Ping Pong

Most of our problems in the Middle East have to do with our inserting ourselves in the middle of the centuries-long conflict between the Shia and Sunni Muslims. Our overturning of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, made the Iraqi Shia believe we were on their side ... and Obama’s sucking up to Iran (Shia) reinforced this notion.

But Trump’s dumping of the Iran nuclear deal seemed to indicate we favored the Sunnis. However, the ISIS caliphate was Sunni-based ... and Hillary, with Obama’s permission, seemed to favor these butchers.Then Trump destroyed this caliphate ... with some help from Iran.

And the Shia-Sunni blood feud is also being replicated elsewhere throughout the Middle East ... Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Oman, Turkey, Yemen, Pakistan, Egypt, Gaza ... all but Pakistan predominately Sunni ... where America has difficult problems ... making things even more complex.

And so it goes, back and forth between these Muslim sects (and other offspring sub-sects) like a ping pong match on an Islam table covered in blood. Unfortunately, our troops represent the ping pong ball ... batted back and forth at the cost of U.S. soldiers’ lives and limbs.

Headlines

Trump confirms death of Osama bin Laden’s son

The US-China trade war has set in motion an unstoppable global economic transformation

Saudi shuts down half of its oil production after drone strikes ... Crude to hit $100?

Democrat senators fear Beto torpedoed gun control with confiscation push

Romney says Trump was right not to cut capital gains tax

Elon Musk is not the problem at Tesla — blame the people around him

Tropical storm Humberto lashes Bahamas, seen becoming hurricane ...

DOJ IG Michael Horowitz finishing report on FISA abuse

Yemen drones hit Saudi oil sites, including key checkpoint

Trump says he discussed a mutual defense treaty with Benjamin Netanyahu

Slow growth has not hurt Trump in key Midwest counties

Trump: Illegal immigration costs Americans $300 billion each year

Headlines

Japanese leader plans grueling D.C. dash for Trump face time

Mortgage purchase applications hit highest level in 9 years

Miracle: Most [Notre Dame] interior intact ...

Pew Research: Hispanics to outpace black Americans as largest voting majority by 2020

Republicans stockpile cash to safeguard Senate majority

China says its first quarter GDP grew by 6.4 percent, topping expectations

Yuma, Arizona declares state of emergency over surge of illegals ...

Supporters cheer Peter Buttigieg kissing husband at 2020 announcement

U.S. to announce tough policy on businesses in Cuba

If Trump wins second term, stocks will likely get a boost, Robert Schiller says

Judge: Barr sowing public mistrust ...

Trump vetoes bill aiming to end American involvement in Yemen civil war

Headlines

Senate rebuffs Trump with vote cutting off U.S. support in Yemen

Gary Cohn lashes out at former White House colleagues: ‘Living in chaos’

Gambino crime family boss killed outside Staten Island home ...

GOP to change Senate rules to stop obstruction of nominees

Beto announces bid for presidency

China and U.S. to reportedly push back Trump-Xi meeting to at least April

Manafort sentence reaches 7.5 years ...

Speaker Pelosi revokes Vice President Pence’s House office space

New Pentagon transgender rule sets limits for troops

Facebook reportedly faces criminal probe in user data deals

Top Mueller prosecutor stepping down ...

‘Parliament no longer represents the people’: May loses her own motion

Land Mines

Ex-President Obama left quite a number of land mines for his successor, Trump, to try to dance around:

- North Korea's missiles and atomic weaponry threats

- Iran on a clear path to nuclear weapons

- Poor economic and personal income growth

- Worldwide Jihadi terrorism

- China's South China Sea expansionism

- Immigration quagmire ... caused by lax enforcement

- Failed Muslim states: Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan,Yemen

- Hollowed-out U.S. national defense forces

- Over-regulation

- Poor relations with Israel

- Cybersecurity threats from around the world

- Unsustainable welfare/government transfer programs

- Incomplete ISIS and Syrian conflict resolutions

- Burdensome fiscal deficits and deadly national debt levels

- Huge international trade/balance of payments imbalances

- Obamacare in extremis

- Deteriorating race relations

- Crumbling national infrastructure

- National security and political leak torrents

- Increasing crime rates in many of our cities


But to Obama's credit, we were adored by most Western European leaders ... particularly due to his stance on global warming.

Afterward: There are only three reasons why Obama would have left all these problems for his follow-on ... indifference, incompetence ot by design. Historians will sort this all out, but my vote goes to the last choice.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

'20th highjacker' offers to testify about Saudi links to 9/11

Judge OK's petition for America's first 'genderless' person

Rep files one sentence bill to repeal Obamacare ...

