzzling me about Congress' rush to repeal the Don't ask, Don't Tell military policy on sexual identity — DADT.  I wrote:  "Can someone explain DADT?  Before it was enacted no gays could serve openly in the military.  If DADT is repealed, doesn't it go back to that? ... There can be no other answer than to presume that repeal of DADT is a prelude to allowing gays to marry how could we allow them to die for their country yet still be prevented from marrying? Guess What's Next?  Activists Now Want Openly Transgender Soldiers...  It didn't end with securing the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  Activists have their next social experiment for our US military already in sight:  allowing openly "transgender" troops in the US armed forces. The Anti-American START.  Russia, throughout its history, has been an authoritarian if not a totalitarian state hell bent on expanding its empire.  During much of 20th century, Russia sought explicitly to destroy the United States and enslave its allies.  Despite some liberalization following the collapse of the Berlin wall, the authoritarian nature of Russian society can still be seen today.  The state is assassinating journalists, bullying neighboring nations, jailing businessmen, and so on. ... Why then are some Americans, Democrats and Republicans included, advocating weakening the military might of the United States for Russia? Give Defense What It Needs and Cut What It Doesn't.  Rising budget deficits make it imperative to cut federal spending, but why is the Defense Department, of all government departments, at the head of the line?  Given that we are still engaged in, depending on how you count, three major wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, War on Terror), this hardly seems like the time to be cutting back on our overstretched armed forces.  Yet that is precisely what's happening. Rep. Allen West slams military diversity report.  The Military Leadership Diversity Commission's (MLDC) conclusion this week that there are too many white men in senior positions in the military "is a slap in the face" to those minorities who have achieved seniority, according to retired Lt. Colonel and Florida Republican Rep. Allen West. Military 'diversity': more DC silliness.  The [Military Leadership Diversity Commission] last week issued its completely unawaited report to call for, you guessed it, more diversity among military leadership.  Not great fighting effectiveness, which should always be job No. 1.  Not smarter leadership. Not braver fighting generals and fewer rear-echelon paper-pushers.  No, what this country really needs from the Pentagon is better diversity management, including a chief diversity officer reporting directly to the defense secretary. Three SEALs get in hot water for doing their jobs Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist.  Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004.  And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com. Hero SEALS face rap for fiend's bloody lip.  Three Navy SEALs involved in nabbing one of Iraq's most wanted terrorists are reportedly facing criminal charges related to his capture — all because he claimed he had a bloody lip. Navy SEALs May Go to Prison for Giving a Fat Lip to Islamic Terrorist.  The three SEALs have turned down the opportunity for a captain's mast (also known as an admiral's mast, or flag mast), which is not a trial, but a non-judicial discipline hearing.  Perhaps they are curious about the Pentagon's pusillanimous pandering to political correctness.  Or perhaps they would like to see real proof of their CIC's citizenship.  Whatever their reasons, I salute their bravery, and service to our country — as I'm sure all patriotic Americans do as well. Clubbing SEALs.  Punch a terrorist — head for the brig.  Welcome to America's thoroughly modern military.  The notion beggars the imagination, but three Navy SEALs who helped capture one of the most notorious terrorists in Iraq now face courts-martial — because the terrorist acquired a bloody lip after the takedown. The Editor says... If you tangle with the SEALs, you are indeed fortunate to come away with only a knuckle sandwich. Prosecuting American 'War Crimes'.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed "great regret" in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC).  This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague. Justice for Accused Navy SEALs?  A report that three Navy SEALs will face court martial charges for allegedly abusing a long-sought Iraqi terror suspect during or after his capture has produced quite a bit of outrage and controversy.  While it is too early in the process to make a judgment as to the commandos' guilt or innocence, there is good reason to suspect the military has overreacted in pressing criminal charges. Eventually there was a favorable outcome: Report details depravity of SEALs' accuser.  The just-concluded military trials of three exonerated Navy SEALs showed the terrorism suspect at the center of the case to be one of the most dangerous men in Iraq. Navy Seals were heroes ... even before they were proven innocent.  "Where do I go to get my reputation back?" former Labor Secretary Ray Donovan famously asked after being acquitted of fraud and larceny in 1987.  That same question, in spades, could be asked by Matthew McCabe and his fellow Navy Seals who were charged with crimes related to the apprehension and detention of a terrorist who said he was "roughed up" by his guards. Obama is leading us into Marxism.  Obama and progressive Democrats nationwide are proudly displaying their true colors.  