A September 11th Perspective

Radical ISLAMIC Terrorists did this.  Of that there is no debate.  The worst attack on the homeland in our history.  Almost 3000 ordinary citizens killed.  They also attacked the Pentagon and wanted to attack the White House, but that plane wound up in a field in Pennsylvania, thanks to heroic action by some great Americans.  That day the attack changed our country.  We've been at war since that day.  The trouble is that most people don't realize it.  They don't feel it.  They live their lives and aren't impacted by events far away. And it's preferable to forget the horror of that day.  So we've played an away game.  We've kept them out, so far, and we've engaged in far flung places on the other side of the earth.  But at some point that will change.  The world is shrinking.  And the threats are growing.  We ignore them at our peril.  But our eagerness to forget the horror has led us to hire (elect) people to lead us who don't have an appreciation of the threat and experience to deal with it.

Since that day we've tried all kinds of things to keep us safe.   We went to war in Afghanistan to root out Al Queda and find Bin Laden and though long and hard, had some successes.  But we took our eye off the ball and became fixated on supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction being stored in Iraq for use by a madman dictator.   So we made the ill-fated decision to take them and him out.  I say ill-fated because with the benefit of historical hindsight, that's really all you can say.  And if you're one of those who has a selective memory, let me remind you that at the time virtually everyone in any decision making position (on both sides of the aisle) believed that the WMD stories were accurate.  And the endless UN resolutions and inspections yielded nothing.  And Hussein had been attacking our forces for almost a decade.  And killing hundreds of thousands of his own people.  So our hand was forced.  But...the intelligence turned out to be faulty and we turned out to not know how to win the peace.  Oh we won the war.  We achieved our objectives.  But we were terrible at administering the peace.  As a result, it took years, considerable treasure and too many lives to come to stability.  It's not a big surprise that we didn't have the right people in place to ensure success in Iraq.  That has happened many times in our history.  Ask Lincoln.  Or Eisenhower.

But we did achieve some level of stability after the surge and had a plan for Iraq.  But that went out the window when the current CinC decided that it was politically expedient to leave.  So we left and a vacuum resulted. And like Iraq, we've retreated from virtually every theater in the world, especially the Middle East.  Our exit from Iraq with no plan has resulted in chaos.  We refuse to arm the Kurds who are the only force in the region capable of fighting against the scourge of ISIS.  We've allowed ISIS to strengthen and expand their reign of terror, especially against Christians.  The atrocities that have been documented are unspeakable.  As a civilized country and supposed leader of the world, that we are standing by and doing nothing is shameful.  Make no mistake, ISIS is a product of our CinC and his policies.  Full stop.  At least during the Nazi reign of terror and genocide we were at war and didn't have the knowledge that we have today.  Imagine if we had stories of Jews being gassed and burned alive and doing nothing.  But while ISIS beheads, we ruminate.

We have turned our back on Afghanistan and that country will surly descend into tyranny and 7th century style repression again.  Someday we will hear of the atrocities being committed in that country and there will be a cry that we must do something.  We've drawn so many red lines in the sand that I've lost count.  We made a terrible but containable situation in Libya much worse.  That country, along with Tunisia, is dangerous, lawless, and chaotic.  Our once trusted and reliable ally, Egypt, has nearly fractured under the repression of the Muslim Brotherhood, who we backed!  It's working it's way back, but it will be years before we can expect to count on them.  And they are turning to Russia for help.  Yemen, a country touted by the administration to be on the rise, is a nightmare of terrorism.  And there is Syria.  The mess of messes.  We refuse to do anything while Assad gasses and slaughters his people.  We wring our hands because we don't know who the good guys are.  But we do nothing to at least try to help.  And we've all seen the mass exodus of refugees from Syria to Europe.  It's tragic.  And it's going to get a lot worse.  Meanwhile, what friends we do have left in the Gulf States are wondering what our intentions are.  They are scared to death of Iran and don't see the U.S. as any sort of ally against them.  It appears that we have no discernible strategy except capitulation.  The people in power have moved from crises to crises and have made the wrong call in nearly every instance.  Most of these people were political operatives thrust into a job in national security.  Their response is to launch air strikes from both manned and unmanned aircraft.  Think about that.  Make no mistake, the strikes are as precise as they can be.  But they are still dependent on intelligence and there is always collateral damage.  So we are not at war, we have no strategy, and we're launching missiles into villages in the Middle East.  Winning hearts and minds!  And finally we have largely turned our back on Israel.  Our greatest friend and the only democracy in the region.  The Prime Minister comes to Washington DC to address Congress and the President boycotts it.  What is going on?