Trump to court Dems ... Open door

Report: Huma, Weiner 'working hard' to save marriage

White House rejects report Trump handed Germany $374 billion bill for NATO services

Atlanta family battling state for right to name daughter Allah ...

Trump weighs deeper involvement in Yemen war ...

Trump's a dictator? He can't even repeal Obamacare ...

Sessions announces crackdown on sanctuary cities ...

White House blame game intensity as Trump agenda stalls

Sex Pistols [Johnny] Rotten praises Trump, Brexit ...

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. 

Guess which ones came from Huffington Post?

Stock's rise and rise and rise ...

Bad Bet: [Mexico's Carlos] Slim down $16B since Trump ...

Islam set to overtake Christianity as world's most popular religion ...

Scary state of volcano monitoring in U,S.: 169 active ...

Trump's policies contradict his joint session speech

Chris Wallace: 'I feel like tonight Trump became President of the United States'

Schumer: Dems are done with Trump

Study: Subway's chicken sandwich is only 50% chicken

Oprah rethinking whether she could be president ...

Yemen raid yielded no significant intelligence, officials say

Antarctic record 63.5 degrees F ...

Marijuana industry claims it could be nation's top job creator

Machismo

I hate to believe that the Obummer administration would make military and cyber-warfare decisions based upon the political climate of the current presidential race. Can we weigh the following unusual events to see if they may be designed to aid one side in this contest?

- The planned final assault on what's left of the ISIS forces in Mosul, Iraq. After months of run-up and the insertion of hundreds more of US military "advisers", this assault is taking place against any Islamic States forces that have been foolish enough to stay in Mosul ... see: Activist Post Story. After years of a namby-pamby foreign policy, I find it deeply offensive that this administration would cynically time and sacrifice possible American or even Iraqi lives in order to get Hellary Clinton elected.

- The CIA's telegraphed cyber-attack on Russia ... probably to accent the Democrats' charge that Russia has been the source of the embarrassing Wikileaks e-mail hacks over the last many months ... see: NBC News Story. Note the funny wording in this story "a possible 'covert' cyber attack"! How can it be covert if it is in the national news?

- The recent cruise missile attacks on three radar sites inside of Houthi-controlled Yemen perpetuates the narrative that Obummer is not beholden to Iran ... see: The Guargian Story. This is because the Houthis are sponsored and funded by Iran ... probably with some ot the $150 billion gift from the Obummer administration ... connected to the highly-unpopular Iran nuclear agreement.

I find it just a little ironic that the Democrats are attempting to elect our first female president predicated on using machismo tactics.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Janet Jackson announces pregnant at 50 ...

Colin Kaepernick: the flag is just a piece of cloth

[Podesta e-mails] touted relationship with Loretta Lynch ...

U.S. Navy destroyer again targeted by missiles from Yemen ...

Detective investigating NBA star's rape claims found shot dead ...

NYC mulls ban on flushable wipes ...

Museum invites visitors to desecrate image of Virgin Mary

Rasmussen poll: Trump over Clinton by two points ...

Dem governor turns: Obamacare no longer Affordable ...

More dead voters, fraud cases discovered in CO ...

Clinton rape protester beaten at Vegas rally ...

100,000 PA voters switch from Democrat to Republican ...

Poor Richard

Much as the liberal left hates Dick Cheney, it seems that this man did an awful lot to keep the United States safe after 9/11 and during Bush 43's remaining term of office. The current misbehavers in the Middle East: Syria, Turkey, Iran, Yemen and Libya, all were then more stable and docile than they are today ... much in reaction to what they then saw happening in Iraq.

Yes, Cheney talked tough and intimidated people and countries ... perhaps the reason he was so resented and demagogued. But our current administration's strategy of talking soft and carrying a little stick is clearly not working. In fact the terrorist threat level we face today is, according to our intelligence agency heads, greater today than it was going into 9/11. Yet, Barack's and Hillary's only obvious enemies these days are the Republicans.

It also seems to this observer that Donald Trump's popularity today derives much from the similarity of his message to the former vice president's ... but with far less intellect, principles, and international acumen. Will Dick Cheney's contributions to our nation's safety ever be recognized? I think they will ... but probably not for a number of years ... when historians can look at things in a more sober light.  In the meantime, I think it quite likely that America will elect a Dick Cheney clone for president in 2016 ... or at the very least for vice president.

Poor Richard Cheney ... a true American hero.