Obsessed with national and many statewide wins in last year's election these Democrats have been emboldened to push their rabidly Marxist agenda. ... This week Obama offers to share our military secrets with Russia and China, following the cave-in to Russia regarding the missile defense shield for our Eastern European allies. Take Our Playbook, Please.  The time for words has passed.  President Obama and Eric Holder are placing American lives in danger and openly aiding and abetting America's enemies.  Obama and Holder want to give civilian trials to confessed 9/11 mass-murderer Kalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his accomplices.  Giving civilian trials to non-U.S. citizens and unlawful combatants not even protected by the Geneva Conventions is both unconstitutional and a violation of the oath of office to defend Americans against all enemies foreign and domestic. We Interrupt this Socialization of Medicine to Bring You an Abdication of Our National Defense.  Quite intentionally, the Obama administration is making so many radical moves on so many different fronts simultaneously that it's difficult to stay on top of them all, much less give them the attention they deserve.  But ... it's important to notice how dangerously irresponsible the administration's obsession to close Gitmo has become, and how tawdry the Justice Department is allowing itself to appear. The Terror This Time.  A U.S. government that has barred the phrase "war on terror" has nonetheless acknowledged that a failed Christmas day bomb attack on an airliner was a terrorist attempt.  Can we all now drop the pretense that we stopped fighting a war once Dick Cheney and George W. Bush left the White House? The Real War Front is At Home.  [Scroll down]  Now we have turned leadership over to those for whom the issue is not inadequate attention to our moral pillars, but to those for whom they don't exist.  After 9/11, we still knew what a terrorist was and we understood that we blew it regarding identifying the ones operating in our own country.  Today, after allowing a terrorist to operate within the ranks of our own military, and, after he did his devastating work at Fort Hood, we refuse to identify him as a terrorist. Obama's Second Major Terror Failure in Two Months.  After a known Islamic radical psychiatrist shot more than forty unarmed American military personnel at Forth Hood last month, this is the second easily preventable failure of the Obama administration to protect the country against domestic terrorism.  Obama has let down our guard, and al-Qaida's got his number. Barack Obama gets an 'F' for protecting Americans.  Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office.  Obama may have rather smugly given himself a "B+" for his 2009 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants.  He said today that a "systemic failure has occurred".  Well, he's in charge of that system. Does Obama 'Get' the Terror War?  Why is the government decanting Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab into the civilian justice system after he tried to destroy an airliner filled with innocent passengers?  Why are we affording this enemy agent the legal protections that obtain in a land he wants to destroy?  The administration is going to answer for this one, with volume turned up. For Obama, Global Warming Trumps National Security.  On Christmas Day, a Nigerian-born terrorist named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound passenger airplane. ... [President Obama] blamed the CIA for the foul-up.  There is no doubt that the CIA should have done something more to prevent this attack.  But, then again, President Obama has been keeping them busy.  With global warming. Spying On Icebergs?  We can't stop terrorists from boarding planes with explosive undies, but the CIA has assets sufficient to monitor Arctic ice and look for signs of global warming?  Is al-Qaida recruiting polar bears? ... At the urging of Al Gore, the administration is signing on to a plan to task vital intelligence assets to protect not the people of the United States, but the environment. Who Is the Enemy:  Islamists or the Global-Warming Scare?  Though the failed airliner attack over Detroit may have concentrated the administration's collective mind on the task of fighting Islamist terrorists, even if we aren't allowed to call them that, our overburdened and often confused intelligence services are also being asked to track another deadly enemy:  global warming. Tehran is about to blow!  Where's Obama?  President Obama's end-of-the-year deadline for the mad mullahs to make a deal on uranium enrichment came and went, but not without incident.  There were three, none good.  Most troubling, the White House proved it still doesn't have a Plan B, even though its unBush diplomacy has proven to be a total dud. Okay, The Buck Stops Here — Now Shut Up About It.  What the president meant was:  Okay, I get it.  People want me to make believe I take this terrorism thing seriously.  If I say the right words, everyone will just shut up about it and let me go back to wrecking the economy. Obama Aids the Enemy He Will Not Name.  On December 29, and very much under the radar, (he was sunnin' and funnin' in Hawaii at the time), Obama declassified just about everything he possibly could.  All of it will help foreign governments and Obama's Communist-Socialist associates in the U.S.  This executive order is a tsunami info-dump of newly declassified data — material that was classified before June 29, 1985.  It is all about to be made public — despite the danger this poses to U.S. national security — 180 days from the signing of the Executive Order. Time For A Change?  Obama's Mistakes Say So.  [Scroll down slowly]  We have saved lives by questioning other enemy combatants, but the Obama administration doesn't even know this is a war against Islamic terrorism and is treating the terrorist as a common criminal, thus sacrificing our ability to get needed intelligence information from him.  