Placating Evil

By Chuck Marshall

Neville Chamberlain returned from Germany waving his treaty proclaiming "Peace for our Time".  

     I've come to a conclusion about the President;  the crux of his approach to terrorism is to not insult potential terrorists.  Notice how nearly all his arguments for what he's doing are that anything we do in contrast would risk "enabling  ISIL to recruit more terrorists".   From the bombings in Paris to the shootings in California his  reaction has been the same.   It's like, "Well my goodness we sure don't want to upset people on the brink of wanting to blow us up !"   Am I the only one that thinks ISIS  would recruit terrorists just fine and dandy even if we didn't have Gitmo or even if we allowed ALL the Syrian refugees to enter the United States ?   It's this entire wimpy philosophy that depletes Americans.  Where's the leadership ?  I'm not saying we need to send 100,000 troops to Syria, but I am saying our country should not be bowing or bending over for these people "lest we stir the pot of American hatred".  If they hate us enough to join ISIS, then no American policy is going to soften their hatred.  Remember, we're discussing a group of people that can be convinced to kill us all.  How could any policy of the US government change their mind to like us instead ?   The policy of the United States matters not one iota to potential terrorists.  The only thing that might change any of their minds is for us to remove all our troops from the middle east and become an isolationist country.  Then, yes, they might decide we don't have to die... at least not just yet.

      What brought this home to me was a news story today that mentioned Obama has refused to change his procedure at Gitmo of systematically releasing some of the less threatening prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.   He says all the information he has gathered has been that keeping Gitmo open only helps to recruit more terrorists.  Gasp !  Well, that's conjecture in my humble opinion, but releasing known terrorists to the wilds of the middle east is not conjecture.  It is a fact that these people will go home and plot to come back and kill us.  Make no mistake about that., Mr. Obama and I  say that with all due respect to you and your desire to do "the right thing".  Placating evil does not work.  It didn't work for the Nazis and it won't work for Jihadists.  Your weak approach only emboldens them to come after us even harder.  These people smell weakness in your policy like a shark smells blood in the water.  They're circling and they're ready for a feeding frenzy.  Chamberlain gave Hitler Czechoslovakia but only one year later  he marched into Poland.    Evil cannot be placated.  

We Deserve Better Than This

  

By Chuck Marshall

   I've been watching the situation with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl these days and there sure is a lot of controversy over his departure from the Army.  Should it be an honorable discharge  or dishonorable discharge ?  Should he be handed a check for $300k in lost wages or should he be cut off from any government aid for the rest of his life ?  Should he be convicted of desertion?  This is a decision I am glad I would not have to make,  On the one hand you're rewarding him for deserting his post (which nobody disputes is what he did).  He put his platoon in danger looking for him when he deserted.  On the other hand, the guy has been through so much, shouldn't we just forgive his misjudgment and let bygones be bygones.... give him his honorable discharge and be done with it?   I don't have  the answer to this question, but this is a decision for the military courtroom not public opinion.

     With any situation like this, we have to learn something.  I've concluded that our President is not a good negotiator.   Why would you trade 5 Taliban fighters for a soldier that deserted his post?  Why would you bring him home and parade his parents  through the rose garden and have your National Security Advisor trumpet him as a "man of distinction" when he's nothing of the sort?   I see the entire thing as  a charade.  This was a "safe" call for Obama because it was a low- risk negotiation and he thought he'd come out looking great for saving one of our soldiers.  It was worth it to him to give away more than he got because he needed the headlines as he hearkened back to the days of capturing and killing Osama Bin Laden.  He forgot, once again, that he is  not a King and that most thinking people would openly critique his tactics.  These are the actions of an inexperienced executive.  I don't see that he has learned much in his 6 years as President.  He hasn't learned to negotiate with our enemies and I'm concerned that this very much includes Iran.  He also hasn't learned to negotiate with  Congress which has cost all of us dearly as the legislative branch of our government has been totally inept and ineffective.  This is part of the job of the President to not just negotiate with Congress but to also lead them to some extent with common goals.  How often has Obama spoken directly to the American people to encourage us or to lead us or to embolden us to speak to our Congressmen about any given situation?   He makes a great speech, but ringing oratory is not the solitary distinction of a great leader.

      So that's what we have today.  A poor negotiator who is not developed much past  his days as a community organizer.  We see the leadership vacancy in all three branches of government, but most especially in the White House.  This has cost us dearly.   I've said it before and I'll say it again; Barack Obama is not qualified to be President of the United States.  We must come up with a better process of selecting our leaders.  We deserve better than this.


In My Humble Opinion.

Solutions Elude Political Parties

By Chuck Marshall

As is common in this blog I have to come out and criticize either party for their lack of ideas and solutions.  I do sometimes wonder  if good ideas elude them  because it doesn't behoove them to have ideas.   Recently the Republicans had a stand off with the Democrats and President Obama's "Immigration Reform" which they believe to be "overreaching".  In agreement with them, Obama himself explained many times in the last several years that he would not issue an executive order regarding immigration reform because that would have to come from the legislative branch of government.    But I don't understand 'nor has it been clarified to me what it  is the Republican right wing wishes to do ?  Do they really want to ship all these illegals right back to their home countries?

Instead of proposing a reasonable plan to fix the situation and perhaps offer up legislation that might be agreeable to the President, the GOP decides to try and turn this in to another "anti-Obama" issue and  proceeds to  nearly force a closure of the department of Homeland Security.  Speaker of the House "Boehner" very wisely took the high road and made peace with the Democrats in order to broker a deal that the President wouldn't veto.  Still, they push the country's safety to the edge over their ridiculous partisan political games.    A wise Republican  led congress would see the opportunity to offer other solutions that would help to solve the problem of illegal immigration and leave the legalities of what President Obama has done to the courts.  That's what courts do, folks.  