Rules of Engagement

President Obama once played the me-too game in Afghanistan. After he took office, he said that Afghanistan was the "good war." Then after months and months of feckless indecision, our fearful leader sent a "surge" of troops there but effectively disarmed them with very constrictive rules of engagement. As a consequence, these additional 30,000 troops ... see: New York Times Story ... became targets of Islamic (read Taliban) green-on-blue assassins who killed hundreds of unsuspecting American and allied troops  ... including one general. All in all, during this puny presidential pugilistic posing, the United States lost over 1,100 troops with another 15,000 or so wounded ... see: Antiwar Blog ... many more than under President Bush's war there  ... with essentially no progress to show for all this sacrifice..

And of course we all remember when Obama drew a red line with Syria over its use of chemical weapons ... which he promptly forgot when challenged. Now, President Obama is again flexing his military flab ... sending an aircraft carrier and flotilla of naval ships to intercept the Iranian navy  escorting a suspected shipment of arms to the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen ... see: Fox News Story. But wait! Now it seems that our fearful leader has once again got cold feet and is now saying that this show of American naval power is there just to insure "freedom of navigation." Am I to suppose that his new constrictive rules of engagement for the U.S. Navy there might be to help the Iranians offload their weapons cargoes.

What's the term Rush Limbaugh often uses? Our fearful leader seems to have a "linguine spine?"

Barf!

Scrambled Eggs

The United States' policy in the Middle East is a plate of scrambled eggs. We have been launching air strikes against the ISIS powers (partly Sunni Muslims) in Tikrit, Iraq along side the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militias ... which were not gaining an edge and are now pulling back ... see: Powerline Blog Comments. In Yemen we are encouraging the Saudis (Sunnis) to attack the Iranian-backed Houthi Shia rebels with both air power and soon possibly with ground troops ... see: Al Jazeera Story. So we are helping Iran with one hand while slapping it down with the other.

The situation is somewhat duplicated in Libya where Egypt (Sunni) is bombing the ISIS forces there ... see: BBC Story. Simultaneously, we are grabbing our ankles in order to close the nuclear deal with Shia Iran. What a mishmash!

And all the while, President Obama (a Shia sympathiser IMHO) is playing golf in Florida ... see: Washington Times Story.

A Coalition of Ten?

In a well-researched article, the New York Times traces the problems that President Obama has bought upon himself in his decision to initiate his non-war on ISIS. In particular, during his televised statement on 9/10/14, he stated that he was forming a large coalition in this effort. Already Great Britain and Germany have publicly declined to participate and this article also details his dearth of support in the Arab world … maybe not Egypt, maybe not Jordan, maybe not Lebanon, not Turkey, not Syria, maybe Saudi Arabia, and Iran is probably excluded from consideration. Yes, I suspect that a few of smaller emirates might be bribed into signing up (among Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai, Oman, UAE, and Bahrain) and maybe even the Vatican City, Liechtenstein, and Monaco, but real coalition partners might be difficult to corral. 

Poor lonely John Kerry … traveling the world in search of real coalition partners. (I realize that this is pretty petty criticism of Obama, but then this is the same type of pooh-poohing that George W. Bush suffered when he put together 46 nations into the Coalition of the Willing in Operation Iraqi Freedom.)

This article also briefly tries to decode the complex animosities between the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam and how this rift complicates the problem of America’s dealing with this dire ISIS threat. It is too easy for America to appear to favor one or another of these sects. (I personally believe that Obama’s heart is with the Shiites … and this is why he abandoned Iraq to President Maliki and his thugs … giving rise to the current ISIS problem.) And lastly this article takes an oblique swipe at Obama’s empty claim in his TV address ... with a revealing graph which shows the ten-year trend of U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia relative to Pakistan. Clearly President Obama was then guilty of a bit of rhetoric bluster.

Anyhow, read the article for yourself. It is the kind of pure journalism of which the New York Times used to be famous … see: NY Times Article .

Afterthought: For more analysis on this problem see: CS Monitor Story.

Summer Camp

Why is it that we have to get our real news from the British press?  I guess that our national media is too concerned with more important things … like the Christie/Obama photo-op on the Jersey shore.  Anyhow, it seems that the hunger strike at our Guantanamo, Cuba prison camp for recalcitrant terrorists is getting worse … see: The Guardian Story.  And, of course, this has gotten the liberal nut-job protesters’ juices flowing.  There are now five prisoners in the hospital and 36 of them being force-fed.  My heart is bleeding a gush.