This demonstrates Mr. Obama isn't keeping us safe, but is, instead, subjecting us to unnecessary dangers. If they're releasing these guys — to Algeria of all places — they'll release anyone.  The Justice Department has announced the release from Gitmo of a terrorist who conspired to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in the 2000 Millennium plot. Obama's Terror Non-Policy:  Nidal Hasan did everything but walk around Fort Hood with "kill infidels" tattooed on his forehead.  He continually expressed support for the jihadis, disparaged U.S. anti-terror efforts, and attempted to proselytize his patients.  He was in contact with the al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been chased from the U.S. to Yemen.  Yet he was not questioned, discharged from the service, or even put under observation. A sheik-up call for O's Justice joker.  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano must be relieved.  Over the last few weeks, Attorney General Eric Holder has passed and lapped her in the race to be the most flagrantly incompetent Obama administration official in the War on Terror. Obama waging unhelpful war against contractors.  Waging war requires serious acts as well as sober words.  And in that arena, the Obama administration has yet to prove itself.  Indeed, at times it seems the White House is intent on fighting another war — one in which the perceived enemy is America's defense industries. The Most Important Story You Didn't See Last Week:  A Senate hearing last week confirmed the public's worst concern about Barack Obama:  that when it comes to national security, Obama hasn't just been asleep at the switch — he hasn't even bothered to find the switch. President proposes cutting border patrol.  President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 budget would cut the border patrol by 180 agents and trim spending on a "virtual fence" along the nation's Southwest border. Three pillars of Obamaism:  Barack Obama signed three executive orders on January 22, 2009.  One provided for closure of Guantanamo and the review of the cases of the detainees held there.  One provided for the termination of the CIA program of enhanced interrogation.  One provided for the review of detention policy options.  Following on these orders Eric Holder promulgated the insane protocol establishing a presumption in favor or the trial of Guantanamo detainees in federal court. Politicizing Intelligence.  Last week, a little more than 24 hours after the FBI warned senators not to disclose the sensitive information that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was cooperating with the FBI, the White House shared the information with the news media. F-22 Or F-35:  The Plane Truth.  The administration decision to scrap a proven aircraft in favor of a supposedly cheaper, more flexible replacement is proving to be an expensive mistake.  We may wind up defenseless and broke. Loose Lips.  The administration says the Christmas bomber is now cooperating with authorities.  We thought they got all the information he had in a 50-minute chat.  So just why are we letting our enemies know he's talking?  In any war, it's vitally important that you know what your enemy is planning and doing, just as it's important that your actions and plans remain secret.  And when you know about your enemy's plans it's important they don't know that you know. Obama's Border Enforcement Deceit.  In his State of the Union speech two weeks ago, President Obama claimed that he would strengthen border security.  Oh really?  I might not be as wise as Mr. Obama, but I'm not sure how removing $319 million in border security funding increases our nation's security. Where the U.S. went wrong on the Christmas Day bomber.  Contrary to what some in government have suggested, that Abdulmutallab was taken into custody by the FBI did not mean, legally or as a matter of policy, that he had to be treated as a criminal defendant at any point.  Consider:  In 1942, German saboteurs landed on Long Island and in Florida.  That they were eventually captured by the FBI did not stop President Franklin Roosevelt from directing that they be treated as unlawful enemy combatants.  They were ultimately tried before a military commission in Washington and executed. Their status had nothing to do with who held them, and their treatment was upheld in all respects by the Supreme Court. Obama's Border Insecurity Budget.  In short, the Obama budget falls woefully short on immigration control and enforcement.  If adopted, this budget would set the nation back on border security. Obama's Politically Correct Pentagon:  Gender integration is a deeply rooted PC issue which seldom draws attention from top brass in spite of contradictory facts.  For decades the military's PC culture accepted without complaint the readiness-busting problems associated with gender integration:  lowering of standards, sexual activity, sexual tension and declining morale.  The consequences are accepted and the military muddles along. Sheer Hypocrisy in Terrorist Handling.  Maybe we are lucky we haven't caught Osama bin Laden yet.  What exactly would the Obama administration do with him if they did? Air Force Retracted Invitation for Conservative Leader to Speak at Prayer Luncheon.  The U.S. Air Force admits that the chaplain's office at Andrews Air Force Base retracted an invitation to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins — a former Marine officer — to speak at a prayer luncheon held at the base on Thursday after the conservative leader criticized President Obama's efforts to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell" — the military policy on homosexuality. Putting the Coast Guard Out to Sea.  