And that's just the military picture.  What has the State Dept done?  Well, the stories of reluctance of their employees to fill posts in the Middle East are legion.  And remember Bengazi?  I don't need to focus on that fiasco, you've heard it.  The stand up of the Department of Homeland Security, while having some problems, has done a reasonable job in keeping us safe.  The current CinC has ignored immigration laws so we don't know who has infiltrated the country who wish to do us harm.  But even further, he has issued executive orders that make the border more porous and ineffective.  His illegal actions have actually moved me, and I suspect guys like me, to become more concerned and conservative on the issue of immigration.  I've written previously that this issue desperately needs to be attacked and solved.  But this is just another issue that the President and Congress can't work together on.  And that's the issue.  Our political class is dug in.  They can't and won't get together.  We've got to find and hire people who will work together.  On immigration, it will require compromise.  And standing up to special interest groups.  Here's one statistic I heard this morning.  40% of the Southwestern border is uncontrolled.  40%.  Think about that.  That's about 1100 miles.  And we have no idea who is coming across it.  The former Secretary of State and putative Democratic Presidential nominee has been found to be so lacking in security awareness that she had Top Secret emails on her personal server and may have erased others.  So we'll never know how much damage she's done.  But one thing is certain, she has done damage.

So now we are making a deal with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, a Radical ISLAMIC Terrorist.  Google him and take a look at some of his fanatic rants against us.  This deal will lift sanctions giving them $150B to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Radical ISLAMIC Terrorists.  Oh yeah...it also gives Iran a path to obtaining a nuclear weapon.  But don't worry, it won't happen for 10 or 15 years.  The current crowd will be long gone by then.  But it will happen.  And their primary stated goals are (1) destroy Israel and (2) death to America.  The reasoning for the deal is that it's either this or war.  I guess the administration has never heard of the Cold War.  Containment, sanctions, isolation, pressure, time...those all work to some extent.  And they are better than capitulation.  And there is this.  Obamacare was passed (crammed down our throats) with not one Republican vote.  A program that impacts one-fifth of our economy was implemented (badly) with no compromise or discussion.  But this deal is different.  National Security issues should be decided with bi-partisan support.  The old saying is that the differences should stop at the water's edge.  Not everyone will be on board, but there should be consensus.  This Iran deal has no support from the Republicans and many Democrats are against it.  In fact, the majority of both houses of Congress are against it.  But even if they vote against it he has enough support to sustain his veto.  But is that how we want what is perhaps the most consequential national security agreement in decades to be approved?  By a veto proof minority?  And the majority of the American people are against it.  That's been confirmed by every poll.  But still he plows ahead.  Just like ISIS is the result of his naivety and recklessness, this Iran deal will be laid at his feet also.  But he'll be long gone.  He'll be raking in the dough making speeches, playing some golf, and continuing to tell everyone how great he is.  Wonder what he'll think when the bomb explodes above Tel Aviv.  Or an ICBM Iran bought from Russia carries a nuclear bomb into one of our coastal cities? 

Meanwhile, our government has implemented a terrible budgetary scheme called sequester to limit the Defense budget and by default reduce our capability.  We are very near to having a hollow force, if not there already.  We don't have enough capability to be a leader in the world and the equipment we do have is either near high time or not designed to fight today and tomorrow's battles.   And while the mess in the Middle East is scary, the rise of Russia and China is scarier.  Russia is flexing her muscles on all fronts.  They are moving on Eastern Europe, they are moving on the mineral rich Arctic, they are establishing bases in the Middle East, they are selling weapons to everyone who has a buck.  China is literally building islands in the South China Sea to establish sovereignty of that very strategic waterway.  They are revamping and modernizing their military.  Both countries have overtly stated their intent to be the leader in cyber-warfare.  And on and on and on.  While they arm, expand, and rise, our CinC's focus is that climate change is our greatest national security threat.  Climate change...the naivety is breathtaking...and could be disastrous.

As though none of that mattered, our focus seems to be on what divides us.  We are enamored with identity politics that aims to stereotype people into buckets of race, class, sex, region, religion, etc and thereby sending us all to our corners.  Our government has become a bloated, burdensome, rule-laden behemoth.  The burgeoning debt, entitlements out of control, daily and weekly scandals, all seem overwhelming.  It reaches into the our lives at every turn.  The number of people not working, not looking for jobs, and living off the government is higher than it's been in decades.  Respect for authority, doing the right thing, and abiding by the law is under attack.  Our education system, like so  many other things, seems mired in special interests.  We are more focused on inequality than on opportunity.  We've lost the idea that no matter who you are or where you're from, there is an opportunity here to rise up.  We seem to be culturally coming apart at the seams.

But here's the good news.  We are an optimistic people.  Most of us anyway.  More still believe in the dream than don't.  More still think we're the land of the free and the home of the brave.  There are brave, dedicated, experienced people who want to take up the mantle of leadership.  So on this anniversary of 9/11, while I'm nervous about the future and worried about the world that my Grandchildren will find themselves living in, in the end I'm optimistic.  But as we move into the election next year, take a serious look.  Decide who has the experience, the will, the personality, the fortitude to lead us.  Because this could be one of those monumentally important elections!  And if we've learned anything during the reign of the current regime...elections have consequences!!