Unfortunately this article has a distinctly sympathetic bent … describing in detail the “humiliations” that these prisoners are experiencing … again, my heart is breaking.  My attitude toward Gitmo is that I can’t understand why all these prisoners have not been long ago tried in a military court … and a goodly portion of them made to smoke their last cigarette in front of a fusillade of rifles?  And why we would consider releasing any of these animals is beyond me.  The known recidivism rate among those who have already been freed is north of 30%.  I suspect that the real rate is a lot higher.

Perhaps I might have a solution for our pompous Prexy. Why don’t we just quietly depopulate all the guards from this posh summer camp … and then unleash multiple drone strikes on it?  How would this be any different from what we do in Yemen or Pakistan?

Cowed

I have been threatened with excommunication from the Church of Conventional Wisdom unless I stop my incessant attacks against Barack Obama on this blog.  So I am duely cowed and will herein provide some selected kudos to the White House and its apparatchiks for their successes over the last three years.  As well as I can remember I now offer these paeans to our President for:

1) The Navy Seals' 2009 sniper killing of those Somali pirates after they had captured a U.S. merchant vessel (see: ABC News Account)
2) The increased tempo of U.S. drone attacks in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan which have killed many al Qaeda and Taliban higher-ups.
3) The Navy Seals' bold 2011 attack inside Pakistan and the resultant killing of Osama Bin Laden (see: ABC News Account )
4) The Navy-Seal recent rescue of two Americans aid workers in Somali (see: ABC News Account)
5) The Navy Seals' early 2011 killing of two Somali pirates after they had killed four Americans in their yacht off the Somali coast (see: NY Times Account)
6) Last year, the U.S.'s. seccessful backseat overthrow and snuffing of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya (see: Reuters Account)

Other than Obama's examplar family life, this is all I can immediately bring to mind without contacting David Axelrod for help.

Actually, come this fall, I might be tempted to write in a vote for the head of the Navy Seals for President ...

Pot Boiler

The Middle East is in disarray with insurrections the theme of the day. Egypt has already capitulated to the rioters (whoever they are). Syria is shooting its own citizens pall mall. Libya is in full civil war with air cover provided by the United States and some Piper Cubs from the European Union. Bahrain has been taken under the wing of the benevolent (hah!) Saudi Arabia. Iran, we think, is also experiencing street demonstrations … diminished daily by those demonstrators who were not smart enough to hide their faces from the ever-preset I-Phones. (I say “we think” for less real news leaks out of Tehran than Roentgens from the Fukushima nuclear plant.) Yemen is a turkey shoot with tribe against tribe, North against South, Shia against Sunni, and the government sparing with its own shadow. Israel stands ready to punish the Gaza Strip militants for their indiscriminate shelling of southern Israel. And what about Tunisia where this whole thing started ... are street vendors there now allowed to ply their trades?

How will this all resolve itself? Who knows … certainly not our ever-alert intelligence agencies? (Perhaps Jamie Gorelick, if she takes over the FBI, will fix things by decreeing that intelligence agents can no longer talk to each other.) However, I am not afraid to step into this Muslim morass and sort things out with some intrepid predictions:

- Yemen will detach itself from Saudi Arabia and float out to sea, never to be seen again.

- The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood will change its name to The Faithful Friends of ElBaradei.

- Muammar Qadaffi (and his family) will flee to Venezuela where he will be given the Universal Freedom Medal by Hugo Chavez.

- Bahrain will be annexed by Saudi Arabia as a “protectorate.”

- Shi'ites will kill lots of Sunnis and Sunnis will kill lots of Shi'ites

- In the midst of all of this, President Obama will embark on a five-week “trade-mission” trip to China with 50 close-friends, his family … and a shipping container full of dollars.

- Israel will be chastised by the U.N. for not allowing more of its citizens to be killed by Hezbollah.

- The Main Stream Media will determine that this was all George Bush’s fault.

Are We Nuts?

Whilst perusing the Homeland Security website here, I came across the fact that, in 2009, the United States granted permanent residency status to these numbers of immigrants from the following countries:

Pakistan         21,555
Iran                 18,553
Somalia          13,390
Iraq                  12,111
Venezuela      11,154
Afghanistan     3,165
Yemen               3.134
Syria                   2,442
Saudi Arabia    1,418
North Korea          67

We even granted permanent residency status to 1,366 people whose former country was unknown.  I don't know about you, but this doesn't make me feel very homeland secure. And given what has happened recently with the Times Square bomber being a recently naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, the obvious question comes to mind for Janet Napolitano: Are we cuckoo-pie nuts?

P.S., for those who believe that we are not doing enough to help our impoverished southern neighbor, we issued 164,920 green cards to Mexicans in 2009.