Despite the pressing need to cut government spending, under President Obama's spending proposal all the nation's military services are set to see their budgets increase — all, that is, except the Coast Guard, the nation's chronically overburdened maritime force, responsible for everything from global search and rescue to port security. Disinvited.  When the Air Force chaplain's office rescinded its invitation to Tony Perkins to keynote a military families' prayer luncheon, it should have been over something truly dreadful.  Disinvitation is serious business; usually, once an offer has been made and accepted, hospitality is supposed to kick in.  So what did Perkins, a former Marine and president of the Family Research Council, do to offend the Air Force chaplaincy? The DOJ9 (And Still Counting).  With health care dominating the headlines, it was easy to miss the unfolding drama between Congress and the Obama administration about the legal war on terror.  The most recent installment was a remarkable and belated five-page letter from Attorney General Eric Holder to Rep. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, acknowledging that at least nine attorneys in the U.S. Department of Justice represented terrorist detainees before joining the Obama administration.  Why is this a problem?  Let me count the ways. Justice Department Won't Name Its Attorneys.  After a conservative group posted a video on Tuesday [3/2/2010] calling for the Department of Justice to release the names of department lawyers who previously worked in the private sector representing or advocating on behalf of terrorist detainees, a DOJ spokesman responded with a statement that still does not name the attorneys. Exclusive:  Unknown DOJ Lawyers Identified.  A day after a conservative group released a video condemning the Justice Department for refusing to identify seven lawyers who previously represented or advocated for terror suspects, Fox News has uncovered the identities of the seven lawyers. Justice Department on So-called "Al Qaeda Seven":  For several weeks, Republican lawmakers and a conservative group have been attacking the Justice Department for refusing to reveal the names of nine officials who have in some way advocated for or represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Killing Airborne Laser jeopardizes America.  [Scroll down]  The successful airborne laser test was as welcome and encouraging to most Americans as the ugly face of Iran's dictatorship was unwelcome and menacing.  Unfortunately, the Pentagon budget is sorely out of sync with these realities.  Congress and the Obama administration are actually defunding the very same Airborne Laser project that has just succeeded in doing something once relegated to science fiction movies.  Why is Congress mothballing this program when it is on the threshold of success against such potent threats? This War Would Be Hell, Too.  If a top intelligence expert said America was not prepared for war and, indeed, that if we went to war "we would lose," that would worry you, wouldn't it?  Start worrying. ... Cybercombatants couldcause massive blackouts lasting for months.  They could destroy the electronic processes on which our banking, commerce, and financial systems have been built, stealing — or simply wiping out — vast amounts of wealth.  They could put our air-transportation system in jeopardy.  They might even be able to cripple our defense and national-security infrastructures.  It is possible to defend against such threats.  But we are not doing it adequately. Save the SEALs.  Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, yesterday renewed a call for charges to be dropped against three Navy SEALs charged with the unspeakable crime of roughing up a terrorist. Gates' Bad Bet on F-35:  When Defense Secretary Robert Gates rankled the Air Force's fighter fraternity by terminating the top-line F-22 Raptor, he tried to sooth the hurt by promoting the slower, less-capable F-35 as a good fill-in. ... Development of the Joint Strike Fighter, as it is also known, has fallen so far behind schedule, with huge cost overruns, the defense secretary ordered the firing of the F-35 program manager. De-Fence, De-Fence.  The government puts the brakes on a problem-plagued "virtual" fence on our border with Mexico.  Whatever happened to the old-fashioned kind?  If ever there was a shovel-ready project, this is it. Obama's Scheme to Gut the Coast Guard.  The U.S. Coast Guard should play an important role in our homeland security.  After all, that was the stated reason for moving the Coast Guard out of the U.S. Transportation Department and into the newly created Department of Homeland Security.  Liberals are forever going on about "first responders."  Well, the Coast Guard should certainly be considered first among the first responders. Obama's Empty Nuclear Posturing.  Obama's threats to hit Iran with tough sanctions if his entreaties to talk were rejected are increasingly being exposed as hollow.  That kind of wishy-washiness is something that Iran and other rogue regimes understand.  By comparison, the theoretical language contained in the Nuclear Posture Review seems more like, well, academic posturing. The Obama Nuclear Manifesto:  Death of Clarity.  Let's be clear:  Wars prevented are wars not fought.  And when faced with hostile adversaries, the best prevention is peace through strength.  There is little room for banking on tulips and tea.  In a real world proven model of peace through strength, there is certainly no room for taking the defensive nuclear option off the table. Obama Raises White Flag Over America.  Can there be any surprise that Obama's announcement for no nukes on American soil — even in self-defense — coincides with the announcement that the leaders of 23 Arab countries have launched an unprecedented clarion call to free the world from nuclear weapons? The Disarming of America.  