This is what you get when you load up the government with expert "politicians" not leaders.  Slick lawyers and future lobbyists who are very skilled at making themselves look good during campaigns but they are not good  at leading our country and offering solutions to  very real problems.  Their solution is to do something "anti-Obama" because they can ring that bell in the next round of elections soothing the anger of their constituents and thus securing themselves another term in Congress, and perhaps even more importantly,  securing themselves a "juicy plumb" of a job on K street as a seven figure lobbyist.

In my humble opinion.....

Who's on a high horse ?

By Charles "Chuck" E. Marshall


    At the national prayer breakfast President Obama is quoted as saying the following regarding the sins of religion and in particular Christianity;  "Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ".  This to a group, that I would assume was largely Christian. 

     I have too often left Obama alone in this blog,  I don't know if it's respect for the office or that I simply feel like he gets too much criticism as it is.  This episode has really shaken me.  I can't believe the leader of our country would make comments comparing what was done in the name of Christ over 1000 years ago to ISIS of today.  ISIS who roasts people alive and chops heads off of innocent people and murders whole villages because they don't think the right way.... TODAY !  They are the enemy, they are the Nazis of the modern world and our leader back-handedly defends their position as just another radical sect of a religion, no different from slave owners of the old south.  There he stood like a bombastic college professor -not the President of the United States- babbling an academic point  as a guest speaker to this group focused on prayer.  There he stood scolding them that "hey, you're not so special......remember what your type did back in the 900's ?".  Huh ?  In one account I read that you could feel the air being sucked out of the room.  "You're welcome", right Mr. President?  Not only was it  rude, boorish, arrogant and condescending but it was behavior unbecoming to the President of the United States.

       Any relationship that ISIS has to the Islamic faith is the stuff of their own twisted fantasy.  To give them any credit as being similar to our own religion's troubled and contradictory history  gives them -at some level- a bit of leniency and understanding.  As if they really do have justification under Islamic faith.   You don't understand or rationalize with people like that.... you kill them before they kill you,   Europe tried to understand and placate the Nazis before WWII by walking through and entertaining the logic of their actions as if they would eventually come to their senses and stop their murdering ways if you looked at it all from their perspective.    There is no reason and there is no basis for the actions of ISIS.  They are butchering, raping, murdering psychopaths...... plain and simple.  Why does Obama want to paint this as anything else ?

In my humble opinion.....

Obama Presidency Example of Flawed Political Process

By Chuck Marshall


I don't write about the President too much.   The right is so hard on him I've always felt they were going too far  in their hysterical vitriol.  I also think their incessant criticism and nitpicking habits are disrespectful of the office.  I'm not saying don't criticize, but I am saying there should be some self control.  As far as the Fox News talk shows are concerned he can do nothing right.  It's excessive.  He has two important qualities in my mind;  His is a truly great orator and I believe his heart is usually in the right place.  He's doing what he thinks is the right thing to do.   A trait often missing in a lot of our leaders.   So, I've tried to reserve criticism lest I feel myself beating on a wounded dog.  All that being said, I must admit that I don't think he's a very good President.

The reasons are the reasons I think most thinking Americans have seen over the last 6 years.  He has not worked well with Congress.  I know nobody likes them, but it's his job to work with them and establish some sort of dialogue acting as the leader who bridges the gap.  He has failed at that.  He has allowed the Federal deficit to balloon by $10 Trillion since his election in 2008 when  part of his original platform was to stop the government from spending so much.  He has offered no ideas whatsoever to stop this fiscal bleeding.  He has demonstrated a lack of leadership on the world stage, allowing foreign dictators to spread their wings with no fear of consequence.  Mostly he has been "learning on the fly"  which is a big part of the problem.  The President should be ready to rule the first week he moves into the White House, not 6-7 years after.  Now he's nearing his "lame duck" stage of a failed Presidency and so we're back again to waiting for the next election for the next round of odd-ball candidates that each of the parties draws up for us hoping against hope that one of them is "the one"......a Presidential candidate we like !  

So, in my humble opinion, it's not all his fault.    It's also the fault of our political system.   I believe he's simply unqualified to be President and should have never made it to the primaries.  If we had a system in place to draw up the most talented leadership in our country this would have never happened.  Barack Obama made a great speech at the Democratic national convention in 2004, and suddenly he's the darling of the Democratic Party.  The man can make a speech., but he did not have the experience, 'nor does he have the talent to run our country.   Being a great speaker is only a part of the whole equation.  It was the flip side for George "W" Bush.  He made it through the primaries because he was the son of a President, definitely NOT from his speaking abilities.  I think most people figured that at least he could call his father if he runs into trouble.   That's what I was thinking when I voted for him holding my nose in 2000.  (The Bush presidency is a great example of the catastrophic consequences of the "good ole boy" network).    

How do we fix this ill advised system of electing the President and all of our leaders ?  See my blog titled  "Restoring American Democracy Part VI- The Elections" for my elaborate,  if somewhat wordy explanation of one idea.  To all you naysayers, "I know, I know" it would be a futile to change "the way we've always done things"  but just to discuss the fact that what we have now is not working would be a step in the right direction, right?!

In my humble opinion......

http://chuckmarshall.blogspot.com/2013/01/restoring-american-democracy-part-vi.html