On the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama was often critical of the Bush doctrine of preemptive war.  But apparently preemptive disarmament is just fine in the president's dossier.  How else to describe the administration's infinitely naïve decision yesterday [4/6/2010] to, in effect, fold up the American nuclear umbrella? Obama looks to legacy with nuclear disarmament moves.  With an eye toward his legacy, President Obama is pushing a significant shift in U.S. nuclear policy.  The administration's new, Nuclear Posture Review builds specifics onto a speech the president delivered a year ago in Prague, Czech Republic, where he outlined his vision for a future without nuclear weapons. Obama's Scary Nuke Plan.  Today [4/6/2010] President Obama reversed 60 years of U.S. nuclear policy and pledged we would not retaliate with nuclear weapons were we — or our treaty allies — attacked with conventional, biological or chemical weapons by nations in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  He hopes that other nuclear weapons states will follow suit with a similar pledge and we will be well on our way to a world without nuclear weapons. Disarmament Danger:  The Obama administration has placed nuclear disarmament at the top of its foreign-policy agenda.  Other possible goals, such as modernizing U.S. nuclear forces for deterrence purposes, are now considered either transitory or subordinate to taking steps toward "nuclear zero." Obamalateral Disarmament.  Aiming at a world where nuclear weapons are obsolete, the administration's nuclear posture review leaves a world without American nuclear weapons and the backbone to use them. Obama bans terms Jihad, Islam.  President Barack Obama's advisers will remove religious terms such as "Islamic extremism" from the central document outlining the US national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said. Welcome Back, MAD.  The New START treaty signed today does what critics have feared:  it gives Russia an out should it conclude that any evolving situation is destabilized by America's missile defenses, and it prohibits the U.S. from expanding our missile-defense capability by converting decommissioned ICBM silos in North America.  The language in the ninth paragraph of the treaty preamble gives the Russians whatever latitude they choose to object to U.S. missile defenses. Obama's Axis of "Outliers".  "Outliers" is Obama's newest foreign policy euphemism (enemies who don't comply with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the "NPT").  Now that "outliers" Iran and North Korea are no longer in the "Axis of Evil" we certainly wouldn't think of imposing "crippling" sanctions on them. Nuclear TMI.  For decades, America's nuclear strategy has been purposefully vague.  The U.S. didn't want the Soviet Union or other enemies to know exactly when, where or how it would strike, if provoked.  That's called deterrence, and it has worked for 60 years.  On Tuesday [4/6/2010], President Barack Obama dismantled some of America's nuclear mystique. Obama's Nuclear Foreign Fallacy.  No longer will America "walk softly and carry a big stick."  For the last 60 years, countries have been scared to attack the U.S. and our allies because they knew we could respond with utter annihilation.  Obama has shelved our biggest stick. The Systematic Dismantling of a Secure America.  The emotionally charged toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square on April 9, 2003 was an ephemeral moment of unity for Americans applauding the defeat of a tyrannical regime and an enemy of the free world. ... Fast-forward to April 6, 2010, when Barack Obama informed the world that the United States would no longer function as a global superpower buttressed by nuclear weapons as a deterrence to war. Jon Voight:  A Letter to the American People.  This will be the first president to ever weaken the United States of America.  President Obama uses his aggression and arrogance for his own agenda against the will of the American people, when he should be using his will and aggression against our enemies. The weakening of America from within.  On 10 April 2010, actor Jon Voight made an appearance on the Fox News Network where he read a message to the American people.  His message was direct and succinct, and he stated that in his first year in office, Obama has significantly weakened America.  Mr. Voight correctly states that via Obama's training and implementation of the Alinski method, "a socialistic, Marxist teaching... he rapes this nation, taking down our defenses, making new language for the Islamic extremists." US Navy to launch Great Green Fleet.  The US navy is set to be both green and mean with the dawning of an new eco-friendly assault force that will mind its carbon footprint as it destroys its enemy.  It is to launch "the Great Green Fleet", a fighting force of ships, submarines and planes powered entirely by biofuels. Plans to allow women and gays, ban smoking shake world of Navy submarines.  Imagine 150 fraternity brothers packed into a container the size of a three-bedroom house.  Announce you are breaking hallowed traditions by taking away their cigarettes and admitting women.  Then lock the doors and push the container deep into the sea, for months at a time.  That's what the Navy, after decades of contemplation and controversy, has decided to do with its Submarine Force, an elite fraternity of 13,000 active-duty sailors that has been patrolling the oceans for 110 years. Our Country's Battles.  We have today an aging and shrinking Air Force and Navy, an Army that is overstretched, reserve forces that are far too "active" in their rate of deployment, and too few dollars to rebuild and modernize.  And if the Obama domestic agenda is implemented... Weakening America starts with emasculating intelligence agencies.  Fifteen months into his presidency, it's no longer possible to assume President Obama is simply naive.  His defense and foreign policy decisions and policies define an overarching objective:  To reduce America from unchallenged superpower to a shell of its former self, to a nation incapable of defending its interests or its allies around the world.  To understand why this is so, let's start with the component that is the foundation of all others in defense and foreign policy, intelligence. Bam's daze of the weak.  President Obama is the backward man. Teddy Roosevelt's advice to "speak softly and carry a big stick" was meant as a guide to successful foreign relations.  Obama has completely muddled the message.  He speaks softly to foreign adversaries and uses the big stick on American dissenters.  Iran and Syria are wooed endlessly with carrots, apologies and promises of grand bargains.  They respond with taunts and threats and pay no penalty. Disarmament The Obama Way:  The F-15 Eagle that lay smoldering in the Libyan desert was downed not by hostile fire but by "mechanical failure."  It's a perfect metaphor for the current administration's downgrading of national defense from a constitutional imperative to an optional budget item.  The F-22 Raptor was designed to replace our aging F-15 fleet, which is older than the pilots who fly them and whose wings are almost literally falling off.  Raptor production was cut off at 187, not nearly enough to meet global commitments that now include three Mideast wars, including one that President Obama escalated in Afghanistan and another he started in Libya while on tour in South America. Military indoctrinated on gays kissing, behavior.  Four branches of the military have begun sending training material to 2.2 million active and reserve troops as a prelude to opening the ranks to gays, with instructions on, for example, what to do if an officer sees two male Marines kissing in a shopping mall.  Key themes are that sexual orientation will no longer be a bar to service, that all service members must respect each other, and that the partners of gay troops will not receive the benefits of heterosexual spouses. The Pentagon prepares to welcome recruits to the New Gay Army. Obama's new 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy:  Soldiers offended by the sight of two male Marines kissing in public better not mention that fact to their superiors.  Under President Obama, the new "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rules turn the Clinton-era policy on its head.  Now those who embrace traditional moral values are the ones being told to stay in the closet. Obama's defense defunding.  Can America's defense budget be cut?  Yes.  Unfortunately, President Obama is going about it exactly backward. A National Security Apparatus in Decline.  Winning is no longer part of a general's code or vocabulary.  Words like "war" no longer describe combat.  Soldiers don't die to defend American democracy anymore; they now give the "last full measure of devotion" for mindless neologisms like "kinetics," soft power, and nation-building. Related topic:  Civilian trials and incarceration for terrorists. Obama is weakening our allies' defenses The Biggest Threat to Britain's National Security Is Barack Obama.  As British Prime Minister David Cameron hangs out with President Obama this week, he should remember that he is watching basketball and chewing on hot dogs with the man who represents the biggest threat to Britain's national security. Sorry world, we elected Alfred E. Neuman.  Barack Obama is a nice guy who has degrees from prestigious institutions.  He speaks well and writes well, but he is nonetheless an idiot because he sees things only through the lens of himself.  Where others hold a window into the world, he holds a mirror.  His supporters say he plays three-dimensional chess.  He cannot even play checkers.  Consider his apology to Afghanistan for the accidental burning of a few Korans. ... What President Obama should have done is kept the Koran burning to himself.  We are at war.  When in war, the military should not serve as a spy for the enemy. The Editor says... I agree, except for the declaration that Obama "speaks well and writes well".  What has he ever written?  What remarkably astute statement has he ever made, without reading it from a teleprompter? Loose lips.  NBC News is reporting that Israeli spies have been involved in the assassinations of five Iranian nuclear scientists.  So far, not so bad.  We'd say the engineers basically needed killing.  But here's the astonishing part:  The source for the story apparently is the Obama administration — albeit through anonymous leaks. [Italics in original.] Obama's Final Solution.  [Scroll down]  The Pentagon has just released a humiliating admission that Obama's vaunted anti-missile defense for Europe against Iranian missiles is never going to work.  George W. Bush negotiated workable anti-missile missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic, in the path of Iranian missiles to Europe's capital cities.  Obama sabotaged that plan, leaving Aegis naval ships in various places as a fig leaf.  The Pentagon has admitted that Europe is now undefended.  Obama's purpose may be to force Europe to turn against Israel at the United Nations. British Navy running short of Tomahawk missiles.  Defence insiders say as many as 12 of the weapons have been fired from the hunter — killer submarine Triumph in the past four days.  If this is correct, the [British] Navy will have used up to 20 per cent of its 64 Tomahawks in the opening salvos of the war, leading to fears that it is "burning through" its armoury. Christmas arrives early for Vladimir Putin.  Never before has an American president put the defense of the country's "common strategic interests" in the hands of an unreliable rival's "defense capabilities."  The president thinks defense against long-range missiles is not so important any more, anyway.  Maybe an enemy will be considerate enough to dispatch short-range missiles.  Maybe the Russians will help get a resolution through the United Nations condemning Iran's nuclear-weapons program.  Maybe Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will repent and find a peaceful religion.  We can hope for change. Where Do We Go for Hope?  The Obama administration's decision on missile defense, as with virtually every move the Obama team has made in foreign policy, is both deeply naive and deeply cynical.  It is naive in conceiving that our adversaries simply must respond to our apologies, retreats, reversals, and unilateral-disarmament efforts with some comparable gesture, as if they fear being thought ungracious or rude if they don't reciprocate in a timely manner. Obama on Missile Defense:  Alarming and Dangerous.  President Obama has made a dangerous and alarming decision to shelve our missile-defense system in Europe.  Facing the growing threat from Iran's nuclear ambition, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has worked long and hard to secure a site for the system to thwart a potential strike against our European allies.  Developing the missile shield could also have important implications for U.S. security. Obama scraps Star Wars and gambles on Russia.  Barack Obama took a massive foreign policy gamble yesterday when he scrapped plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe — a major concession to Russia.  The decision to shelve the Bush-era plan for a "Star Wars" defence system was denounced by Republicans as appeasing Moscow and caused dismay among former Soviet satellites. Abject Surrender In Dead Of Night.  With Iran on the verge of a deliverable nuke, the administration tells our allies in the dead of night that we will scuttle missile defense plans in Eastern Europe to please the Russians. US missile shield:  Appeasement is alive and well in Barack Obama's White House.  Until he starts achieving results, rather than constantly making concessions, many people will be inclined to agree with the dismissive comment that a former Bush speechwriter claims his boss made last year, when Mr Obama was still only a presidential candidate:  "This is a dangerous world, and this cat isn't remotely qualified to handle it." Obama's Missile Offense.  President Obama promised he would win America friends where, under George W. Bush, it had antagonists.  The reality is that the U.S. is working hard to create antagonists where it previously had friends.  That's one conclusion to draw from President Obama's decision yesterday [9/17/2009] to scrap a missile-defense agreement the Bush Administration negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin pushed, Bam buckled.  President Obama cited technical factors yesterday [9/17/2009] that might, arguably, justify his scrapping of a planned European shield against Iranian missiles.  But as political strategy, there's just one way to describe his move:  It's a major US setback. A Stab in the Back.  President Obama's decision to cancel plans for U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic is a knife in the back for those countries.  The implications for U.S. security and the transatlantic relationship are profound.  Critics rightly note that the sudden announcement Thursday [9/17/2009] sends a dangerous message to allies, both in Europe and elsewhere, who rely on U.S. security guarantees. General Electric:  Obama's Halliburton?  The hypocrisy permeating the policy decisions emanating from the Obama White House continues.  General Electric will directly benefit from Obama's decision to renege on a deal to provide Eastern Europe with missile defense systems. Obama helps strengthen General Electric-Putin ties.  General Electric may be the company with the closest ties to the Obama administration (if not, GE is second only to Goldman Sachs), and here we see the company benefiting from an abrupt foreign policy change made by President Obama.  But GE isn't the only company benefiting. Did America betray Poland?  Or it was just Obama?  It was the worst thing that the American government could do.  This decision was announced on 17 September, when Poland was commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Invasion Day, when the Soviet Union allied with Nazis and stabbed our country in the back. ... At the same day, 70 years later, Obama bowed to the Kremlin.  It was something that created great turmoil in all of Poland.  What is even worse — people here feel that they were betrayed.  It's not only about the anti-missile shield.  It's about the Polish attitude towards the USA.  The United States was seen as the great defender of freedom and democracy all around the world. Obama received exactly nothing for selling out America's friends.  The hallmarks of the Obama foreign policy have been craven — and thus far futile — efforts to appease America's enemies, and callous treatment of our allies.  The most recent outrage was the administration's unilateral abrogation of treaties with Poland and the Czech Republic to put anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) and radars in their countries. When Defenses Go Down.  The president's announcement that the United States would not deploy long-range missile defenses in Eastern Europe after all was astonishing because George W. Bush had negotiated so patiently with the Czechs and Poles, who took considerable risks in cooperating with Washington. Is Obama A Fool?  Scott is on record as believing that he is; I have reserved judgment.  President Obama's apparently unilateral concession to Russia in abandoning our anti-missile defense system in central Europe, with no publicly-acknowledged quid pro quo, may support the view that in international relations, at least, Obama is a fool. The Editor says... There is another possibility:  Perhaps Obama knows exactly what he is doing and is putting our allies in danger intentionally. Obama The Impotent:  A Dangerous Delusion.  The Obama administration has vowed to "reset" our relations with strategic adversaries like Russia — a country which has been gobbling up and threatening its smaller democratic neighbors.  Obama is equally proud of his "outstretched hand" to declared enemies like Iran, which for years provided the Iraqi insurgents with the munitions to kill American soldiers, and which recently has been shooting its own people in the streets.  Meanwhile, loyal allies like Poland and the Czech Republic are sold out and left defenseless when Obama reneged on the long-planned deployment of anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe. A Lesson in Unintended Consequences for Our President.  Obama's gesture to Russia in dropping plans for a missile shield in central Europe brought him nothing in return. Fall Of The Wall? U.S. Sends Regrets.  The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. Barack Obama's refusal to back Britain over the Falklands is a disgrace.  The Obama administration's decision to remain neutral in the dispute between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands is a shameful decision that will go down very badly across the Atlantic. As The Times has just reported, Washington has point blank refused to support British sovereignty over the Falklands, and is adopting a strictly neutral approach. America betrays Britain in her hour of need.  It was a headline I never expected to read:  "US refuses to endorse British sovereignty in Falklands oil dispute."  Washington has declined to back Britain in its dispute with Argentina over drilling rights in the waters surrounding the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands.  President Obama's position is one of strict neutrality, refusing to take sides. American neutrality on the Falklands is a symptom of US foreign policy drift.  The Bush administration got a lot of things wrong — but at least they usually had some idea of who America's adversaries were and who America's friends were. ... In contrast, Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are apparently clueless about some of the most basic aspects of foreign policy:  supporting one's friends and fencing in one's adversaries. Falklands Fallacy.  The U.S., which backed Britain to the hilt when Argentina invaded its Falklands in 1982, has suddenly gone neutral on who has sovereignty over the islands. This is much more than a bad slap to our best ally. The British Aren't So Special to Obama.  Barack Obama, it was claimed, would "repair" our reputation both with our enemies and our friends.  So how has he done?  Let's take Britain for example.  Has he "fixed" our special relationship with the British Isles? Obama's domestic war on democracy.  The outlines of the emerging Obama Doctrine had begun to be obvious:  He would engage, indulge, and look kindly on the likes of tyrants like Iran and North Korea, who armed to the teeth while threatening to eviscerate Israel and South Korea.  But when it came to democracies and political, strategic, and historic allies of this country, their welcome and luck had run out. Obama Selling Out Our Allies.  With increasing frequency members of the Obama administration have been turning their backs on America's strongest allies.  The administration is forming new partnerships which appear to be based solely on emotion and the desire to appear politically correct rather than on agreements to work together to meet mutual needs in a long-term relationship. Obama's destructive foreign policy.  The outlines of an Obama Doctrine have been apparent for some time.  It can be summarized in nine ... words:  Embolden our enemies.  Undermine our friends.  Diminish our country.  These days, it is hard to avoid proof that these outcomes are not inadvertent or attributable to sheer and sustained incompetence.  Rather, they are a product of deliberate decisions approved, we must assume, by the president himself. Obama to Taiwan: No new F-16s.  F-16 Reports out today in Washington say that President Obama has approved a new arms sales package for Taiwan but that it does not include the 66 F-16 fighter jets the island nation wants to buy from Lockheed Martin. Obama's Fighter Plane Refusal Dooms Taiwan.  President Obama's refusal to sell modern fighters to longtime ally Republic of China (Taiwan) dooms that country, frightens our allies, and robs America of needed jobs.  Worse, it tells Communist China that America's foreign policy and her democratic principles are for sale.  Last week Obama agreed to refurbish Taiwan's 1980s vintage F-16A/B fighter fleet rather than sell the island nation the much-needed modern F-16C/D fighters or the state-of-the-art stealth F-35, which outmatch China's fighters. What thanks does Britain get? 'Neutrality' on the Falklands.  Barack Obama may have rolled out the red carpet for David Cameron at the White House last month, flown the Prime Minister on Air Force One to Ohio, and lavished him with a state dinner, but he still won't back America's closest ally over the Falklands, sticking to a policy of "neutrality". Back to the Barack Obama index page More about Liberals in general Back to the Home page

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